Zarigana enhanced her Classic credentials with victory at ParisLongchamp

Zarigana was sent off at prohibitive odds for the mile Group 3 and oozed class under a confident Mikael Barzalona.

Held-up in midfield of the seven runners, Zarigana always looked to be moving well within herself with Barzalona biding his time before asking his filly to go and win her race. She had to work a little harder than looked likely with Shes Perfect, trained by Charlie Fellowes, sticking to her task but Zarigana did enough when asked to win by a cosy neck.

Zarigana comfortably won her first two starts as a juvenile before contesting the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac on Arc day, finishing a nose second to Vertical Blue.

The granddaughter of the brilliant Zarkava is among the market leaders for both the French Guineas [Pouliches] and Oaks [Prix de Diane] and trainer Francis Graffard that the Classic would be next for his filly who he had earlier reported had wintered well and grown into her frame.

When asked on Sky Sports Racing if the race proved tougher than expected, Graffard replied: "Yeah, especially with this filly there is so much expectation from everybody about her. It's a shame we have a bit of pressure!

"Mickael said as soon as she saw daylight she changed gear very, very strongly and as soon as she hit the front she stopped so that was why he had to touch her a little bit to make the job done today. She needed, mentally, to come back to the races big time so I'm glad everything went well for her and we will regroup and get her spot on for the big one [the Pouliches]."

Graffard, however, is not convinced that Zarigiana is yet ready to step up in trip, saying: "I think maybe with maturity later on but at the moment she looks like she needs to stick at a mile."

Graffard and Barzalona were on opposite sides of a close finish to the Prix de Fontainebleau earlier on the card with the latter partnering Ridari to a nose defeat of Sahlan in the mile Group 3.

Graffard said of the runner-up: "I had a doubt about his stamina. He is tough as you saw, he saw daylight too early unfortunately the way the race was run so Christophe [Soumillon] tried to keep him and then he had to go and a mile is his maximum trip and he got caught on the line unfortunately for him.

"It was his first run on turf so it was a very good performance and he will learn a lot from that and now the jockey knows more about him too."

Sahlan and the third home, Misunderstood, run in the colours of Al Shaqab Racing whose representative Rupert Prichard-Gordon thought that both colts had done enough to take their chance in the French 2000 Guineas [Poulains].

"I think it's quite possible," he said.

"It's the idea with Misunderstood, we thought he might need the race a little bit, he's a big strong horse weighs over 500 kilos so the race was always going to do him good. Sarlan, it was just a bit of inexperience, Francis was very keen to take on these horses and see what we do next but after what he's done there, very possibly he'll run in the French Guineas as well. "

The winning trainer Mikel Delzangles said of Ridari: "I'm very pleased because he is not an easy horse, he can be quite keen and the jockey really gets on very well with him; he gave him a very good prep race for the big one [French 2000 Guineas].

"He's a nice horse, we've always liked him. He was born in May so hopefully there's more improvement to come."

Barzalona made it four winners on the card when winning the Prix Noailles aboard Uther, a half-brother to the same connections' Group 1 winner Sosie, for trainer Christophe Ferland.

Ferland said: "The horse was fit but will progress from there. He's a very nice horse from a nice family.

"He tried to accelerate a little faster than he could and was a little bit unbalanced and he just came back to a normal stride. He did well, I'm very pleased.

"He will stay a mile and a half easily and I really like him. He's a big strong horse, he will get fitter and fitter race after race."

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