Welcome to the first of a new series of weekly columns whose remit is to focus not only on events on the level in the preceding week or so in France highlighting either races or horses worth keeping an eye on but also preview the big races thee every Sunday.
The review section will be analytical in approach, much like the weekly Watch And Learn column that appears on this site on Tuesday and which will from now on focus increasingly on action from Britain and Ireland, while the big-race preview will be more overview than bet-finder but equally won’t shy away from a recommendation or two if the evidence is sufficiently compelling and the price is enticing enough.
I covered both the French Guineas in the last Watch And Learn column I wrote before jetting off to Croatia for a well-earned break, so the review section this week will cover events since then. For those unfamiliar with racing on the Flat in France, handicaps make up only around fifty per cent of races with conditions races of various kinds making up the other half.
Handicaps are largely as truly run as often as they are over here, but conditions races have historically been and continue to be tactical affairs whose results often need plenty of unpicking. Aside from old-fashioned visual analysis, the most reliable tool I use to unravel racing results from France is the sectional information freely available on the France Galop website. You can get this for free (alongside replays and live coverage) for nothing more than a registration with an email address and a password, and that’s the most common approach I’ll be concentrating on here when that information has been made available.
Frustratingly, sometimes it hasn’t been for whatever reason, including the Listed Prix Bedel at Lyon Parilly which saw a winning reappearance from Iresine, the best horse on show in France over the last couple of weeks. Facing an easy task, the dual Group 1 winner scored as he liked on his first start since finishing ninth in the Japan Cup where the fast ground caught him out, extending his remarkable unbeaten record at the track, and despite being seven now will surely add another Group race or two to his total this season.
The sectional evidence from the previous two seasons suggests he has very little to find with the best horses in Europe and he’d be a fascinating contender if brought over here for any of the summer Cup races given he won his only start at around two miles (the Prix Royal-Oak) easily by three lengths.
Unfortunately, he won’t ever get the chance to run in the Arc being a gelding and that opportunity will also be denied the progressive Calandagan who won the Group 3 Prix Hocquart over 2200m at ParisLongchamp in good style by getting on for two lengths from Trafalgar Square.
Sectional times weren’t available for that race either, but some manual investigation revealed he ran the last 600m a fair bit faster than did L’Equilibriste in the Listed Prix Finlande as well as Caramelito in the Listed Prix de Montretout, despite both those races being over much shorter trips and he looks a Group 1 class for all his opportunities at that level will be limited.
Incidentally, the result of the Finlande is an excellent example of the ability of detailed sectional finishing speeds to shed a very different light on the result than might be assumed by margins between the runners alone. Adrian Keatley’s raider Flying Finn finished third in this race improving on her domestic handicap form, but both the winner and the runner-up Luiza Bere (who’d beaten French 1000 Guineas winner Rouhiya back in April) ran faster finishing sectionals from further back off a slow pace – and the 4lb and 2lb beating she received respectively from them dictated by traditional form methods is more like 15lb when finishing speeds are used. Quite a difference!
One other horse who impressed me several times on the clock last season was Horizon Dore even before he won the Prix Dollar readily on Arc weekend.
Things haven’t gone smoothly for him since, proving too keen when sent to both Ascot and Hong Kong at the end of the year and then waylaid by ground too soft on his return in France this year, but he looked much more like his old self in the Prix d’Ispahan, going down by the narrowest of margins to Mqse de Sevigne despite posting the fastest overall finishing time according to the official timing mechanism.
A sub-33-second final 600m entitles him to a 3lb bigger upgrade than the winner by my calculations, the pair leaving third-place Haya Zark in their sectional wake, and he’s one to keep onside for the rest of the summer when getting his favoured fast ground which he hasn’t yet had this season.
I’ll devote more space to the two-year-olds in the coming weeks, but I’ll mention one worth monitoring for now, Tiego The First, who won a newcomers race at Saint-Cloud in a time almost a second faster than the fillies on the same card showing a smart turn of foot.
Ciaran and Griselda both scored takingly in different fashion at the same track five days later, the latter justifying favouritism on her debut despite finding herself repeatedly short of room in the short straight on the rail, but their winning times were significantly slower than that recorded by former British-trained Dark Trooper who didn’t really have much to beat in his race. The sole Listed race run in this period won by Hot Darling at Vichy looks very insignificant form.
Sunday Chantilly preview
Chantilly stages a 10-race card on Sunday headed by the third Classic of the year in France, the Qatar Prix du Jockey-Club (3.05) which was won so devastatingly last year by the subsequent Arc winner Ace Impact.
Having trawled through the runners, I can’t help feeling it’s a substandard affair with plenty of the field having been beaten comprehensively in their trials without any obvious reason to turn around placings with those that beat them.
The horse with the best form as I see it is Ghostwriter whose fourth place in the 2000 Guineas was franked handsomely when the runner-up Rosallion and third-placed Haatem went on to fill the first two places in the Irish 2,000 Guineas.
