CHRISTOPHE Soumillon rode an inspired race aboard Godolphin’s Thunder Snow to win last Sunday’s Group 1 Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly.

The Belgian outwitted the talented Vincent Cheminaud on the favourite Trais Fluors by implementing perfect wait-in-front tactics to win by a length and a quarter. Gold Luck was the same distance away third, then came Turf Laurel and Lightupthenight who lost her chance by remaining in the stalls for some time after the off.

Soumillon set a sensible pace and the crucial moment came halfway up the three-furlong straight where Thunder Snow quickened like the class act he is, without his rider having to use his whip. Judging by the way he won here over a mile, a longer trip should be no trouble in the future on turf.

Both Soumillon and Saeed Bin Suroor were winning the Jean Prat for the first time but Godolphin and the Maktoum family have totted up 10 victories in the race over the years. Both of Thunder Snow’s Group 1 successes have come in France as he previously bolted up in the Criterium International at Saint-Cloud last October.

CONSTITUTION

The son of Helmet must have a fantastic constitution as he has raced six times in five different counties during the past five months. His 2017 campaign started in mid-February at Meydan where he picked up the UAE 2,000 Guineas and UAE Derby.

He then travelled to America for the Kentucky Derby where his antics were bizarre, to say the least, as Soumillon was forced to pull him up soon after the start. That is now in the past, as Thunder Snow has completely redeemed his reputation as a class act by being placed in both the Tattersalls Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot before his emphatic win in the Jean Prat.

Bin Suroor wears a broad smile on his face nowadays and he was beaming when leading Thunder Snow in before reporting: “I think that Thunder Snow must like France as both his Group 1 wins have been over here. Since his third place at Ascot, we have been very happy with him and the Jean Prat was the perfect target.

“Now he must try and win a big Group 1 race and we now have many options. It could be the Juddmonte International at York or back to Ascot for the Queen Elizabeth II. The Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville could also become a target and he prefers a little cut in the ground.

“Let’s see how he comes out of the race. He has already shown us that a mile and 10 furlongs are within his capabilities and he is improving all the time.”

Naturally, Soumillon was verbose after the Jean Prat. “Thunder Snow was very well today, felt better than Ascot and we didn’t go very fast early on. When I asked him to quicken, he replied. He is effective over a wide range of distances and we’d have gone close in the Jockey Club. He’s the ideal sort for the Dubai World Cup.”

To ride Thunder Snow, Soumillon used the rules of racing to delay a suspension of two days he picked up at Compiegne on June 24th. The final 400 metres of the Jean Prat were run in the excellent time of 21.84 seconds.

Trais Fluors ran on at the finish but never looked like pegging back the winner. Owner/breeder Andreas Putsch seemed well-pleased with the effort. “His jockey told me that horse ran a little flat after the start. Nevertheless, he made up a lot of late ground so we’re happy. A positive aspect was that we learnt he would stay over a longer distance.”

Andre Fabre must have already realised this as the colt had been entered in yesterday’s Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris but not in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Trais Fluors looks tailor-made for the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano at Deauville on 15th August.