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Sunday French racing tips including Prix De Meautry and Grand Prix De Deauville

Horse Racing

Sun August 30, 2026 · 1M ago

Graeme North guides you through the pick of the action from Deauville on Sunday, where a certain British raider looks primed to go close.

There is no Group 1 action at Deauville on Sunday – the next top-level action will be on Sunday September 6, when ParisLongchamp stages the Prix du Moulin which we will preview in this column – but there are three Group races to have a crack with the most prestigious of them being the Grand Prix de Deauville, a Group 2 whose recent roll of honour is admittedly somewhat underwhelming given its status.

The official ground at Deauville last weekend was holding on Saturday and soft on Sunday but as I have written many times, official going reports in France can usually be taken with a hefty pinch of salt. The winning time for the Prix Morny on a day on which the rail on the round course was out pretty much as far as it could be, making the round course times look on the slow side, was the second fastest this century and faster than some winning times on days when Timeform called the ground good to firm.

For what it’s worth the ground for Sunday’s meeting is officially holding again. It’s worth noting the course was hit by some very heavy rainfall on Thursday that delayed the start of the sixth race and there are thunderstorm warnings in place for the Calvados area over the weekend, so I’m not anticipating conditions to be as quick as they were a week or so ago.

Seven have been declared for the Grand Prix (14:50) and the two standout horses on form on Timeform ratings are Arrow Eagle and Al Aasy.

Arrow Eagle excelled himself with sixth place in the Arc de Triomphe last season and then went on to land the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak over almost two miles, so he has a good mixture of speed, stamina and class and also handles very soft ground if it does indeed turn out to be soft.

He’s only been seen out twice this season for his soon-to-be-retiring trainer Jean-Claude Rouget, behind Daryz over an insufficient trip in the Prix Ganay in April and then when only seventh behind Caballo De Mar in a very muddling Prix Victomtesse Vigier in May.

His career-best Arc sixth came after a break of three months, so he can go well fresh, but only one of Rouget’s thirty-one domestic winners this season have come in August so the yard isn’t firing as well as it has.

In contrast, William Haggas, the trainer of Al Aasy, has had plenty of winners in August, and the evergreen multiple Group 3 winner should really have been another of those in the Glorious Stakes at Goodwood last time but left his effort too late, coming from much further back than the first two and clocking the fastest times for all of the last three furlongs.

Al Aasy

Global Health won a Group 2 in Germany two starts back but that must have been a weak event given he had won only a claimer at Longchamp on his start before that one and he has since unsurprisingly finished out of the frame behind Sir Mark Prescott’s mare Tiffany in a Group 1 at Hoppegarten.

If there’s an unexposed runner and potential improver in the line-up it is the unbeaten Mazzala, who is the only three-year-old in the field, an age group that last won the race in 2018 when Loxley scored for Charlie Appleby.

Mazzala has improved with each race and after winning a listed race at Vichy two starts back landed his first pattern success when winning the Prix de Reux on fast ground here three weeks ago. Never far away behind a slow pace dictated by another of today’s runners Presage Nocturne (who in turn holds another Grand Prix runner Chestnut Rocket on earlier form), Mazzala was probably a little fortunate to beat the second and third Parachutiste and Tenability who were anchored too far back and found the post coming too soon, but tactics will probably play a big part here too.

Al Aasy is always dropped right out, as most of Haggas’ runners have been in France this year when only Maltese Cross of his 11 runners has been able to overcome that handicap, and with Arrow Eagle’s current wellbeing hard to know, Presage Nocturne and Mazzala seem likely to find themselves the best positioned approaching the short straight.

The French public will probably get behind Mazzala, who sports the famous Wertheimer blue and white silks, and he’s favourite in the betting already, but he’s yet to encounter anything like properly soft ground. A tough race to call.

Earlier in the afternoon the Group 3 Prix Quincey (13:33) takes place over the straight mile, or 1600m to be precise.

The horse who appears to have the best chance on Timeform ratings, albeit marginally, is Diego Ventura who has been a regular in France throughout his career and won a listed race at Longchamp in May 2025 but has taken his form to a slightly higher level this year, winning a handicap at Hamilton in June off an official mark of 104 before finishing a close fourth behind Galen, Boiling Point and Jonquil in a hot conditions race at Goodwood on the last day of July.

