Ed Crisford is confident that Zanthos will have no issues in seeing out the mile when bidding for Classic glory in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches at Longchamp next month.
The daughter of Sioux Nation continued her build-up towards an outing in the French 1000 Guineas when returning to the scene of her Group Two Rockfel Stakes success at Newmarket for an early-morning racecourse gallop on the Rowley Mile on Thursday under regular rider Oisin Murphy.
Working alongside a lead horse, the Victorious Forever-owned filly, who Crisford trains in partnership with his father Simon, passed the exercise with flying colours to leave her connections excited about her Group One debut on May 10.
Crisford said: “She is a smooth-moving filly and she is just coming to where we want her now really. She took a while to come this spring, but the last two weeks she has really come forward.
“It was just a routine bit to get her out on the grass, but that should put her spot on for a week Sunday. She has got that exuberant style of racing, and I think she will probably always have that, but we have tried to relax her a lot through the winter.
“She is a good filly and hopefully she can have a nice three year old career. I think she is a miler, if she lets herself be a miler. Hopefully she can run a good race in France.”
Crisford, who will take up a position as private trainer to Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum over in Dubai in August, feels that the French Guineas will give Zanthos a better chance of getting a mile opposed to Sunday’s Betfred 1000 Guineas.
He added: “It was always the plan to go to France. She won the Rockfel, but we just always felt over the straight mile here that the last furlong up the hill could just be that little bit too far for her.
“We always thought let's go to France to give her the chance of getting that mile. We were going to run her in a trial beforehand, but we didn’t, so not much has changed apart from that.
“Going around a bend will help her. They get into that bend pretty quickly at Longchamp, but if she can just settle and be in a nice rhythm I’m sure she will be finishing her race off over the mile."
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