Our French expect Graeme North previews the Prix Jacques Le Marois and has a bet elsewhere on the card.
Deauville Sunday selections
2pts win Calasita in the 12:58 at 2/1 (General)
The feature event this Sunday at Deauville, on what is a heavy weekend of Group action there (there were also four Group races on Saturday), is the Prix Jacques le Marois (14.50) over the straight mile on a day sponsored by the Aga Khan Studs.
The race has been won by some of the best milers in Europe over the years, though that honour can’t be levelled at last year’s winner Diego Velazguez who would have been beaten readily by Notable Speech had William Buick not ridden a shocker on the runner-up.
Whatever, Diego Velazguez was a welcome first winner in the race for Aidan O’Brien since Frankel’s understudy Excelebration scored back in 2012, and he saddles one of the joint-favourites this year in the shape of four-time Group 1 winner Precise whose two wins at the top level this year have come in the Irish 1000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes.
Her Irish 1000 win was one of the best performances in the race in recent years but she’s not quite matched that form since, albeit nearly doing so when beaten half-a-length by the year-older Blue Bolt in the Prix Rothschild here two weeks ago when getting much closer to the winner than she had in the Falmouth Stakes the time before.
Those efforts have slightly tarnished the illusion of outstanding ability her earlier wins had fostered, and while she gets the fillies allowance, this is a tougher task taking on males for the first time.
Level with her in the market and then third best are More Thunder and Zeus Olympios respectively who met last time out in the Summer Mile at Ascot when Zeus Olympios made all, More Thunder was back in fourth and another of today’s runners No Lunch finished last.
The Summer Mile was a race heavily decided by tactics, however, with Zeus Olympios allowed a soft lead in front around a bend while More Thunder was held up and got outpaced when the sprint began before finishing very strongly (No Lunch pulled too hard on his first run for ten weeks but isn’t as good as those two anyway).
I’d be much keener to take the results of the Lockinge and the Queen Anne as a better guide to the merits of More Thunder and Zeus Olympios and on that metric More Thunder is unquestionably the better horse, having finished two-and a-half lengths in front of him in the strongly-run Queen Anne. That’s the issue with More Thunder, though. He needs a scorching gallop to see him at his best and there’s no guarantee he’ll get that.
Japanese trainers had a fruitful time at Deauville last August and they provide two of the runners here, Sixpence and Strauss. I’ll admit I’m not familiar with top-level Japanese form, but Timeform ratings give Sixpence the better chance by some 6lb, though video footage of the Grade 1 Yasuda Kinen he won at Tokyo last time suggested he was something of a fortunate winner, well placed throughout in a race that wasn’t strongly run and in the right place briefly on the line as several others set too much to do thundered down on him.
His overall form suggests he’s an all-or-nothing type, much like his stable-companion Strauss. Both are hard to get a handle on, but neither have perhaps been given the credit in the market either that they deserve.
The horse the home punters will be drawn to, not least because he represents the sponsors, is Rayif who won the French 2000 Guineas in May on ground slower than he will encounter here.
The form of that contest hasn’t really worked out and Rayif has himself been beaten in his only race since, the Prix Jean Prat, when he finished fifth behind another of today’s runners Thesecretadversary after struggling to cope with the drop in trip.
He’ll be more at home over this extra furlong or so, and has good claims of reversing Jean Prat form with Thesecretadversay who had the rail that day and whose three attempts at a mile so far have all resulted in defeat. That said his form looks a little below the level usually required to win this even if he does make some progress.
Dreamliner won at this meeting last year in the Prix Quincy (when No Lunch was back in seventh) and won his only start this season, the Prix Edmond Blanc at Saint-Cloud in March. He carried his head slightly high as usual but there’s no doubting his honesty and this one-time front-runner has improved greatly since being dropped out.
He needs to find another 7lb or so, however, but his yard had a winner earlier this week. he goes well fresh and he’s probably not the 50/1 shot the betting has him at. More Thunder would be the most likely winner for me, but I can leave the race alone with only three places on offer.
