Royal riches in sight as last season's stars are primed to shine again

March 20, 2016 at a shivering Saint-Cloud and, while much of the racing world was still absorbing Don Cossack’s Gold Cup triumph of 48 hours earlier, Jean-Claude Rouget took the wraps off the filly who was to light up the French summer.

That La Cressonniere wasn’t still centre stage on the first Sunday in October for the climax to the French Flat season in the Arc was down to a minor muscle injury that showed up after a routine canter in her home away from home at Deauville.

By the time she was exiting stage left, La Cressonniere was jostling with a host of other talents for the limelight as Rouget rode the wave of a dream generation that included high-class milers Qemah and Zelzal and, most strikingly of all, European champion three-year-old Almanzor.