THE first thing English and Irish trainers do when they arrive at a French track is to look at the racecard to see what stewards are on duty. Fear drifts through their bodies when they spot a certain name which has been associated with incidents like the demoting of Dar Re Mi from first place in the 2009 Prix Vermeille.

There was the odd UGH at Longchamp on Sunday. Having won the Total Prix Marcel Boussac with Found, Aidan O’Brien went on to train the first past the post in the Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. Ridden by Joseph O’Brien, Gleneagles ran on the best in the final stages to beat Full Mast and Territories half a length and a neck. It was not long before the siren for a stewards’ inquiry wailed across the track so the writing was on the wall for O’Brien to win the Lagardere for a seventh time.

True the first three past the post were squeezing each other a bit but only in the dying stages (80 metres) of the Group 1 contest. After around 20 minutes, the public address system announced that the winner had been demoted to third place for stopping Full Mast and Territories obtaining the best possible prize money. They mentioned that Gleneagles was hanging right and away from the side that O’Brien was using his whip which he did nothing to correct. He was suspended for eight days which was severe.

So once again, the best horse did not keep a top race thanks to the application of the French Rules of racing. Criquette Head-Maarek was winning the Lagardere for the fourth occasion and she said: “That’s the third time I have trained a Group 1 winner for Prince Khalid which has been promoted to first place. Special Duty was awarded the 1000 Guineas and Poule d’Essai des Pouliches in 2010. I don’t think Full Mast will run again this season as he is still immature and didn’t know what to do when Gleneagles came up alongside.”

One of the Coolmore team commented: “They didn’t apply their rules when Dylan Thomas won the Arc de Triomphe.” O’Brien said: “He has the habit of looking around when in front. Today he put up a good performance and accelerated well. He has a lot of speed and I hope he will be a horse for the 2000 Guineas and possibly stay further.”