Graeme North is back with a look ahead to today's racing from Chantilly and he's got a couple of picks worth backing in a double.
Group action is back again in France this weekend with three pattern events at Chantilly as well as a listed contest but it’s fair to say the quality isn’t as high as in recent weeks.
In view of the continued acceptance of ‘black type’ as the barometer of racecourse performance excellence rather than official or private handicap ratings, it’s surprising more British or Irish trainers don’t flood French listed or pattern events given they are largely easier to win than similar contests domestically.
Take the main event of the day, the Goffs Prix Robert Papin, which carries Group 2 status yet has the look of a substandard Group 3 and that’s a generous view.
Karl Burke, who’s a regular in France with his juveniles, runs Super Soldier, who has already been beaten at a ‘lower’ level in France in the listed Prix La Fleche (by the rail-running Graft, who was then seventh in the Norfolk Stakes) since when he has finished fourteenth of twenty in the Coventry Stakes.
The theory the longer trip in the Coventry caught him out will be put to the test here trying it again, but his form doesn’t look good enough and stronger foreign challenges come from Archie Watson’s Tadej, who finished sixth that Coventry, and Joseph O’Brien’s Green Sense who was also sent to Ascot but contested the Albany Stakes instead.
Tadej wasn’t beaten far in the melee behind clear-cut winner Gstaad in the Coventry, and finished one place and two places respectively in front of a pair whose form since has made his own Coventry effort look all the meritorious, and having beaten the Coventry runner-up (and July Stakes) runner-up Do Or Do Not on his previous outing at York his credentials look the best of all; Green Sense’s debut Curragh win looks ordinary and whose Group 3 second before her down-the-field effort at Ascot has hardly been well advertised.
Burke will have a good line on the merits of home-trained runners Moojeed and Imperial Me Cen having saddled Ali Shuffle (who split the pair) as well as Meelaf against them in the Prix du Bois last month, but that looked a weak contest (as Meelaf’s form before and only run since has suggested) and the winner Moojeed also had the favoured rail that day. Tadej would be my nominal pick around 100/30.
Burke is also represented in the opening Group race, the Prix Chloe, but his representative Serving With Style has been a long way below her two-year-old form in two runs this season and even the one good piece of form she does have from last season, when second in the Rockfel Stakes, is dubious given she was allowed a soft lead in a steadily-run race. Like three of the others, she looks up against it against the ‘big two’, Cathedral and Relaxx.
Cathedral went into my sectional notebooks after her impressive debut win at Lingfield last year, and hasn’t looked back since, finishing second in the Oh So Sharp Stakes on her final start last year (when one place ahead of 1000 Guineas second Threat) and running a race-leading fourth in the Coronation Stakes last time where she improved by 7lb or so to finish just over three lengths behind Cercene.
That run didn’t look to get to the bottom of her, and given she looked as though she’d stay further she might well step forward another chunk over this extra 200m.
Relaxx kept good company last year without showing the same level of form as Cathedral, but has improved this season and won a listed race here readily last time by three lengths. That said, this looks tailor made for Cathedral who has the requisite stamina if the race ends up being strongly run and a sizzling turn of foot if it steadily run.
Rosa Salvaje will enter calculations if she returns to the form that saw her finish one place and three and a half lengths ahead of Lazy Griff at Deauville last summer (when subsequent Prix Djebel second Silius was fourth) but like Serving With Style, she’s yet to fire this season albeit her effort in the French Oaks was respectable enough.
The second Group race on the card, the Prix Messidor over 1600m, is a more interesting affair, and has attracted ten runners. Best of them on Timeform ratings is Simon & Ed Crisford’s Quddwah who is unbeaten at listed level, including at Longchamp earlier this year where he had another two of today’s runners, former French 2000 Guineas winner Marhaba Ya Sanafi and Siam Paragon back in second and third, but has struggled in a higher grade albeit all those three efforts have come at Group 1 level.
A repeat of last year’s fourth behind Charyn in the Jacques Le Marois at Deauville would be good enough, and it could be argued Quddwah's Longchamp win suggests he has improved since then, but he ran abysmally last time out in the Queen Anne. He is one of six older horses receiving 2lb from Alcantor and Geography who are penalised for their wins this year at Group 3 level.
