THE temporary closure of Longchamp means that some of the French classic trials have taken place, and the French equivalent of the 1000 and 2000 Guineas themselves will be taking place, in unfamiliar surroundings.

The most recent of the former were at Chantilly and a real mixed bag from a timing point of view. Both the Prix Noailles, won by Soleil Marin, and the Prix de la Grotte for fillies, won by Senga, were falsely-run affairs, resulting in timefigures of 95 and just 36 respectively.

They crawled early on in the latter, but it was still disappointing that the runners’ closing sectionals were not quicker in the circumstances.

By comparison, the Prix de Fontainbleau for colts and geldings was a proper test and resulted in an excellent 119 timefigure for the winner Brametot, who completed the 1600 metres in a time 5.12s (the best part of 100 metres) quicker than Senga went on to achieve while running only a fraction of a second slower for all of the closing sectionals.

I have a timefigure of 119 for Brametot, who won twice at Deauville and a listed race at Bordeaux as a juvenile, and that should be enough to get him right in the mix in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains at Deauville in mid-May.

The only drawback is that he, much like the recent Prix Djebel winner Al Wukair, got well behind early and might well require a strong pace to shine. But that he is at least a smart colt under such circumstances seems hard to dispute after this effort.