Prix Jean Prat (Group 1)

PINATUBO was the star of a dynamic Deauville show, which also witnessed comeback victories for two more leading lights of 2019, Earthlight and Watch Me.

Pinatubo’s win in the €240,000 Group 1 Qatar Prix Jean Prat was a big step back in the right direction for last term’s unbeaten champion juvenile following reverses in the 2000 Guineas and the St James’s Palace Stakes.

But his dominance of last season was not repeated – the margin here was three-quarters of a length – and the Jean Prat is run over the intermediate distance of seven furlongs, which means that the son of Shamardal still has plenty to do if he is to get himself into the running for end-of-season gongs such as champion miler.

Jockey William Buick was able to be patient, sitting among the backmarkers until beyond halfway as his Charlie Appleby-trained stablemate, Well Of Wisdom, cut out a strong pace, yet Pinatubo still showed signs of wanting to go faster.

He cruised through the field to hit the front passing the furlong pole and, while he soon had everything racing on the grandstand side covered, Lope Y Fernandez emerged as a real threat out in the centre.

The front two pulled two and a half lengths clear of the third-placed rank outsider, Malotru, but it was only in the shadow of the winning post that Pinatubo put the verdict beyond doubt.

Happy to have a shirt-sleeved crowd which cannot have been far short of the new Covid maximum gathering of 5,000 to salute to, Buick said: “Pintaubo showed his brilliance today. It’s exhilarating how smoothly he travels through his races, how quickly he makes up ground. Dropping back to seven furlongs just made things that bit easier for him.”

Appleby said: “I know this may sound strange, but I don’t think he lost much in defeat at Ascot or Newmarket, he just got outgunned in the final 50 yards. We knew dropping back in trip would be more of his bag and this win is richly deserved.

“I will discuss it with His Highness Sheikh Mohammed but if it was left to me I don’t think I’d be running him in the Sussex Stakes as he’s already had three fairly quick races and he could do with a rest. If we want to stretch him back out to a mile then the Prix du Moulin is the obvious race.

“Alternatively, we could wait for the Prix de la Foret and then maybe consider the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland.”

This was the third time that Lope Y Fernandez had crossed swords with Pinatubo and the first in which the Lope De Vega colt had finished within three lengths of his rival.

In the absence of a Coolmore Stud representative, Ioritz Mendizabal said: “I’m delighted with my horse’s performance as he finished strongly and would have been suited by softer ground.”