CHANTILLY

STEPHANE Pasquier rode an inspired race on Traffic Jam to take last Sunday’s Group 2 Prix du Conseil de Paris at Chantilly.

The only filly in the Group 2 contest behaved herself when being loaded into the stalls on this occasion and she never saw any of her four male rivals once leaving the stalls in the mile and a half contest.

Pasquier controlled the race from pillar to post, stoking up the daughter of Duke Of Marmalade early in the straight where she fended off challenges from Akihiro and the disappointing favourite One Foot In Heaven further back in third place.

Nicolas Clement compares Traffic Jam, who has yet to finish outside of the top four in all of her nine runs, with his other talented filly The Juliet Rose and said after the Conseil de Paris: “There are always anxious moments when she’s being loaded but with the patience of the handlers and Stephane Pasquier all went well.

“The filly is as hard as a rock and stays 3,000 metres (1m 7f) so she could make her effort early in the straight. I must speak with the owner now about the future of her career.”

Traffic Jam is Irish-bred and was acquired by Tina Rau for €65,000 as the Goffs Orby Sale in 2014.

The filly was put up for sale by Lynch Bages Ltd. which is closely associated to Coolmore. The runner-up Akihiro is definitely one for the 2018 note book.

Trained by Andre Fabre for owner/breeders the Wertheimer brothers, the son of Deep Impact finished well. Racing manager Pierre-Yves Bureau said: “We were beaten by a high-class and tough filly. Akihiro will make a good four-year-old.”

LISTED RACES

The two listed events at the meeting both fell to horses trained in Britain. Crystal River was given a fine ride by Maxime Guyon to win the Prix Casimir Delamarre for William Haggas before Stormy Antarctic and Christophe Soumillon thrashed the opposition by four lengths in the Prix du Ranelagh.

Haggas acquired Crystal River, a daughter of Dubawi, after Blandford Bloodstock went to £28,000 for the filly at the Tattersalls Ireland Ascot March Sale seven months ago.

Stormy Antarctic was running for the first time since being gelded last August and Ed Walker hopes the operation has put him on an upward curve.