Frida Valle Skar arrived on the back of a win at Ascot in the Shergar Cup Mile, and two weeks later she duly delivered on her old home track in Oslo. In the Lanwades Stud Fillies and Mares Stakes (L) over 1600 metres she rode BFP Racing’s Irish Lioness (Invincible Army) to victory for Cathrine Erichsen.
Irish Lioness and Frida Valle Skar won by a length from Lennart Reuterskiöld jr.’s Norwegian 1000 Guineas winner Mehmas Air Force (Mehmas). A further two and a half lengths or so back came Søren Jensen-trained Taifuu (Japan), who provided the Danish interest in the race in third.
The first prize was worth NOK 200,000.
Irish Lioness was bred by Deerpark Stud and is out of Elle Meme (Henrythenavigator). The win is one of the more significant of Cathrine Erichsen’s season – she is the only female trainer with a Norsk Derby win at Øvrevoll and became the track’s first female champion trainer in 2024.
Norwegian Frida Valle Skar, who is based with Corine Barande-Barbé at Chantilly, had four rides for the Erichsen yard on her card. She was also in the saddle on Jan-Erik Neuroth’s Safari Moon (Appel Au Maitre), who was sixth in the Norsk Kriterium, and on Erichsen’s Zofi (Mutajally) in the Sølvdivisjon Mile.
The rest of her card had to wait, though. After the fifth race of the day Norway’s Derby day was abandoned, and that leaves both Miss Alti in the Range Rover Norsk Derby and her stablemate A Million Dreams in the Alti Stayerløp put back to Tuesday.
The latter also runs for BFP Racing and is a full sister to the Danish Derby runner-up King To Be.
