SUNDAY’S ParisLongchamp feature, the mile and a quarter Group 3 Morocco Cup La Coupe, was a very messy affair which saw the British-trained favourite, First Sitting, trail home in last having been badly struck into, and jockey Mickael Barzalona pick up an eight-day ban for dangerous riding.

Dallas Affair, a four-year-old Soldier Hollow filly trained by Freddy Head and ridden by Aurelien Lemaitre, avoided all the scrimmaging and took advantage of the new false rail, skimming up the inside to beat the fast-finishing Marathon Man by three-quarters of a length.

Lemaitre was owed some luck, having only recently returned from a broken elbow sustained in a race fall, and he did well to get the better of two of the elder statesman of the weighing room, Christophe Soumillon and Olivier Peslier.

Head said: “Dallas Affair has made massive improvement from three to four and deserves a try at something better. We might drop her back to a mile and the Group 1 Prix Rothschild [at Deauville on July 29th] could be a nice race for her.”