The first race on the card at 12.58 is the Prix Lady O’Reilly, over 2500m for three-year-old fillies that haven’t won a Group 2 this season and is the contest that used to be known as the Prix Minerve.
Andre Fabre and Charlie Appleby have both won it in the last four seasons and provide three of the seven runners with Fabre running Dispatches and Proxima du Centaur and Appleby saddling Romantic Symphony.
Dispatches has the highest official rating in the field, together with another runner Habibi, but Timeform ratings paint a very different picture with the sponsors' Calasita 4lb clear (and with a small p attached to her rating too) from Dispatches with Habibi and Proxima du Centaur joint third in the ratings a further 2lb behind.
Calasita and Romantic Symphony met in the listed Prix de Thiberville at Longchamp in June where Calasita came out on top by half-a-length. Those bare facts don’t tell anything like the true story, however, with the winner overcoming a pace disadvantage and making up six lengths on Romantic Symphony (who’d cut out an ordinary pace) in the straight.
Romantic Symphony has shown improved form since, winning the listed Chalice Stakes at Newmarket, and is proven on the fast ground she’ll encounter here, but she had everything in her favour at Longchamp and still couldn’t win, so I can’t see her reversing the form on Sunday.
Dispatches overcame a drop in trip to land the Listed Prix Melisande at Longchamp in June and then finished third in the Group 2 Prix de Malleret behind Behrayna and French Oaks runner-up Pink Panthera after trying to steal a march off the home bend.
Habibi hasn’t run since the French Oaks when she finished three lengths behind Pink Panthera, and this longer trip will be something of an unknown albeit she stayed well as a juvenile. Proxima du Centaur has finished fourth in her last three races, including when behind Dispatches in two of them, while Hatanka Fal was third behind Behrayna in the Prix de Royaumont when the winner didn’t show the same level of form she did subsequently.
The only other runner, Ralph Beckett’s Venetia, was too free in the Ribblesdale last time but it was interesting she was given that entry after winning the Listed Weatherbys/British EBF Agnes Keyser Fillies' Stakes at Goodwood. She’s already won on fast ground this season and while she has most to find on form, she’s probably better than she has shown so far. However, CALASITA sets a high bar, and 2/1 looks a very fair price.
Five runners go to post in the next, the Prix Francois Boutin (13.33) over 1400m for juveniles who haven’t won a Group 2 event. Top on Timeform ratings is the very well-bred French colt Avec Toi (by No Nay Never out of a Frankel mare) who has won both his starts so far from the front, scoring impressively at Saint-Cloud first time out and then following up in the listed Prix Roland De Chambure here from a filly Queen Of The Day who has since finished second in the Group 3 Six Perfections.
Next best is Cut A Dash who finished fourth in the Coventry Stakes but then ran moderately for no apparent reason in the Richmond and now steps up another furlong after making a winning debut over five.
An interesting runner and a sure-fire improver is Jassas who has been supplemented for this contest. He won a novice at Doncaster last month from next-time-out winner Narrjoo, winning going away at the end of a steadily-run race and value for three lengths over the runner-up after sectional upgrades are considered.
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By Dubawi, he wasn’t far off being awarded a Timeform large P for that effort and looks the biggest threat of all. Silver Dominion was fourth in the Superlative Stakes before finishing second in the Listed Pat Eddery at Ascot while Zakkan only looks in here to give the sponsors some interest having been beaten in all his three races including in a maiden here last week.
There is also a Listed contest on the card, the Prix Nureyev over 2000m for three-year-olds but it’s a nasty race to get a handle on. There is next to nothing on Timeform ratings between Take Me On, Quantas, Wiki and Zaraki but none of those has an overwhelmingly convincing profile.
It sometimes pays to trust potential over proven form in these scenarios, but the two that catch the eye on that score, Basha and Great Sphinx, don’t fully convince either with the former looking an out-and-out galloper at Vichy last time and the latter coming here after two runs in Italy. This looks too hard to call.
- Preview posted 17:30 BST on 15/08/2026
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