BASTILLE Day on Sunday saw the latest running of the Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris at ParisLongchamp, the big three-year-old race of the French midsummer and won for the second year in a row by Aidan O’Brien for the Magnier-Smith-Tabor combination, this time with Japan.

The performance saw the colt shortened in the betting for the Arc back here in October, but does not look especially classy on paper, including in terms of time and sectionals.

Due to a malfunction of the official timing system, the time given live and the one it was corrected to were wrong. Video analysis has it at 2m 29.5s, which is equivalent to a figure of 110 by my reckoning, but with the winner upgraded to 116 on account of a 35.16s last 600m.

That latter figure is the same earned by Slalom, winner of the Noailles but unplaced in the Prix du Jockey Club, who finished well into a half-length second (35.05s closing sectional). Slalom also lost quite a bit of ground at the start.

Close behind them were Jalmoud (112), Roman Candle (113) and Soft Light (110), a trio of able colts but with no pretensions to being better than smart.

Other options

Japan could be the best middle-distance three-year-old in Europe, it is difficult to be sure. That’s not the case on this effort, or on his third in the Derby at Epsom, and his impressive Royal Ascot victory came against second-rate rivals in a race in which the early pace was overly-strong. I prefer other options, including the 124-rated Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) winner Sottsass.

The Prix Maurice de Nieuil and the Prix de Thiberville on the same card were falsely-run, with the principals in both breaking 35.0s for the final section.

Way To Paris is a stayer with a turn of foot and he used it to hold off Marmelo narrowly in the former (both sectionally adjusted to 116). Star Terms got a canny ride close up in the latter and simply reproduced her previous best of 99 to prevail.