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French racing preview ParisLongchamp and Deauville analysis

By Graeme North

21:00 · SUN September 01, 2024

Graeme North looks back on last week's Deauville action in his latest French racing update.

The return of racing to ParisLongchamp this weekend is a timely reminder that the Arc is only six weekends away. This Sunday’s card is a pale imitation of the fare the track will host on Arc weekend but there are couple of Group 3 contests and three Listed races starting with the Prix d’Arenberg for two-year-olds over five furlongs which has attracted six runners.

Timeform’s top-rated horse is Archie Watson’s Aesterius, a typically expensive Wathnan Breeze-Up purchase who has won two of his four starts, including the Listed Dragon Stakes at Sandown, and found only Big Mojo too good last time in the 15-runner Molecomb Stakes.

He’s unlikely to have things all his own way, however, as Irish raider Treasure Isle and the home-trained filly La Samana are rated (by Timeform) within 3lb of him while Miss Lamai, one of two Karl Burke-trained runners, is only another 1lb inferior.

So far as I can ascertain, Aidan O’Brien has never saddled a runner in the Prix d’Arenberg, but the race looks a good fit for Treasure Isle who finished fourth in the G3 Anglesey Stakes two runs back before running another career best winning a Listed race at the Curragh last time when dropped back to five furlongs.

La Samana seemed to benefit from cheekpieces and the drop to five furlongs when winning a Listed race at Deauville last time, but the horse who chased her home there, Shamrock Breeze, finished nearly six lengths behind Treasure Isle next time.

Queen Mary fourth Miss Lamai makes a quick reappreance after finishing sixth in the Lowther and will appreciate the drop to five furlongs while Englemere (14th in the Qeen Mary) turned in a much-improved effort in the St Hugh’s Stakes at Newbury last time and has another chance to confirm form with the runner-up that day Kaadi who completes the field.

Shamarkand can strike

The other pattern race, the Prix Gerald de Geoffre (formerly the Prix de Lutece) has attracted an even smaller field with just five going to post and no British interest. On form the race looks a straight match between Shamarkand and Hamavi. The latter is rated 7lb superior according to official ratings but there would seem to me to be much less than that between them.

Hamavi has won Listed races at ParisLongchamp and Clairefontaine either side of a fourth place finish behind Bright Picture in the G2 Prix Eugene Adam while Shamarkand has been kept to quieter waters so far but has won his last three races including a Listed affair at Vichy last time.

The form of that ready win has already been franked with the third home Colombus (who reopposes here) having scored in Listed company at Deauville since admittedly under different tactics while the fourth home Darling Darling also showed improved form next time out in the Prix Minerve.

That said, Hamavi’s last piece of form has also been franked with the unfortunate runner-up that day, Go Daddy, going on to finish second in the Geoffrey Freer. Official ratings also give Kalet a very similar chance to Colombus which is slightly puzzling given Colombus won their latest meeting by a length and three quarters and was a comfortable winner too for all he dictated.

My preference is for Shamarkand who is by Harzand from a late-developing Aga Khan family and promises to be very well suited by the step up in trip.

O'Brien double-handed in Joubert

The first of the Listed races, the Prix Joubert over 2800m for three-year-olds who haven’t won a G2 since April 1 this year, has drawn plenty of runners as Listed races in France tend to do.

Aidan O’Brien runs both Mother Nature (choice of Ryan Moore) who was second in the G3 Give Thanks Stakes at Cork in the middle of August when running as if this sort of trip might unlock further improvement, and Lily Hart who finished one place behind her there.

Ireland is also represented by Lady Doris (Donnacha O’Brien) and Comic Book (Jessica Harrington) but they both have a bit to find (Comic Book had everything in her favour when well placed throughout in the Prix Minerve last time) but a bigger danger to the O’Brien pair is surely posed by Simon & Ed Crisford’s progressive Fairy Glen who won her first two races of the season and then finished third on her turf debut upped to Listed level in the Chalice Stakes at Newmarket last time.

She’ll surely be more at home on this flatter track and much better suited too by this longer distance unsurprisingly given that her dam was a winner over two miles, so should go well.

That said, the home-trained Le Combat Continue won’t be a pushover. She was second in a Listed race here in June and then did well to finish second in the Prix Minerve last time when set a vast amount to do. The longer distance remains something of a question mark, however.

Higher power for De Bromhead

The second Listed race, the Prix de Liancort, is another confined to three-year-old fillies, this time over 2100m. The seemingly perennially unlucky Rock’N Swing is Timeform’s top rated, and she deserves to win a race at this level having found herself either too far back or badly drawn (or both) in her last three races including the French 1000 Guineas and French Oaks.

