Qatar Prix du Cadran (Group 1)

IF the two-and-a-half-mile Prix du Cadran had been run at a similar end-to-end gallop it would have played into the hands of the British-trained favourite, Dee Ex Bee.

Instead, Holdthasigreen and his wily 32-year-old jockey, Tony Piccone, dictated a stop-start tempo that meant that when Dee Ex Bee and the defending Cadran champion, Call The Wind, got into top gear halfway up the home straight, the leader still had enough left in reserve to hang on by three-quarters of a length.

The seven-year-old Holdthasigreen is one of just 20 horses trained in west central France, between Le Mans and Tours and 150 miles from Paris, by Bruno Audouin. Still owned by his breeders, Jean Gilbert and Claude Le Lay, he was a complete headcase as a youngster, constantly running off the gallops, hence he didn’t see a racecourse until he was a month short of his fourth birthday.

Progress

After landing his third start in the provinces in February 2016, Holdthasigreen made relentless progress over the next two and a half years, winning seven listed races before his Group 2 breakthrough last August, then benefitting from others’ misfortune to land the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak two months later.

He began this season in fine form only to throw in two inexplicably poor efforts in early summer. Audouin discovered that his blood was wrong, gave him a two-month holiday, and he arrived at Longchamp much the freshest of the 11 runners.

Freddy Head said afterwards that Call The Wind might have won but for his wide draw, which apparently dictated his racing at the back of the field, while Mark Johnston said that the slower rhythm of French racing does not suit Dee Ex Bee. To my mind they were beaten fair and square by a horse who proved that, just occasionally, even in flat racing the little owner can have his day on the big stage.