View From France: Monday Deauville preview

There are plenty of irregularities surrounding the first Classics in the French calendar. In any normal year both the male and the female divisions of the Group One ‘Poule d’Essai’ would have been contested a month ago in front of thousands of spectators on the pistes of ParisLongchamp.

This year, however, the blue riband contests take place in Normandy as Deauville plays host to the brace of Classics for only the third time in history and even though today is a French bank holiday, racing will be once again be held behind closed doors.

One thing does remain constant - class. Both divisions house some of the finest three-year-olds in France. Jason Kiely looks ahead to an exceptional afternoon of racing across the Channel.

Tropbeau can rise to greatness in style

30-times champion trainer Andre Fabre has had his string in excellent form over the previous ten days and only yesterday we saw the hugely impressive Ocean Atlantique storm to success, forcing bookmakers to launch the colt to the head of the Prix du Jockey Club ante-post market.

The master trainer is also responsible for the fledgling career of the beautiful filly Tropbeau, who rather importantly was one of the only Fabre-trained horses to uphold expectations and make a winning return to action this spring.

She heads the betting for this afternoon’s Group One Poule d’Essai Des Pouliches (15.25) and looks the most likely winner on paper.

Her return win came in the Prix de la Grotte, which has been the only real trial we have seen for today's race this year and was also Tropbeau’s first attempt at the mile, a distance she faces again today.

The daughter of Showcasing took the eye from an early stage in that race, stalking the leaders under an extremely confident Mickael Barzalona before travelling upsides them on the bridle as the field turned into the straight.

Barzalona waited until last to push the button and asked the Lady Bamford-owned filly to go about her business two furlongs from home. The brilliant filly crossed the line with a half a length to spare over Dream And Do and stablemate Tickle Me Green, both of whom re-oppose today.

There are of course more questions to answer and Tropbeau will not have things easy for the €300,000 Classic. A first encounter with the straight mile may put a strain on her staying capabilities as well as the switch to much faster ground not being an obvious advantage considering all four of the filly’s wins came on ground with ‘soft’ in the description.

However, last year’s winning rider Barzalona will have calculated for all of these potential issues into his tactics for the day and she's strongly fancied to deliver.

Rouget-trained Simeen may need further

The main threat to the favourite should come from the Jean-Claude Rouget-trained Simeen in what is effectively a two-horse race. The daughter of Lope De Vega (winner of the colt's version of this race in 2011) is undefeated in her three lifetime starts and showed plenty of class in those victories. Simeen’s seasonal return to action was nothing spectacular in terms of winning distance but was more so in terms of the ease of it on what was also the filly’s first attempt over the mile.

Jockey Christophe Soumillon settled the Aga Khan-owned filly at the rear of the small field before angling out up the straight and merely played with his rivals to win by a neck.

Rouget has an excellent record in this race and that performance gave the impression the Simeen should be up to Group One level, although her future may lie over further like much of her family. She could just get out-battled by the more experienced Tropbeau in what looks sure to be a thriller.

No simple task for Victor in Poulains

A much more open affair than the fillies division the Poule d’Essai des Poulains sees nine blue-blooded colts head to post for the Group One event. What’s more, five of those nine have won on their most recent racecourse outing therefore muddying the waters even further.

Ironically, the race favourite Victor Ludorum is one of the remaining four who don't have a 1 next to their name for their latest run and finished only third on his comeback run in the Prix de Fontainbleau; even though the was sent off the heavily-backed, odds-on favourite.

A number of excuses were presented in the days following that defeat with a mix of freshness and a wide draw causing the colt to run too free in a race for which he wasn’t 100% fit according to connections.

Barzalona had no choice but to wrestle with the colt while taking the downhill bend almost four wide, forfeiting masses of ground as eventual winner The Summit set his own fractions up front.

Victor Ludoroum’s trainer Fabre has an excellent record in this race and will no doubt have the colt in prime order for this afternoon's Classic. The son of Sharmadal proved rock solid last season when scoring on all three of his starts, topping the year off with a devastating performance in the Group One Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc day.

However, the Godolphin-owned colt will have to pull out all the stops if he is to reverse the Fontainbleau form with both The Summit and Ecrivan although the pace such be much more generous today. That would allow him to settle better.

Peslier steps in for plum spares

He has never ridden the colt in public before but 47-year-old crack jockey Olivier Peslier will be getting the leg-up on The Summit for what looks a fascinating spare ride in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains.

The colt’s regular rider Pierre-Charles Boudot has decided to stick with the Andre Fabre/Coolmore association and rides Arapaho who looks to be the third string of the Fabre army behind the ex-German trained Alson, who is making his debut for the yard.

Evergreen Peslier has landed two of the last ten running's of the French 2000 and has formed a strong partnership with The Summit’s trainer Henri-Alex Pantall over the years. Although it looks like there are multiple challengers for the early speed, his partner has a perfect draw in stall five and this should give Peslier the chance to examine the early moves of his competitors before deciding how to play his hand.

The veteran rider is renowned for picking up some rather lucrative spare-rides at the eleventh hour with many trainers choosing to side with his wealth of experience for such important occasions.

It was in exactly this fashion that Peslier took the 2018 running of the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches aboard the David Simcock-trained Teppal, when he replaced Jamie Spencer.

Trainer Francis-Henri Graffard has also chosen to employ the jockey's services aboard Emoji in the 2020 version of the fillies' race and the highly-regarded daughter of Soldier Hollow would not be without hope although the faster ground is a disadvantage according to her trainer.

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