Laurens is a French fancy

LAURENS flies the flag for Britain in today’s French Oaks and trainer Karl Burke thinks she may have gone under the radar.

The filly was second in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket before winning the Group One Prix Saint Alary at ParisLongchamp.

Today she faces 12 rivals at Chantilly but Burke is quietly confident that a plan that was hatched last summer could pay off in style today in the French Classic, known as the Prix de Diane.

Burke (inset) said: “This is the big one.

“She travelled over brilliantly and arrived in France on Friday afternoon and has settled in really well.

“The ground is good to soft and will dry out a bit although good to soft will be perfect for her. She won the Prix Saint Alary and that’s the first time she has run round a bend in her races, so that will help her.”

Burke, who trains near Middleham in North Yorkshire, first mentioned the Prix de Diane as potentially the perfect race for Laurens after she won the May Hill Stakes at Doncaster in September before she went on to win the Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket. He said: “It has been the plan for a long time. She is a very good filly and I think they are underestimating her a little bit because she is only winning her races narrowly.”

The filly is strongly fancied to repel the favourite Shahnaza, owned by the Aga Khan, and Aidan O’Brien’s talented Happily.