John Ingles looks ahead to the Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Poule d'Essai des Pouliches at Longchamp on Sunday.
Poule d’Essai des Poulains - 14:50 Longchamp (Sunday)
The form pick among the ten colts in Sunday’s Poule d’Essai des Poulains is the Brian Meehan-trained Isaac Shelby, a clear-cut winner of the Greenham Stakes at Newbury. Isaac Shelby’s own performance was rather overshadowed on the day by favourite and subsequent 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean unseating Frankie Dettori soon after leaving the stalls and it has to be said that the riderless Chaldean has proven a better advert for the Greenham form than the actual placed horses, Charyn and Theoryofeverything, who have disappointed since. But it was a smart performance nonetheless from the winner who made all under an enterprising ride from Sean Levey in a good time taking into the testing conditions. He’s been handed a plum draw here for adopting the same tactics.
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In theory, a repeat of his Greenham effort would have put Isaac Shelby among the placed horses behind Chaldean in last week’s 2000 Guineas. Beaten only once, in the Dewhurst, in four starts, Isaac Shelby will stay the extra furlong on Sunday when he’ll be reopposed by Knight who was beaten a long way in the Greenham despite having won the Horris Hill Stakes in similar conditions over the course and distance last year.
Aidan O’Brien’s most recent winner of this race was St Mark’s Basilica two years ago but it’s fair to say his representative this year, Hans Andersen, doesn’t have the same credentials. He beat the subsequent National Stakes winner Al Riffa when winning a maiden at the Curragh in the summer though had his limitations exposed in better company subsequently, including when only fifth in the National Stakes himself. However, he showed he can handle testing conditions when winning the 2000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown on his reappearance, showing a bit of improvement, and, by Frankel, should appreciate the step up to a mile.
Pick of the home-trained colts is American Flag for Deauville trainer Yann Barberot. He has won both his starts this spring in good style under Christophe Soumillon, taking his record overall to three wins from four runs. He returned with a decisive beating of Kendly by three lengths in a listed race at Saint-Cloud and was given another confident ride from off the pace when easily following up over this course and distance in the Prix de Fontainebleau last month in which Marhaba Ya Sanafi was the one who chased him home. Open to further improvement, American Flag will no doubt be ridden to pounce late again and can give Isaac Shelby the most to do.
Good Guess, Breizh Sky and Kubrick finished first, second and fourth in a field of just five for the Prix Djebel at Deauville last month. Good Guess had a bit to find with the rest judged on two-year-old form but he showed plenty of improvement stepping up to seven furlongs and had half a length to spare over Breizh Sky who matched the form of his close third in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at two.
Kubrick wasn’t beaten far behind that pair in the Djebel and won the Prix des Chenes over this course and distance at two but Jean-Claude Rouget has a potentially more interesting runner in Valimi who’s taking a big step up in grade here but is arguably open to more improvement than any in this field. He beat American Flag in a newcomers race at Deauville in October and made all in a useful conditions race over course and distance last time, turning the tables on runner-up Halfway Line who’d beaten him previously at Saint-Cloud. With entries in the St James’s Palace and Eclipse, it will be interesting to see what he can do at this level.
Selection: Isaac Shelby
Poule d’Essai des Pouliches - 15:30 Longchamp (Sunday)
There’s also a field of ten for the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches where it’s hard to look beyond Blue Rose Cen, not only a convincing winner of the Prix Marcel Boussac last season but also of the main trial for this race, the Prix de la Grotte, here three weeks ago. Drying ground might have been a concern for Blue Rose Cen but conditions look like being soft again, going that she has handled very well for both those wins.
She didn’t have to run up to her Boussac form on her reappearance last month but always looked in control from the front in beating Lindy by a length and a half. The runner-up won all three of her starts last year, including a listed race at Toulouse, and can improve again but turning the tables on the winner will be a tall order.
Blue Rose Cen is also reopposed by Ballydoyle filly Never Ending Story who was beaten just over five lengths behind her in third in the Marcel Boussac but has prospects of making more of a race of it this time. She improved further to win the 1000 Guineas Trial on heavy ground at Leopardstown last month and that form has been boosted since with runner-up Matilda Picotte finishing third in the 1000 Guineas last weekend and the third, Zarinsk, winning a Group 3 back at Leopardstown the same day.
Of the remainder, Ritournelle, the mount of last year’s winning rider Gerald Mosse for Jerome Reynier, looks the most interesting of those who contested the Prix Imprudence last month. She looked an unlucky loser when going down by a head at Deauville to outsider Showay, not getting a clear run at first before staying on well up the rail, and is open to more improvement after ending last season with a listed win in testing conditions at Saint-Cloud.
Fancy Me, in seventh, was another at long odds in the Imprudence, while Quickstep, who was fourth and favourite Sauterne, who finished in rear, have both won since. Coronation Stakes entry Quickstep, for Andre Fabre and Godolphin, beat Kelina a neck in a minor event over course and distance last time and remains open to improvement, while Sauterne proved her Imprudence running all wrong when a convincing winner of a listed race at Longchamp over seven furlongs last time, even though that doesn’t look a strong race for the grade.
The field is completed by Swingalong for Karl Burke. She had Matilda Picotte, along with 1000 Guineas winner Mawj, in the frame behind her when winning the Lowther Stakes at York last year but she ran just respectably to finish third in the Fred Darling Stakes at Newbury on her return and the two fillies that beat her there did nothing for that form at Newmarket last weekend.
Selection: Blue Rose Cen
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