Prix du Jockey Club preview: Rock can continue on a roll
John Ingles previews Sunday's Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly (3.05) in which Big Rock is bidding to complete a five-timer.
Large fields have been the norm since the Prix du Jockey Club was shortened in distance but with 11 colts due to go to post this year it's the smallest line-up since the ‘French Derby’ was first run over an extended ten furlongs in 2005. That should ensure that none of these has any excuses where the draw is concerned.
Christopher Head has already won one French classic this year with Blue Rose Cen in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and the same connections have good chances here too with Big Rock.
He certainly didn’t begin his career like a potential classic winner, being beaten in his first three starts and with blinkers on for his first two outings. But following a change of stable which took him to Head, Big Rock hasn’t looked back and has won his last four outings – the first of them a handicap on Chantilly’s polytrack – by a total margin of more than 17 lengths.
Back on turf, Big Rock’s last couple of wins have come in Group 3 contests over nine furlongs, the Prix La Force at Longchamp and the Prix de Guiche at Chantilly. He made the running both times and could hardly have won more easily on soft ground for his latest win, his rider Aurelien Lemaitre having the luxury of easing him right down in the final furlong but still having five lengths to spare at the line with the field strung out behind.
It’s possible he was the only one to handle conditions that day, though his win at Longchamp the time before came on the sort of going he’s much more likely to encounter on Sunday.
Padishakh, Rajapour and Flight Leader, who were fourth, sixth and last of seven in the Guiche clearly didn’t give their running that day but face stiff tasks turning the tables on the winner.
Padishakh, one of three in this field for Jean-Claude Rouget, successful with Vadeni last year, had previously finished closer to Big Rock when runner-up to him in the Prix La Force. Flight Leader had no excuses where the ground was concerned as he’d previously won the Prix Noailles over the Jockey Club trip at Longchamp on soft ground, though they finished in a heap in that race.
Big Rock’s biggest threat could be Feed The Flame who has been supplemented after winning both his starts. His trainer won this five years ago with Study of Man but Pascal Bary also won the old-style Jockey Club over a mile and a half on another five occasions, three of those with colts owned by Feed The Flame’s owner Jean-Louis Bouchard.
Feed The Flame’s two wins have come at Longchamp and there was a lot to like about the way he cruised past his rivals from last place under a typically confident Christophe Soumillon in a minor event last time. There was substance as well as style to that victory as that form received a boost last week when the runner-up First Minister won the Group 3 Prix Hocquart.
Winter Pudding and Ace Impact were both listed winners last time out with the latter, another of the Rouget trio, the more interesting as he’s unbeaten in three starts and won the same Chantilly contest last time which his stable’s 2019 winner Sottsass won on the way to the Jockey Club.
Some of the best form on offer is boasted by Marhaba Ya Sanafi who was a surprise winner of the Poule d’Essai des Poulains at Longchamp where he edged ahead close home to beat the Greenham winner Isaac Shelby by a short neck. A repeat of that much-improved effort would give him place chances and he’s bred to stay this longer distance.
He’s taken on again by American Flag who disappointed as the odds-on favourite for the Poulains when only fourth. He’d gained an earlier verdict on softer ground over Marhaba Ya Sanafi and Rajapour in the Prix de Fontainebleau over the same course and distance when well on top at the finish.
From a larger entry earlier in the week, only two runners from outside France stand their ground, both of whom contested the Dante Stakes last time. Continuous, who dead-heated for third behind The Foxes at York, and Epictetus who was close behind him in fifth, represent the stables of Aidan O’Brien and John & Thady Gosden who have both won recent editions of this race with St Mark’s Basilica and Mishriff.
Previously winner of the Blue Riband Trial at Epsom, Epictetus looked beaten on merit in the Dante whereas Continuous, a good type physically, still has scope to improve further and was having his first start since winning the Group 3 Prix Thomas Bryon at Saint-Cloud in the autumn.
SELECTION: BIG ROCK
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