Deauville Sunday preview: Graeme North tips for Prix Maurice de Gheest day

By Graeme North

Horse Racing

Sun August 10, 2025 · 5M ago

It's the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville today and Graeme North looks ahead to the action in his regular Sunday column.

Don't lose track of Pinta

Before I get around to previewing today’s Group and listed action at Deauville, I‘ll rewind seven days and review last week’s Prix Rothschild in which our headline selection Pinta came seventh.

Anyone who availed themselves of the advised 40/1 which was at the time widely available ended up with a very good bet and can count themselves unfortunate they didn’t get a return on the each-way part at least given Pinta finished second on her side in a race in which those who raced in the middle of the track always had an edge over those that stayed close to the rail (the runner-up January started off in the stand-side group before making her way over to join those in the middle) and despite meeting some trouble as she made her effort, caught and passed the horse who won the stand-side group, the Duke of Cambridge winner Crimson Advocate, three strides after the post.

I’m not sure the cat is completely out of the bag so far as her ability is known, with draw biases in France tending to receive little media attention, but clearly the opportunity to back her at such big odds again has probably passed us by.

Her current future engagements for which she is already at the second acceptance stage are the Prix Quincey over the Deauville straight 1600m again at the end of August and the Prix Daniel Wildenstein (also 1600m) on the first day of the Arc meeting; however, I fancy she might well find more progress stepped up to 2000m, so a supplementary entry for the Prix de l’Opera would be on the agenda if she was mine.

On a wing and a prayer?

So far as the draw is concerned in the Prix Maurice de Gheest, Sunday’s Group 1 feature at 15.05, recent history suggests either a very high draw or a very low draw is what you want and not one in the middle - five of the last ten winners have been drawn ten or higher while the other five have been drawn four or lower.

Which part of the track, if any, ends up being favoured is not always predictable beforehand, of course, with such vagaries as watering policy and jockey groupthink not often obvious until the race is all but over if not well under way, but as things stand there looks to be more pace among the very low numbers and that is where the reigning champion Lazzat is housed. He took his form up a notch when winning this race last year, albeit from a collectively less talented if bigger field than the one that faces him today, racing close up and drawing away in the final 200m to score by three lengths, and returned to that sort of form when winning the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot last time for all he was slightly fortunate in my eyes to beat Japanese raider Sotono Reve who emerged marginally best on sectional upgrades after making his effort well away from Lazzat.

Timeform rated both those of those performances by Lazzat at 125 and only Inisherin – who was seventh in that same Jubilee, running an unusually lacklustre race – among his ten rivals has run as high as 122, so Lazzat is clearly the one to beat.

That 122 wasn’t a one-off from Inisherin – he’s run to that figure twice, firstly in the 2024 Commonwealth Cup where he beat Lake Forest by two and a quarter lengths and secondly in the Duke Of York Clipper Stakes in May where he once again raced close up and got the better of a drawn-out battle with Flora Of Bermuda who next time out finished three lengths behind Lazzat and Sotono Reve at Ascot. First-time cheekpieces and Ryan Moore back on board again as he was at York might help Inisherin, and like Lazzat he won’t be fazed by the unique 1300m distance having spent his younger days racing over as far as a mile.

Tribalist and Topgear are next in the ratings on 121. Quite why the former is being persisted with at sprint trips when all the evidence so far suggests for all he’s a crack miler he’s not quick enough for them I’m not sure, while Topgear has often suggested this sort of trip might suit but stopped as if shot in the Jubilee when giving sprinting a try and questions remain about what calibre of field he beat (easily, admittedly) on the day in the Challenge Stakes at Newmarket last autumn on his favoured softish ground.

More interesting than that pair, certainly among the remaining older horses, is Beauvatier. He was third in this race last year when still to hit top form but showed what he could be capable of later in the year when third in the Foret at Longchamp, running on strongly from a mile back, and the Champions Sprint at Ascot where he finished fourth to Kind Of Blue half a length behind Flora of Bermuda. He got back to winning ways for the first time since his juvenile days when landing the Prix de Ris-Orangis over course and distance last month when Tribalist was third and holds each-way claims.

Three-year-olds have slightly underperformed in the last ten years, winning thirty-three per cent of the races despite providing forty per cent of the runners, and they don’t look to me at any rate to provide a strong challenge this year. On official ratings, Woodshauna is the highest rated of the four after his last-gasp defeat of Maranoa Charlie, The Lion In Winter and Shadow Of Light in the Prix Jean Prat last time, and the return to a slightly shorter trip ought not to trouble him given he beat subsequent Commonwealth Cup winner Time For Sandals in the 1200m Prix Texanita at Chantilly in May.

Time For Sandals had Rayevka back in third and Shadow Of Light back in fifth in the Commonwealth Cup, and Rayevka is the more interesting of that pair given not only has she not run since so comes here fresh but her mid-race sectionals were at least on a on a par with those of Sayidah Dariyan who went on to win the Summer Stakes at Ascot and Big Mojo who went on to finish second in the July Cup.

