Timeform's Graeme North provides an in-depth preview of Sunday's action from Longchamp including in the Emirates Poule d'Essai des Pouliches.
The first Classics of the Flat turf season are set to take place at Paris Longchamp on Sunday afternoon with 18 declared for the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, the French equivalent of the 2000 Guineas, and 13 starting in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (1000) on ground that the racecourse authority has described as good with the rail moved back in to its innermost configuration.
Those readers unfamiliar with Longchamp ought to be aware the track has three separate round courses as well as a separate sprint course and the two Classics will be run on the Grande Piste which is the outer and most galloping of the three layouts but all the same is run for a large part on the turn meaning a low draw next to the inside rail is an advantage.
It's interesting to note that in the three renewals since 2000 when 18 or 19 runners took part, all the winners were drawn nine or lower while those who found a draw of 16 or higher too tough to overcome yet still managed to reach the first three included New Bay and Intello both of whom won the Prix du Jockey-Club, the French Derby, on their next start.
Indeed, the last winner drawn eight or higher was Lope De Vega who overcame stall 15 in 2010 since when nine of the 11 winners when the race has been staged at Longchamp have been drawn in the bottom five stalls.
I might as well make that last statistic my starting point and the five horses drawn in the most ‘favourable’ stalls are Serengeti, Hotazhell (who sets the standard being 3lb clear on Timeform ratings), Misunderstood, Reach The Sky and Ridari.
It would be unfair to describe Serengeti and Reach For The Sky as complete no-hopers but they have their work cut out on form and with Hotazhell and Ridari not known as front runners the path looks clear for the free-going Misunderstood to adopt his usual front-running role.
It’s a tough ask being asked to make all the running in the Poulains but Make Believe managed it with some ease back in 2015 when the aforementioned New Bay ended up with far too much to do. Make Believe possessed the speed later in the season to drop back to 1400m and win the Prix de la Foret which I wouldn’t say Misunderstood would be capable of given he’s from a German family and has plenty of stamina in his pedigree, but it’s worth remembering he finished one place ahead of Field Of Gold in last season’s Jean-Luc Lagardere.
Hotazhell is ridden by Shane Foley who won the Marcel Boussac over the course back in 2019. He beat the Ballysax winner Delacroix in the Futurity at Doncaster on his final start last season in a smart 116 timefigure but seems indifferent to conditions as he earlier won on fast ground at the Curragh.
However, he was beaten by Henri Matissse in the Tyros Stakes but perhaps more significantly for anyone thinking of backing him on his reappearance, his trainer Jessica Harrrington by her standards has endured a very poor last couple of months.
Ridari won one of the major trials for the Poulains, the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau, by a nose from Sahlan with Misunderstood back in third. Equipped with a hood, as he is again here, he took a while to settle but showed a smart turn of foot and ran the last 200m 0.17 seconds faster than any of his rivals. It’s hard to imagine Misunderstood setting such a modest pace again here, however.
Henri Matisse and Aomori City are among the trio drawn in the next three stalls and both have form within 5lb of Hotazhell. Henri Matisse finished behind Misunderstood in the Jean-Luc Lagarde when tried in blinkers but left that form behind when overcoming the worst stall in a strongly-run Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf on firm ground in which the pace collapsed and showed he’d trained on well when winning the 2000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown on his reappearance, a race from which the three horses to have come out and run very well since.
He had Aomori City behind him in both the Juvenile Turf and the National Stakes at two and there’s no obvious reason the latter should reverse placings for all he made a perfectly respectable reappearance when third in the Craven Stakes.
That leaves 10 runners among whom Detain is berthed closest to the rail. He was weak in the betting when losing his unbeaten record in the Futurity after winning his first two races on polytrack but made it three from three on the artificial when scoring at Chelmsford on his reappearance from the unlucky-in-running Luther who takes him on again but has a tough draw in 16.
Good as he’s looked in his wins, it’s hard to rate Detain higher than low 100s on combined timefigures and upgrades, and his owners’ Jonquil looks the stronger of their two entries.
He won the Greenham on his debut for new trainer Andrew Balding when beating the Lagardere runner-up Rashabar in a performance Timeform thought worth 112p, so he’s not much to find on form, while the step up to 1600m is sure to suit and stall 12 isn’t the end of the world.
Fontainebleau runner-up Sahlan and fourth Heybetli also have claims but it maybe stall 17 has scuppered the hopes of Camille Pissarro who is one of six colts by Wootton Bassett in the line-up. He won the soft-ground Lagardere under today’s rider Christophe Soumillon and ran well when second to the match-fit course specialist Big Gossey in the Gladness Stakes on his reappearance but while the step up to 1600m will suit, the light showers that are forecast might be too little too late for him.
It’s a very tricky race to solve and if pushed I’d plump for Jonquil but there look to me to be better bets on the card.
Celestial bet for Sangster team
The draw hasn’t been quite so important in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches with four horses (Special Duty, Avenir Certain, Erveyda and Rouhiya) since 2010 being successful from a double-figure draw.