It’s easy to fall foul of believing form shown in handicaps isn’t good enough to win pattern events, but plenty of horses who have scored off marks of 105 or higher are very competitive up in grade and winning off 104 very nearly ticks that box. Indeed, Diego Ventura was beaten only three-quarters of a length in the Group 3 Thoroughbred Stakes last summer and just over two lengths in the Group 2 Premier Roma.

Gaga Girl looks next best, if the form of her latest run in the Prix Rothschild when sixth of eight behind Blue Bolt can be believed, and she ran the final 600m that day second fastest of all, just 0.04 seconds behind the winner. She’s previously come out on top narrowly in a listed race that turned into a sprint here last month, but before that had finished only ninth off a mark of 97 in the Kensington Palace Handicap, albeit not getting a clear run, so she’s improving.

Seven-year-old Tumbler was fourth in this race last year since when he’s run more often outside France, finishing third at Meydan in the Group 2 Al Fahidi Fort in January, and now has a four-month absence to overcome.

Two of the other runners, Half Half and Un Instant, contested a handicap over course and distance three weeks ago, Half Half winning off a mark of 90 with Un Instant (who ran off 100) back in fifth. Half Half raced that day in the favoured bigger group, always in command after taking it up 400m out; Un Instant was held up last of the smaller group, ended up being switched to the stands rail to race alone and then finished strongly.

He’s got form at 2000m but finished behind another of today’s runners Colin The Brave when the pair were third and fourth in a listed race around Vichy’s tight mile in July and he’d probably be pigeon-holed as a listed class at Provincial level. A bit more will be needed in this, and Diego Ventura has the most persuasive credentials.

Eleven runners go to post at 15:25 for the Prix de Meautry, a Group 3 over 1200m. British stables have won five of the last six renewals and are represented this year by Mitbaahy, Zoum Zoum, Into The Sky and La Brodeuse.

Mitbaahy has the best recent form of the and represents Charles Hills, who won this with Garrus in 2021. Now seven, this is surprisingly just his second visit to France after finishing eighth in the 2022 Prix de l’Abbaye won by The Platinum Queen, but though he’s lightly raced in recent seasons his latest effort when third in the Stewards’ Cup off a mark of 104 marks him down as good as ever, first home of those dawn high and arguably set just a bit too much to do despite the strong pace.

Jamie Spencer with Mitbaahy

Zoum Zoum has also been lightly raced of late and showed modest signs of a revival last time when fifth in the Chipchase, underlining how well a synthetic surface suits him.

La Brodeuse drops down to six furlongs for the first time. She’s hit the frame in all her three races at seven this season, but she couldn’t capitalise on an easy time up front at Galway last time and looks to have a lot on.

That can’t be said about a top-form Into The Night. He was second in the 2025 Mill Reef after looking as though he had the race sewn up and returned with a cracking effort in the 2000 Guineas where he ran out of stamina. He was sent off as short as 5/1 for the Jersey but again didn’t get home and now drops back to the distance of his Mill Reef second on ground that promises to be very similar. Off since Ascot, will he turn up in top form though?

Denmark is not known as a sprinting hotbed, but Bent Olsen’s Great Wish has compiled a very commendable record this season, scoring in listed company at Meydan in January and then running to an even higher level in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint (seventh) and the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (sixth behind Almeraq). Back to winning ways in a listed contest back in Scandinavia last time, he’s likely to be thereabouts.

Kailani is arguably the best of the home bunch. He’s compiled a decent record despite not always have things go his way this year but three runs on the turf here have all been a bit underwhelming, albeit he was ridden with so much negativity last time he soon had no chance, and he has also has ground to make up with Zzodiac from the Group 3 Prix de Ris-Orangis here two starts ago too. He’d be interesting if this was at Chantilly, where he would have probably beaten Dostoievsky had he not run into trouble in the Prix Texanita in May, but Mitbaahy looks the value at 5/1.

Selections

1pt win Mitbaahy 15:25 Deauville

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Published at 08:00 BST on 30/08/26

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