Rayevka had earlier cut through the field impressively at Chantilly to win a 1200m listed race with considerable ease and she looks to be improving fast. The older horses look to have the edge, though, and if forced to have a bet I’d plump for Beauvatier each-way but the bigger overnight prices have unfortunately disappeared.

Aali to land knockout to 'special' Scoville

The other Group race on the card is the Prix Daphis for three-year-olds who haven’t this year won a Group 2 and takes place over the round 1600m. It has attracted a large field, including a horse who I was very keen on last time in the Prix Paul de Moussac only for him to be declared a non-runner, presumably because the ground was considered to be too fast.

Still holding an entry in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp next month, that horse is Selenien and he last ran in the French 2000 Guineas when he still last of all turning into the short finishing straight yet made such rapid headway that he briefly looked as if he might finish in the top six, running easily the fastest last 600m according to the tracking data. By Mehmas, he had previously overcome a wide trip when coming from last to first in a good-quality minor event on the all-weather at Chantilly and though 1400m might be his optimum distance, the turning 1600m here should be within reach so long as he’s not given too much to do. Unlike the Moussac, however, Christophe Soumillion is not booked for the ride on this occasion and in any case faces a rival who looked something special when he was last seen last month.

That horse is Scoville who is unbeaten in his only two starts so far, doing a very passable impression of Baaed in that he won the second of them on the July Course under a penalty in a very fast timefigure (107) and by a very wide margin (fourteen lengths). Most of the field looked very limited beforehand, so it’s perhaps not surprising that Scoville, who’d run to a very high level when winning at Windsor on his debut and is out of the Group 1 winner (at around a mile and a quarter) Ribbons, won by as far as he did in view of his breeding but a 2lb sectional upgrade took his overall timerating to 109 and the manner in which he achieved it, going hard early on, suggests it is probably a bare minimum figure. A repeat of that level would be good enough here – Baaed won a listed race on his third start by four lengths – and he’s well drawn in stall four towards the inside.

A first-time tongue tie is a slight concern, however, and if there is one who looks overpriced it’s not French 2000 ninth Sahlan or Roger Varian’s two from two this year Khafiz but AL AALI who gave subsequent French Derby second Cualificar a big head start in the slowly-run Prix de Guiche but couldn’t show what he could do in the big one himself after getting badly squeezed out at the start then getting a very rough trip on the rail in midfield after he’d pulled his way into contention.

I like the fact that Cristian Demuro who rode him in the Guiche retakes the ride, he looks to have gone under the radar with the drop back in trip unlikely to be an issue and 18/1 looks a good bet to me.

Clear claims for Daylight

The other two races of interest on the card are both listed events and the first of them, the Prix Moonlight Cloud at 12.56, is a very bizarre one in the respect that it is being contested over the straight 1200m yet only one of the nine runners – Fraise des Bois – has run over a trip as short as that this season with most of the runners seemingly taking the opportunity to use the race to reinvent themselves as sprinters.

As we have seen with Maranoa Charlie this season, that tactic backfired before he was put back over a longer trip and the same seems outcome seems likely to befall Misunderstood who was a hard-hitting front runner over as far as a mile last season (won the 1600m Prix des Chenes in soft ground) and has never suggested he needs a drop down to 1200m.

Burhan, the winner of a 1400m listed race at Longchamp, French 2000 thirteenth Dos Mukasan and Jean Prat fifth Calofonix are others trying the same move, but if there is one horse in the race who has promised to be suited by a drop in trip it is DAYLIGHT who has finished third in the Prix Imprudence, seventh in the French 1000 and sixth in the Jean Prat. She looks overpriced at 11/2 with Christophe Soumillon taking the ride for the first time.

In contrast, the other listed race, the 1000m Prix du Cercle, has attracted plenty of trip specialists. Clarendon House is the best horse in the race but a refusal to leave the stalls in his last two starts makes me look elsewhere. I gave Egiategia a good write up in this column several weeks back, but I was hoping she might be found a slightly easier opportunity than this and I suspect the race will be between Redorange, Miss Atitude and SONGHAI.

The first two met in a handicap at Goodwood as recently as last week where they finished third and seventh respectively, with Redorange staying on the stronger of the pair in the closing stages to run a career-high 111 Timeform rating after two close defeats where the draw had been against him.

Miss Attitude couldn’t quite back up her listed race second at York the time before where she had finished one place ahead of subsequent King George winner Jm Jungle, and a bigger threat may well come from Songhai who found herself a bit out of her ground behind Arizona Blaze last time in the Group 3 Barberstown Stakes but ran the fastest second and third fractions in the race and also ran the last two furlongs faster than the smart winner.

Selections

12.56 Deauville - Daylight win only at 11/2 (General)

13.31 Deauville - Songhai win only at 7/2 (General)

16.15 Deauville - Al Aali e.w. 3 places at 20/1 (Sky Bet, Paddy Power)

Published at 0924 BST on 10/08/25

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