Alcantor’s came in the Prix Edmond Blanc where he beat Manaba Ya Sanafi by a much smaller margin than Quddwah did later at Longchamp, albeit after being four lengths clear at one point, but he couldn’t make his fitness advantage tell in the bet365 Mile at Sandown the following month and he’ll need the surface to soften appreciably (which it might given the forecast) to show his best form.
Gepgraphy is a triple Group 3 winner in Germany, but didn’t show much in the Diomed Stakes at Epsom where he had Burke’s reopposing Ice Max nearly eight lengths in front of him. That form looks all the better after Docklands’ win in the Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot, but he’s yet to race on ground Timeform has called any faster than good and is another who’ll be more at home on an easy surface.
Caramelito won this race last year but hasn’t been in the same form since, beaten in a conditions race last time, so if there’s one horse who has the potential to leave his form a little way behind and get involved it’s RIDARI, one of three-year-olds in the line-up who is back at the trip at which he finished fifth in the French 2000 Guineas after coming sixth in the French Derby last time.
That step up in trip didn’t suit the nervy son of Churchill (wears a hood) as well as seemed likely, but in neither race was he beaten more than a length and a half and a return to a calmer environment, with a far smaller crowd and absence of party atmosphere, could well help him get back on track.
The sole listed race on the card, the Prix de La Pepiniere, for older fillies and mares over 2100m who haven’t won a Group race this year, has attracted a fourteen-runner field.
Two runners from Britain take their chance, Doha from the Ralph Becketts table and Muddy Muoy from Paul Attwater’s yard. Doha won ger only previous start in France, last year, landing a listed event at Saint-Cloud from a horse who went on to win a Group 3 race herself over slightly further on her next start.
Doha has beaten only five horses in three races since but wasn’t beaten all that far as the only female in the field in the Wolferton Stakes on ground faster than she usually encounters and it’s hard to imagine she won’t be seen to much better advantage here.
Moody Muoy has 7lb or so to find with Doha but she’s at the other end of the experience scale having had just six runs and her latest fourth in the Kensington Palace off an opening mark of 93 represented easily her best effort yet, an effort all the more creditable given how freely she raced early on.
Given her all-weather form, whether she’ll be as good away from Ascot remains to be seen and the pair with the best credentials looks to be Quisisana and MME JOURDAIN.
Quisisana is a horse I wrote about several times last year, often catching the eye with her late progress having been set too much to do, and when finally ridden closer to the pace here in June she put it together in some style, winning easily by five lengths.
A drop in trip on her first run for thirteen months are both big question marks, however, for all she has the best form in the field, and there’s also a question mark, albeit a lesser one, over Mme Jourdain who ran poorly in the 2025 version of the race Quisisana won when tipped up by this column five weeks ago.
That surely wasn’t her running (and certainly not her usual running style, given she’s usually held up) trying 2400m for the first time and ridden prominently, and I’d expect to see a return to her usual patient tactics given her draw in stall 12. She had the look of an imminent winner in her race before that, splitting 122-rated Aventure and the now 112-rated Grand Stars despite asked a ridiculous question from off the pace, and 11/2 looks fair value.
Leffard might have been a surprise winner of the Grand Prix de Paris last weekend if the betting was is to be believed, but his profile going into that race was an interesting one and his win reflects well on two other horses who also ran in the French Derby and haven’t been seen since.
The first of those is Azimpour, who was the big eyecatcher from the rear of the field at Chantilly having been in an impossible position entering the straight, but it might be a while before we see him again as he missed the Grand Prix de Paris reportedly with a small injury.
The second of those is Nitoi, and he already has a win over Leffard, Derby fourth New Ground (who pulled far too hard in the Grand Prix de Paris and looks increasingly headstrong) and Azimpour in the listed Prix de Suresnes at Longchamp in April.
There wasn’t much to separate the quartet that day, and Azimpour will probably prove the best of the bunch in time, but Nitoi was always holding Leffard that day and his run in the French Derby was compromised like several others by an outside draw, a patient ride and a wide circuit into the straight.
The manner in which he came home from the 200m pole was taking, however, and his next start is going to be interesting.
Chantilly selections
15.25 Mme Jourdain at 11/2 (General)
16.35 Ridari at 6/1 (General)
0.5pt e.w. double the above pair
Published at 0912 BST on 20/07/25
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