Why Laurens is such a priceless paddocks prospect - beyond her Group 1 heroics

Pointing out that Laurens – who posted an all-the-way success in the Prix Rothschild at Deauville on Sunday – is one of the most valuable fillies or mares in training is an exercise in stating the bleeding obvious.

The four-year-old, trained by Karl Burke for John Dance, is after all a six-time Group 1 winner and has struck at the highest level in every year of racing: the Fillies' Mile at two, the Prix Saint-Alary, Prix de Diane, Matron Stakes and Sun Chariot Stakes at three and now the Prix Rothschild at four.

She has also finished second in the 1,000 Guineas and shown she can mix it against the colts when runner-up to Mustashry in the Lockinge Stakes.

But, with a second career at stud in mind, there are grounds for arguing that Laurens' value transcends even that usually carried by a multiple Group 1-winning filly or mare.

First of all, she is a noted outstanding physical specimen. The big, long-striding filly is almost Amazonian in physique, and nearly always outclasses her rivals in the looks stakes.

Anna Sundstrom, who sold Laurens as a yearling at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale, recalled how word of the statuesque young horse had spread around the Doncaster sales grounds.

“People were coming to our boxes and saying 'we want to see the queen',” she told the Racing Post last year. “I've never had so many people look at one horse, again and again and again. It was all about her.”

Indeed, it took Dance and his advisers Creighton/Schwartz Bloodstock a bid of £220,000 to see off Hamdan Al Maktoum's man Angus Gold to secure Laurens – documented proof of her awesome appearance.

Second, Laurens has a pedigree that makes her a beguiling breeding prospect.

She is by Haras de Bonneval's brilliant young sire Siyouni, also the source of fellow Classic winners Ervedya and Sottsass and Group 1 place-getters City Light, Le Brivido, Siyoushake, Spectre and Volta.

Siyouni has been in a rich vein of form with his two-year-old runners of late. They include Walk In Marrakesh, winner of the Listed Star Stakes at Sandown; Devil, who took a competitive newcomers race at Deauville; and maiden/novice stakes scorers Al Madhar, Encipher, French Rain and Seize The Time.

Significantly, Siyouni is a son of Pivotal, who is emerging as a phenomenal broodmare sire, his daughters having produced the likes of Advertise, Cracksman, Defoe, Fairyland, Hermosa, Mabs Cross, Magical, Main Sequence, Mayson, Olmedo, One Master, Precieuse, Rhododendron and Veracious.

Laurens also hails from a fine female family. Bred by Melchior-Francois Mathet, son of the great French trainer Francois, she is out of the winning Cape Cross mare Recambe, a half-sister to Newmarket Stakes scorer Salford Mill, who took the Hong Kong Classic Mile and Derby as Helene Mascot.

Recambe is out of the Listed-placed Kahyasi mare Razana, a half-sister to Profit Alert, the dam of Irish 2,000 Guineas runner-up Shifting Power, and Ribot's Guest, the mother of Prix de l'Opera heroine Kinnaird. Further back it is the strong Aga Khan Studs tribe of Group 1 performers Rayeni, Rayseka and Ridasiyna.

It will not have escaped the attention of those dreaming of future matings for Laurens that Galileo and son Frankel have sired numerous top-class horses out of mares by Pivotal.

So far Dance has been steadfast in his determination not to sell, driven by his and wife Jess's deep emotional attachment to Laurens – one reinforced by the coincidence that the filly, who had been christened by her breeder before she arrived at the sales, shares her name with their daughter.

But it is certain that the owner will have received eye-watering offers that will severely test his resolve, and will continue to do so.

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