ONE Foot In Heaven followed in the footsteps of his brilliant dam, Pride, by taking the Group 2 Prix de Conseil de Paris at Chantilly last Sunday.

In addition, like her, the son of the Coolmore-based stallion Fastnet Rock is improving with age and is now likely to head off to the far east where Pride ended her remarkable career with a victory, at the age of six, in the 2006 Group 1 Hong Kong Cup.

One Foot In Heaven was winning over the course and distance for the second time this season as in June he won the Grand Prix de Chantilly. Back from his magnificent victory on Almanzor in the Qipco Champion Stakes at Ascot, Christophe Soumillon had to work a little harder on One Foot In Heaven, who finally crossed the line a short-neck ahead of his old rival Tiberian, with Now We Can a well-beaten five lengths away in third.

The English runner Berkshire, with Olivier Peslier, was a distant fifth having taken the field along until dropping out at the two furlong pole.

One Foot In Heaven was conceding 2kg (41/2lb) to the runner-up and was not suited to the ground, which turned out to be of the soft variety.

“The track is cutting up and he became unbalanced,” reported Alain de Royer-Dupre before adding: “One Step To Heaven is better on a firm surface, unlike his dam. In principle, he will next run in the Hong Kong Vase, if invited. I think we made a good decision not to send him for the Champion Stakes and, hopefully, the colt will remain in training next year.”

Soumillon said: “He was not foot perfect today and ran below his best.” A race later, the Belgian was runner-up in the Listed Prix Casimir Delamarre and might have won on Magnolea but for carrying a little overweight.

His mount finally went down by half a length to the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Rostova (Arch) who Vincent Cheminaud rode with great judgement.