QATAR PRIX DU CADRAN (GROUP 1)

ANDRÉ Fabre was the only trainer to fend off the English and Irish raiders until the last Group 1 race at Longchamp last Sunday when the father and son team of Carlos and Yann Lerner saddled Mille Et Mille to win the Qatar Prix du Cadran.

The five-year-old gelding was given a fine ride by Thierry Thulliez. It is not easy to make all over two and a half miles at Longchamp but the son of Muhtathir seemed to enjoy himself bowling along in front and passed the post over a length ahead of Kicky Blue and the Hughie Morrison-trained Fun Mac.

The Willie Mullins runners were never seen with a chance. Well-backed before the race, Clondaw Warrior finished last of the 10 runners and Simenon did slightly better in seventh position. The favourite Bathyrhon took fifth place after making some progress in the straight.

PURCHASED

Argentina-born Carlos and his son Yann are based at Maisons-Laffitte where Mille Et Mille had been bought out of a claimer for €28,888 in April 2014. He had previously been purchased at the Arqana October sales in 2011 for €32,000.

“He had such a fine action, I initially bought him to go jumping,” disclosed Lerner senior who earlier in his career had trained the 2001 Prix du Jockey Club winner Anabaa Blue and Volvoreta who won the Prix Vermeille in 2000.

He added: “We had an excuse after he ran poorly in the Gladiateur as he coughed after the race.

“This victory in the Cadran is magnificent and the horse is a bulldozer. He worked so well before the race and a lot of credit must go down to my son Yann as he rides him every morning. Mille Et Mille is not the same away from his pony Loulou who was given to us by Christophe Soumillon. The next target is the Prix Royal-Oak and he will travel next year if his owners are in agreement and Loulou can go along as well.”

The Ascot Gold Cup will be seriously looked at and the runner-up Kicky Blue has also been marked down for the same race by Tony Clout.