ONLY three and a half hours after riding Aidan O’Brien’s Zagitova into second place 250 miles away in Newmarket, Moore was in the thick of the action in ParisLonghamp’s other feature, the Group 2 Prix Maurice de Nieuil, as his mount, Algometer, was just winding up his effort when hampered by his fellow British challenger, Marmelo, approaching the furlong marker.

Marmelo went on to land the spoils by three-quarters of a length and the Longchamp stewards rightly felt that the size of the winning margin meant that result had not been affected by the interference.

But winning trainer Hughie Morrison, ‘robbed’ of a similar race in Germany a couple of months ago when Nearly Caught leant on his nearest challenger and was disqualified, can thank his lucky stars that Algometer held on for second place, otherwise the placings would have had to be reversed, given the French rules.

Marmelo, now a three-time winner and never out of the first three in eight career starts in France, is on course for a second consecutive tilt at the Melbourne Cup, with a possible outing in the lucrative Ebor Handicap at York beforehand.

Filly takes the staring role?

FOR some spectators, the star of the Bastille Night show at ParisLongchamp might have been Kew Gardens, for others Marmelo, but for most of the crowd of 10,100 – just above the target set by France Galop – it was the DJ, Etienne de Crecy, behind the decks during the after-racing ‘Garden Party’.

Maybe they were all wrong, as, for connoisseurs of thoroughbred breeding the evening’s cast was led by Zarkamiya, daughter of two unbeaten megastars, Frankel and Zarkava. She made her stakes race debut in the Listed Prix de Thiberville over a mile and a half and prevailed by a short-neck.

Afterwards, trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre revealed that Zarkamiya has an even more delicate temperament than her mother and stressed that she would not be rushed, nominating the Group 3 Prix Minerve at Deauville on August 12th as her next target.