View from France: Skalleti the highlight at Saint-Cloud
QIPCO Champion Stakes runner-up Skalleti is the star attraction at Saint-Cloud today - our Jason Kiely previews the card.
Some top-class Flat performers are on show this afternoon at Saint Cloud as French racing starts to make the transition towards the Flat.
An outstanding card of eight races yields over €350,000 prize money, but with the going officially described as heavy, winners could be hard to pin down at the western Paris track. Our man in France Jason Kiely has been scanning the cards and has some interesting angles on this afternoon's action, which commences at 12.58.
Classy Skalleti returns to action
The highlight of the afternoon is without doubt the return of last year’s Qipco Champion Stakes second Skalleti. Trained in the south of France by talented young trainer Jerome Renyier, Skalleti faces seven rivals in the Group Three Prix Exbury (15.15) and is odds-on favourite to add a sixth Group success to an already impressive CV.
Skalleti will have to give away 2kgs to the field but the heavy ground should suit the son of Kendargent, who teams up with regular partner Pierre-Charles Boudot. However, he was beaten on his return to action last season and in this type of race, he could be vulnerable to a race-fit rival - especially as French trainers like to leave their horses get fit on the racecourse.
That race-fit rival could be the Carlos Lafffon-Parias trained Ecrivain, who made an impressive start to the 2021 campaign at Chantilly in February. At the figures, four-year-old Ecrivain has a bit to find with Skalleti, but coming from stall one and in the hands of the tactical wizard of Olivier Peslier, he could pose a serious threat to the favourite.
French Derby hopefuls on show in Omnium
There may be only six declared for the Listed Prix Omnium (12.58), but there is no lack of talent amongst the field as five of the blue-blooded colts declared were victorious on their most recent start.
Chantilly-based trainer Fabrice Chappet has been on fire with his three-year-old’s in the early part of the season and presents Guineas/Derby hopeful Easter for this afternoon’s 1,600m contest.
The son of Exosphere showed plenty of ability towards the back end of last season when bagging a brace of facile successes at Lyon in November. Today’s contest is undoubtedly a step up in class for Easter but there has been plenty of hype about this colt and he should prove hard to beat in these conditions.
In the same contest and boasting a similar profile, the unbeaten Christopher Ferland-trained Buzzing could prove the main danger to the Chappet colt. Although the son of Iffraaj doesn’t hold the same impressive Group One entries that Easter does, he has got race fitness on his side and was most impressive when scoring at Chantilly in February, although that was on the fibresand.
Red-hot Rouget realeaes Tawfan in Paris
Up until now, talented colt Tawfan has only been seen on the southern track of Cagnes-sur-Mer but his trainer Jean-Claude Rouget has decided that the time is right to test the waters in Paris with this French Derby entry in the Listed Prix François Mathet (13.33). Although the winning margin was minimal, three-year-old Tawfan was quite impressive when taking a big-field maiden in February over today’s distance of 2,100m(same distance as the French Derby) and stable jockey Cristain Demuro takes over on the colt this afternoon. Being trained by Rouget, the son of Shalaa merits enormous respect and is one of the least exposed of the seven strong field here.
The only other runner to have less racecourse experience that Tawfan is the Andre Fabre-trained Media Stream, a son of Frankel who won easily on his Chantilly debut in November and with natural progression, he should be good enough to get involved this afternoon. The English-trained filly Mystery Angel is the most experienced of these and has already secured some black-type during a very lucrative two-year-old campaign. On figures, she sets the standard but could be found out by one or two of the less exposed types in the field.
Group One filly Tiger Tanaka makes seasonal debut
Tiger Tanaka was electric when taking the Group One Prix Marcel Boussac on Arc weekend before getting found out over 2,000m on her final start of the 2020 season and returns to action over the mile again this afternoon (14.45).
The Charly Rossi-trained filly looked very precocious last year and it remains to be seen if she has trained-on but connections have found the ideal opportunity here. Ridden by Rossi’s partner and regular rider Jessica Marcialis, Tiger Tanaka is well-ahead of the field on official figures and should be able to dictate this Listed race.
Of the remaining seven in the field, Izlaz looks one of the main contenders behind the favourite and comes here two from two (in the provinces) but will need to step up to be competitive in Paris. Nohand was very impressive on her debut win a few weeks ago and could be the unknown aspect of the field.
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