Verry Elleegant poised for European debut at Deauville

Frankie Dettori admits he is curious to see how Verry Elleegant fares as she dips her toe into European racing for the first time at Deauville on Sunday.

A superstar in Australia, the seven-year-old has banked 11 Group One wins, including the 2020 Caulfield Cup and last year's Melbourne Cup, when she easily accounted for hot favourite Incentivise by four lengths over two miles having previously done all her winning up to 12 furlongs.

Transferred from Chris Waller’s yard to the French team of Francis-Henri Graffard for a planned Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe challenge, Verry Elleegant will make her debut in the Darley Prix Jean Romanet over 10 furlongs with Dettori teaming up with her for the first time.

He told Racing.com: "I’m looking forward to it. It will be a new experience for her on the other side of the world. She’s had a bit of a break so we’d expect her to come on for the race, I’m very excited.

"As you know, I’ve never won the Melbourne Cup, so to ride the winner of the Melbourne Cup is quite a good thing.

"It’s not a huge field like you get for the Melbourne Cup, there’s only nine runners. I managed to speak to (previous riders) Mark Zahra and I will talk to James (McDonald), but the most important thing is just to keep her quiet the first part of the race and make the finish.

"It is her comeback race and obviously her long (range) target is the Arc, so it’s the first step forward to get to that."

Dettori is eager to see how Verry Elleegant performs before looking to any future targets.

He added: "At the moment (I don’t have an Arc ride booked), but let’s take it one step at a time. First of all I’m looking forward to riding her on Sunday, let’s see how she does and we’ll make plans after that."

While plenty of Australian