Tribalist made all the running under an enterprising Mickael Barzalona ride to land the Prix du Moulin at odds of 25/1.
The race appeared to revolve around the British and Irish-based runners, Roger Varian's grey Charyn sent off the odds-on favourite ahead of 2000 Guineas and Sussex Stakes hero Notable Speech from the yard of Charlie Appleby, with Aidan O'Brien's Henry Longfellow next in the market.
However, Barzalona clearly hadn't read the script on Andre Fabre's five-year-old, who had looked an obvious pace angle in the race in the second silks of Godolphin but was allowed an awful lot of rope out in front in the early stages.
Tribalist, a two-time winner at Group 2 level in testing conditions previously including at Saint-Cloud earlier this season, went around eight lengths clear at halfway and was still going strongly on the turn into the straight as Silvestre de Sousa first looked to ask for an effort from Charyn racing back in fourth.
The favourite picked up reasonably well to pass Henry Longfellow and Caramelito, who had led the chasing pack adrift of the leader, and with Notable Speech seemingly struggling to make up ground in behind, the way looked paved for Charyn to add to his impressive haul this season.
However, the winner had kept enough in the tank and, despite understandably tiring close home, the line came in time for Tribalist who still had a length and a quarter in hand over the fast-finishing Charyn (5/6 fav). Henry Longfellow was third, Caramelito fourth and 5/2 shot Notable Speech only fifth under William Buick.
Paddy Power left Charyn unchanged as their 5/2 favourite for the QEII at Ascot on Champions Day next month, but eased Notable Speech to 10/1 (from 7s) and Henry Longfellow to 14/1 (from 10s) for the same race.
Fabre told Sky Sports Racing: “It was a fantastic front-running performance, but it was down to Tribalist not the trainer.
“He is just good. Mickael couldn’t do anything else (but what he did), the others let him go.”
When asked if the victory means Tribalist will head to the Prix de la Foret next, Fabre added: “For sure, there is no other option. He could then go to the Breeders’ Cup.”
Varian admitted it was hard to see Charyn come so close to bridging the gap to Tribalist in the closing stages, narrowly missing out on becoming the first horse to win the Queen Anne Stakes, Prix Jacques le Marois and Moulin all in the same season.
“It was a frustrating watch to be honest, but he has run a great race and when you finish second you have to tip your hat to the winner,” said Varian.
“I think hindsight, yes (he got a bit far back). They spotted the winner six or seven lengths turning for home which is very hard to do on this ground.
“Watching the race again, the race developed that way, it wasn’t that way in the first furlong and I think it is the wrong thing to jump on the jockey’s back. The race stretched out from halfway, but he has come out of the pack and almost closed the winner down.
“He has run a tremendous race, I don’t think we can be disappointed at all with his performance. Losing a shoe was probably not ideal, but I think on this ground he is probably not even aware he lost a shoe.
“For me it is not an excuse, it’s just frustrating because I think he has run enormous and I think he ran well enough to win the race but didn’t quite. It’s frustrating, but we congratulate the winner and move on.”
Varian added: “We would love to go to Ascot for the QEII, that has always been his autumn goal and it’s six weeks away so plenty of time. As long as he is sound and healthy there is no reason why he won’t go there."
More from Sporting Life
Safer gambling
We are committed in our support of safer gambling. Recommended bets are advised to over-18s and we strongly encourage readers to wager only what they can afford to lose.
If you are concerned about your gambling, please call the National Gambling Helpline / GamCare on 0808 8020 133.
Further support and information can be found at begambleaware.org and gamblingtherapy.org.
Fast Results
Scores