Whether this 2100m is her ideal trip, particularly if she gets a strong pace to chase, is a moot point, however, and though French Oaks sixth Bubble Gum and Prix Melisand second Happy Saxon are respected, Henry de Bromhead’s Higher Leaves looks an interesting runner. She hasn’t been seen since the Ribblesdale at Royal Ascot where she was drawn widest, raced in last place and then made some brief headway widest of all round the home turn, but she was in the firing line throughout in the G3 Blue Wind before that before ultimately finding herself on the wrong part of the track. De Bromhead’s string are in fine form, and she might go under the radar.

The final Listed event, the Prix de la Cochere, has attracted two British-trained runners in the shape of Sirona (David Menuisier) and Stop The Cavalry (Ralph Beckett). Sirona needs to bounce back from a modest effort in the Valiant Stakes at Ascot last time but would just about be the form pick on her two previous efforts including second place in the John of Gaunt Stakes at Haydock.

Stop The Cavalry needs to find some improvement but could easily do that. She was drawn widest of all when sixth in the Oak Tree at Goodwood last time and so found herself bringing up the rear before finding trouble in the home straight. She’s never raced beyond seven furlongs but the mile here shouldn’t be an issue given she’s by Lope de Vega and her dam won at an extended mile and a quarter. Mountain Song and Secretive, both of whom have been placed in listed races in France this year, look the best of the home opposition.

De Bromhead celebrates Envoi Allen's victory

De Bromhead: Has a runner at Longchamp

Deauville review

Deauville’s series of well-attended Sunday July/August meetings ended last weekend with a low-key card by their lofty summer standards with just one Group 2 and two Group 3s.

British-trained horses won two of those three contests but not the one the which might have been most expected, the Grand Prix de Deauville, which went not to the odds-on Arrest but to the German raider Quantanamera.

Arrest might have won the Chester Vase last year as well as the Geoffrey Freer and clearly retains plenty of ability as his second place in the Princess of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket shows, but six of his eight defeats ahead of the Grand Prix had come at odds of 3/1 or shorter and he doesn’t strike me as a horse to make many excuses for.

Not that there could be many made for him here either, other than perhaps the pace he set didn’t really test stamina - he had the run of the race unchallenged in front where the finishing speed came in around 108%, got himself a three-length lead when pushed clear off the home turn with 500m to run but found himself reeled in readily by one who’d been held up at the rear of the field.

The winner Quantanamera hadn’t won at this sort of trip before, albeit having finished fourth in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden last autumn and hadn’t even won this season coming closest in the Group 2 Prix Corrida at Saint-Cloud where she finished second to Pensee Du Jour, but she’d plenty of form at shorter distances unlike Arrest who’d finished second in the St Leger last year.

Sacred Spirit, who’d give Klondike a fair start when second in the Group 3 Prix de Reux last time, ended up well held in third after looking as though he’d play a significant role 200m while Homo Deus, for whom the ground came right after some heavy rain in the lead up to the card, shaped as though needing the run on his first start since April.

King crowned in Quincy

The Group 3 Prix Quincy over the straight mile went to Make Me King who was having his first start in pattern company in Europe this season having won a valuable handicap at Newcastle and finished sixth in the Tote International at Ascot off a BHA mark of 105 on his previous two starts.

Make Me King had won twice in France in minor company in his earlier days when trained by Andre Fabre, but oddly for one trained there he’d rarely encountered the very soft ground he had here and on one of the two occasions he did (according to Timeform’s interpretation of the ground) he finished third to Continuous in the famous Group 2 Prix Thomas Bryon that saw Christophe Soumillon banned for three months after elbowing Rossa Ryan out of the saddle.

This clear-cut win didn’t require any improvement from Make Me King with the well-backed Topgear once again struggle to recapture the form he was showing in 2023, the third and fourth horses a bit too close up for comfort, Fast Raaj undone by the overnight rain and Bullace eased after finding the ground on the far rail where he raced alone - much slower than the rest of the track, but he was strong at the finish of a well-run race and might be worth trying over further again at some point.

Karl Burke has had a good year in France and Spycatcher’s win in the Prix de Meautry took his record there this year to six wins (from five individual horses) from 28 runners. Spycatcher, who’d been successful over course and distance in 2023 in the Prix de Ris-Orangis, had a very good chance on that form and put three disappointing runs since his reappearance behind him with a narrow victory over the progressive Clive Cox-trained James’s Delight who led for much of the penultimate 200m and ran right up to the form of his thumping win in a valuable handicap at York on what used to be Timeform Charity Day.

Fellow British raiders Saint Lawrence and (back from a lengthy absence) Go Bears Go showed up well for a long way but if there was an unlucky horse it was my old friend Beauvatier who, along with Saint Lawrence, raced in the smaller unfavoured group towards the far side. Once Saint Lawrence dropped away he had nothing to race with but still managed to work his way to the front before the first two took his measure close home.

Given his last two efforts this season have been his best, his winning turn looks near.

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