Prix de l’Abbaye

de Longchamps

Longines (group 1)

WHAT goes around comes around, so the saying goes, and the last two Group 1s on the ParisLongchamp card both resulted in redemptive victories for sets of connections who had recently taken agonisingly narrow big-race defeats on the chin without resorting to whingeing or making excuses.

The first of these came in the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp Longines as Mabs Cross, denied victory in the Nunthorpe Stakes in a photo finish so close that it took the judge almost five minutes to decipher, found the boot was on the other foot as she got up on the line to deny the 43-1 outsider, Gold Vibe.

Trained in County Durham, England, by Michael Dods, Mabs Cross thus went two better than her former stablemate, the dual Nunthorpe heroine Mecca’s Angel, who finished third in this race in 2016.

For winning owner-breeders David and Emma Armstrong, the result helped soften the memories of the 2012 Abbaye when their colt, Mayson, was caught on the line by Wizz Kid.

The winning pilot that day was Gerald Mosse and with both their first choice jockeys, Paul Mulrennan and Tom Eaves, out injured, the Armstrongs recruited the veteran Frenchman to be on their side this time – he repaid them by delivering Mabs Cross right on the line.

As it should be, but is not always the case, this five-furlong dash was run at a furious pace and the front-running Battaash, together with the two-year-old Soldier’s Call, may well have cut each other’s throats, though they kept going well enough to finished third and fourth, just a short-head and half a length behind the front two.

Once more a couple of O’Brien charges ran well in defeat, in particular Lost Treasure, who started slowly but charged home late to be beaten just a length in fifth despite hitting traffic in the last few yards.

Different League was a length and a quarter back in sixth but the rest of the O’Brien contingent, Sioux Nation and Declarationofpeace, finished out the back, as did the Darren Bunyan-trained Hit The Bid.