Timeform tips: Poetic Flare fancied in Group One Jacques le Marois at Deuaville
Timeform's John Ingles previews Sunday's Group One Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Jacques le Marois at Deauville.
Last year’s Prix Jacques Le Marois was the race which confirmed Palace Pier as not only a top-class miler but as the best horse in Europe at any distance. Coming after another top-drawer performance against his own age group in the St James’s Palace Stakes, it took his unbeaten record to five races, though on his only subsequent start in 2020 Palace Pier was beaten at odds on into third in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. That remains the only blemish in his record, as he has returned this year with three more wins and another couple of Group 1 victories in the Lockinge and the Queen Anne Stakes.
On the face of it, therefore, Palace Pier looks very hard to oppose but this could be the time to take him on at short odds. Palace Pier had been due to contest the Sussex Stakes instead last month but some unsatisfactory blood results forced him to miss Goodwood. It’s also possible to pick holes in what Palace Pier has actually achieved this season. A wide-margin success over three rivals in a Group 2 contest at Sandown on his return was little more than a workout for him, while neither the Lockinge nor the Queen Anne required Palace Pier to run close to his best form of last year. Yes, he beat Lady Bowthorpe at Newbury, but she has improved since then, while at Ascot Palace Pier was pushed closest by Lope Y Fernandez who was a long way behind him at Newbury and has done little for that form since, including when beating only two home in the Sussex. What looks certain is that if Palace Pier is to retain his Jacques Le Marois title – something only Miesque and Spinning World accomplished last century – he’ll need a similar performance to the one he put up at Deauville twelve months ago.
Palace Pier’s absence from the Sussex Stakes seemed to leave that race at the mercy of 2000 Guineas winner POETIC FLARE but that’s not how things turned out. The Sussex, run at no more than a fair pace to halfway, didn’t play to Poetic Flare’s strengths and there were signs too that he struggled a bit with the track when hanging right before taking the lead briefly. There was no disgrace in Poetic Flare finding the very smart filly Alcohol Free too good for him in the end but we know that wasn’t Poetic Flare’s best form. He bettered his 2000 Guineas effort when in the St James’s Palace Stakes, putting up a high-class performance at Royal Ascot when quickening clear off a good gallop to win impressively by more than four lengths. Good ground and a dry forecast means Poetic Flare will have conditions to suit at Deauville, and, in a race that has gone to a three-year-old for the last five years, he has the potential to be the toughest rival Palace Pier has had to face all season.
It's not just Palace Pier who is returning from last year. The 2020 runner-up Alpine Star bids to go one better after being the only one to get anywhere near Palace Pier twelve months ago, though she was flattered slightly to be beaten less than a length by the eased-down winner after always being a clear second-best through the final furlong. Another Royal Ascot winner in the line-up – she won last year’s Coronation Stakes – Alpine Star has the most to prove among the principals in terms of her current wellbeing. Following a minor setback in the spring, she was touched off on her return in a Listed race at York last month and will have to leave the bare form of that effort a long way behind to get any closer to Palace Pier this time. Running in the Niarchos Family colours, Alpine Star’s family is steeped in success in the Jacques Le Marois. It was won by her half-sister Alpha Centauri in 2018, while the aforementioned dual winner Miesque is her own great grandam.
Andre Fabre has been responsible for the only two French-trained winners since 2013 and has the best hope of keeping the prize at home with Victor Ludorum who won the Poule d’Essai des Poulains when it was run over Deauville’s straight mile last spring. He had to drop to Group 3 company to register his first success then in the Prix Messidor at Chantilly last month, accomplishing a fairly straightforward task in good style, but he’ll need to raise his game again back against better opposition here. Similar comments apply to Ecrivain, he too a Group 3 winner at Chantilly last time, though has been found wanting in previous tries at Group 1 level.
Order of Australia had his big day in the Breeders’ Cup Mile late last year, though that race didn’t take much winning by Breeders’ Cup standards and his only win since came at the Curragh last month in the Group 2 Minstrel Stakes over seven furlongs. He probably needed the run behind Palace Pier in the Queen Anne before that but seemed beaten on merit in the Sussex Stakes last time.
Chindit is a smart colt who made a winning reappearance in the Greenham Stakes at Newbury but has finished fifth behind Poetic Flare in both the 2000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes since and faces a stiff task here.
The other three-year-old in the field is Victor Ludorum’s stable-companion Midtown who has the most to find on form but still has improvement in him after just three starts.
He won both his races on heavy ground last season, including a Listed contest at Chantilly, but reportedly suffered a setback in the spring. He therefore shaped as though the race would bring him on when a good third in the Prix Jean Prat at Deauville last month, though the form of that race took a knock when the Irish-trained pair who beat him in that contest ran poorly in the Prix Maurice de Gheest last weekend.
A top-form Palace Pier would be hard to stop in his bid to repeat last year’s success but at short odds he looks worth taking on with Poetic Flare who was the more impressive of the pair at Royal Ascot and can maintain the good run of three-year-olds in the race.
Next Off
Most Followed
MOST READ RACING