He has run three combined overall timeratings (raw timefigure plus sectional upgrade) in the low 110s and he has the plum draw in stall two that has housed two winners and a runner-up in recent years (it’s not impossible to go close from a very wide draw, but a single-figure stall is an advantage).
If there’s a question mark over his prospects it’s that he is by Invincible Spirit whose progeny have a ropey record at 10 furlongs and beyond at Group level, albeit better in France than Britain, but against that his dam won at a mile and a half and stayed a bit further.
At the time of writing there’s little between Ghostwriter, Fast Tracker and Diego Velazquez at the head of the market. Fast Tracker, well backed in recent days, is well berthed in stall five and recently changed hands for a considerable sum having won his previous two starts by a combined 13 and a half lengths.
That said, he was able to dictate on both occasions in small fields and the form of some of those behind him (Dollar Index, for example, who reopposes here) is ordinary. Diego Velazquez was never stronger than at the finish in the French 2000 where he had the reopposing pair Alcantor and Ramadan a neck ahead of him and three-quarters of a length behind him respectively, and he ought to improve for the step up in trip being a Frankel close relation to Broome (two-mile winner) and Point Lonsdale.
He’s been drawn 11, however. Alcantor, who settled better in a first-time hood in the 2000 which he wears again here, has fared better in stall seven in contrast to Ramadan (sent off second favourite for the 2000) who has fared badly with 15.
David Menuisier remains confident Sunway (eight) is a top-class horse (at least in his homework) and a much-improved showing from War Chimes in the Oaks after a couple of low-key runs this year might be an indicator Sunway will do the same, and given he beat Alcantor half a length in the Group 1 Criterium International last year is clearly in the mix.
Sectional upgrades suggest that Mondo Man (a bit overpriced at 25/1) ought to have won both his last two races given he had Sunway over a length behind in the latest of them when second to the reopposing Atlast and he outsprinted subsequent Group 3 winner Darlinghurst (who has since beaten Jockey-Club runners First Look and Grecian Storm readily) in the first of them, but the suspicion is he will once again be dropped out well behind from stall nine.
Atlast is a big price at 33/1 if his last run is overlooked – and I think it can be as he looked patently uncomfortable on the fast ground – for all he is drawn in 12 and he is probably a bigger danger to all than his owners’ other runner Sosie, who has the inside stall but has looked a lumbering galloper so far.
As far as untapped potential goes, the unbeaten Look de Vega (stall three) fits the bill. He has something of an awkward head carriage (that could be greenness, of course, having only run twice) but he’s been strong at the finish of both his races beating up inferior opposition. Like a similar sort in Feed The Flame in 2023, however, who won in Group 1 company subsequently, he might be found lacking for experience while his rider too is much less experienced in top middle-distance races at Chantilly than he is at the other Parisian tracks.
The supporting Grand Prix de Chantilly (2.20) has attracted seven runners including three from the Andre Fabre stable which has won this race three times in the last nine years. The pick of his trio – the supplemented Marquisat, dual Listed winner Galashiels and Hong Kong Vase winner Junko – is surely the last-named who also won a Group 1 in Germany last season.
He’s versatile with regards to riding tactics and won’t mind the race being run at a dawdle given he has a fine turn of foot and plenty of form at shorter distances.
So too has fellow globetrotter Dubai Honour, of course, but just two unconvincing runs at this trip in a five-season career at this trip suggest he’ll be vulnerable if there’s pace on which looks likely with John Porter second and Yorkshire Cup fourth Al Qareem among the opposition.
The other two Group 2s are the Prix de Gros-Chene (1.40) which has attracted 11 runners and the Prix de Sandringham (5.00) which has just six.
I’ve no strong opinion on the Sandringham but the betting for the Gros-Chene looks slightly awry to me. Ponntos heads the market and looks to have improved a bit this year, winning the Prix de Saint-Georges last time by two and a half lengths.
Second favourite Vicious Harry has one piece of form – a wide-margin win in the mud at Deauville – that gives him similar claims but the one overpriced and by a long way too is British raider ALBASHEER who has been priced up at 11/1.
He was too free under a change of rider in the all-weather finals when last seen in March but he’d won his previous two starts, including a career-best effort on his first start at five furlongs off a BHA mark of 105, and has long looked as though there’s a pattern race in him given a strong pace which he will surely get here looking at the line-up.
Regular rider Hollie Doyle is back on board and with the Archie Watson stable saddling three winners from nine runners on the last two days in May there’s plenty to like about his chance, so long as there’s only a few scattered showers as forecast on Saturday according to Meteo France.
There’s no betting available at the time of writing for the Listed two-year-old race, the Prix La Fleche at 1.05, but I might be tempted into backing Adrian Keatley’s Francisco’s Piece if the price is right. A 93 timefigure when short headed carrying a penalty at York’s May meeting is very strong form at this level and I doubt any of the home contingent will be able to match that.
Preview posted at 1245 BST on 01/06/2024