Erveyada and Rouhiya were owned by the Aga Khan operation, and they have a very strong hand this year as they are responsible for the first two in the betting, Zarigana and Mandanaba.
Zarigana, a granddaughter of the great Zarkava, was France’s top two-year-old filly last year and made a winning reappearance in the Prix de la Grotte. Sent off odds-on, Zarigana wasn’t wildly impressive and perhaps didn’t pick up quite as her rider Mickael Barzalona perhaps expected given how easily she had travelled into contention, but the race was slowly run and developed into something of a burn-up with all seven of the runners sprinting home.
A more strongly-run race, such as she had last year in the Prix d’Aumale where she won easily by three lengths and looked top class, will surely show her in a better light but it’s hard to imagine her unbeaten stablemate Mandanaba, who won the Group 3 Prix Vanteaux over 1800m here on just her second start having bolted up on her only start as a two-year-old, fulfilling the pacemaking role despite her draw in stall one (Zarigana is in seven) given her own very solid form claims.
Aidan O’Brien is also multi-handed with four entries in a race which, rather surprisingly, he hasn’t won since 2001. Exactly is the best of his quartet on Timeform ratings, 2lb behind Zarigana but 3lb ahead of Bedtime Story, 5lb ahead of Merrily and 12lb ahead of Heavens Gate.
Exactly had the worst of the draw in the 1000 Guineas Trial at Leopardstown on her reappearance where she was still gaining on the winner close home after hanging left briefly, and with that run behind her she should get closer to her juvenile form which saw her finish third in the Marcel Boussac when Zarigana was second.
Bedtime Story also ran in the Boussac, finishing nearly four lengths behind her stablemate after pulling too hard, and, now equipped with a hood, would enter calculations if she could recapture the form she showed in the Chesham last year when she ran out a near 10-length winner in an outstanding 110 timefigure for that time of the year.
Merrily took a big step forward when winning the Oh So Sharp Stakes on her final start last year but finished well held in the 1000 Guineas Trial and has plenty on as does Heaven’s Gate who was third in the Albany last year but beat only three home in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and ran even more deplorably on her reappearance in the Fred Darling at Newbury.
The Prix Imprudence hasn’t been much of a trial for the Pouliches in recent years but the latest winner Better Together won it with some authority to continue her progressive profile and ought once again to get the better of the runner-up Ghoufrann, who outran her big odds in that race, and the Cheveley Park runner-up Daylight who left the impression 1400m was as far as she wanted to go.
A repeat of that form should get Better Together somewhere in the mix and she has better form claims than either Shes Perfect and Godspeed, both of who seemed to step up considerably on their previous efforts when second and third respectively behind Zarigana in the dash for the Grotte, though at least Godspeed can claim credit for running two of the three last 200m sections faster than Zarigana.
Imprudence fourth Mimos and Nell Gwyn second CELESTIAL ORBIT make up the field and, at the prices, it’s Celestial Orbit I like a lot.
She had Flaming Stone four lengths back in third when winning the Listed Star Stakes at Sandown last summer with plenty on hand, eased at least a length after quickening smartly into contention, and Flaming Stone has advertised that form handsomely since this year, albeit with a new yard in France, winning a Listed race at Saint-Cloud before running Mandanaba to three-quarters of a length in the Prix Vanteaux.
Second to Zanzoun in the Nell Gwyn on her reappearance when she ran out of puff after making her effort later and away from the winner, she represents a yard whose two runners filled the places behind Desert Flower in the 1000 Guineas last weekend and she’s well overpriced at a general 16/1 (20/1 in a place with one big firm). I’d have her in at 8/1.
Just four go to post for the Prix Saint-Alary, formerly a Group 1 but now a Group 2, including the aforementioned Flaming Stone who was staying on well when second to Mandanaba in the Prix Vanteaux, but the one to beat is Audubon Park who won a listed race at Saint-Cloud earlier this season in the mud barely when coming off the bridle and like Zarigana and Mandanaba is trained by Francis-Henri Graffard.
Anyone who read my French revies and previews last year will probably be aware French sprints are high up on the races I like to avoid with big-priced winners and big turnarounds in form a regular occurrence.
However, I will make an exception for the Group 3 Prix de Saint-Georges which Ponntos has won twice before and is attempting to win again despite clear signs over the past six month he’s not the horse he was.
James Tate sends over French regular Electric Storm who was just touched off in Group company last year at both Deauville and Longchamp and won a listed race at Bath on her reappearance but the horse who interests me is MGHEERA who had no luck with the draw in two of her final three races last season, including when barely two heads behind Electric Storm in the big-field Prix du Petit-Couvert, and found 1200m in the mud too much for her on her final start.
She’s now with Ed Walker having left her small French yard, has the benefit of a top rider (Oisin Murphy) having been ridden by a journeyman jockey for most of her career, is back at her best trip at which she won a Listed race at Chantilly easily last year and is well drawn for once in stall three.
Sunday Selections
12.58 Mgheera (so long as 7/1 or bigger, no prices available at time of writing)
16.05 Celestial Orbit at 16/1 or bigger
Preview posted at 1315 BST on 10/05/2025
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