With plenty of potential stars on show at Chantilly today, our Man in France Jason Kiely has spoken to top French trainer Henri-Alex Pantall about his eight runners on a fascinating card.
The feature race is the Group Three Prix Texanita while there are a host of exciting two-year-old races and of course, the Prix de la Pistole.
Debutante Tokyo exciting prospect for Pantall
Our sport may be taking place behind closed doors, but that didn’t stop the entire racing public taking note of The Summit’s incredible performance in the Group Three Prix de Fontainebleau on Monday. His trainer Henri-Alex Pantall will hoping to keep his rich vein of form going today as he saddles some stoutly bred two-year-old’s in Chantilly's ‘newcomers’ events.
At first glance the Prix de la Reine Blanche (11.00) looks quite difficult to unravel, but investigate a little deeper into the pedigrees and its clear there are a handful we should be keeping a close eye on, notably the Pantall-trained Tokyo.
Baptising her with a punchy name like Tokyo could have been the first step on exciting path for her owner/breeder Ecurie des Monceaux who have had great success with this line and according to Pantall, this filly is also quite capable on the gallops
“She has been working very well In the mornings, she knows her job and should debut correctly. She’s a very nice filly by Dark Angel and has a good family behind her, I am hopeful that she can put her best foot forward," said the trainer from his base in Beaupreau, near Angers.
Tokyo’s siblings Deemster and Buthela have set the bar reasonably high in terms of debut performances and she might need to hit somewhere near that mark with some tough opposition in the shape of the Jean-Claude Rouget’s Siyouni filly Citadelle.
The remainder of the Pantall army
The colts take their turn in the D'orgemont Maiden Stakes at (11.30), a race that only attracted eight runners but also features a Pantall runer. Although it’s difficult to tell until after the event, he seems to be on a similar level to Tokyo in the mornings according to the trainer;
“We also have the colt Artico, who like Tokyo looks to be showing plenty in the mornings and hopefully he can start off nicely too” said Pantall, who suggests that booking crack jockey Pierre-Charles Boudot for both of his juveniles could be a winning move
“Pierre-Charles rides a few for us at Chantilly, he often rides for us throughout the year but obviously he has his commitments to fulfil first. It’s great when we can get him, he’s a very valuable asset as we saw with The Summit," added the trainer who saddled 111 winners in 2019.
Pantall’s third two-year-old-runner Kalarina goes in the claimer (12.00) but she is not expected to trouble the judge for the moment
“I’ve decided to put Kalarina in the claimer first time out, she isn’t showing as much as the other two on the gallops and may find her level here," he said.
The three Pantall runners in the sprint handicap at 1.47 are all making their seasonal reappearances this afternoon and although all are at decent prices, he did not rule out taking home some prize-money;
"The three in the sprint are all having first starts of the season, which can be sometimes difficult to gauge. For Slickteg this would a bit long for him the 1,200m but to me he seems well and he should give a good account of himself.
"Then we have Muttrah Fort who should run well, he’s possibly the pick of them and Soho Starlight is very similar to him, they both go about their work at home well. Normally I can see the three of them running well and they all have an each-way chance, we must not forget its only early days."
Pantall also runs Fantastic Diamond (12.30) and Nelkam (2.57).
More Group success for red-hot Bary?
Chantilly-based trainer Pascal Bary is renowned for his particularity when it comes to placing his horses, as he has demonstrated over the previous two days racing where he only had three runners. The results? First in a Group Three, second in a Group Three and a debut maiden winner.
Taking that into account surely the Bary-trained filly Wanaway holds an big chance of landing the Group Three Prix Texanita (13.12) this afternoon, in what looks a set to be a match race between her and Wooded trained by Bary’s neighbour Francis-Henri Graffard.
Wanaway comes into this race off the back of a very comfortable Listed success at this course in mid-March. A filly with plenty of speed and resilience (just like her dam who ran 16 times as a two-year-old) she could continue to progress through the ranks and should fight off the inevitable challenge of Wooded, or even Alocasia who wasn’t beaten all that far behind Tropbeau last summer.
Early Soumillon double on the cards
It would come as a huge shock if Celestin (10.00) was beaten in the opening race on the card. The hugely promising Listed winning colt, trained by Fabrice Chappet, is being hyped as a genuine Poule d’Essai des Poulins (French Guineas) prospect.
Ten times champion jockey Christophe Soumillon will be on board Celestin this time round, having not ridden the colt since his debut second placing and if the hype is to be believed then the pair should be winning this race as if it were a routine morning canter.
30 minutes later Soumillon will again be getting the leg up on another potential Guineas runner, this time in the La Pistole Stakes. HH The Aga Khan’s beautiful home-bred filly Simeen will take to the piste at Chantilly for the first time in a bid to uphold her unbeaten record.
The daughter of Lope de Vega has been perfect in her two victories to date and is as short as 12/1 for the Group One Poule d’Essai des Pouliches in just over three weeks’ time, although she will have to be on her A-game today as connections of Godolphin’s Bionic Woman will have similar ambitions.
Steve Obry (Soumillon’s agent) will have scrutinised every inch of the bumper 11-race card to find the best opportunities in the pair's bid to regain the jockeys' championship and they may have left it until the final race on the card (14.57) for the little ‘clin d’oeil’ as an old favourite Chef Oui Chef looks to have an excellent chance, providing the cards fall right for him.
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