LAST Sunday Longchamp staged the two main trials for France’s one-mile classics (the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and Pouliches, which take place over the same course and distance on May 10th), and both races produced plenty of talking points.

Let’s start with the fillies in the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte, where the hot favourite was Christopher Head’s Green Spirit, a dual pattern race heroine who had not been seen since suffering her only defeat at the hands another unbeaten star in the shape of Aidan O’Brien’s leading Guineas contender, Diamond Necklace, in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac in October.

Green Spirit put up an underwhelming performance here to finish fourth, almost three lengths behind the impressive winner, Evolutionist, a daughter of Night Of Thunder who is trained in England by Karl Burke. Her victory provided a pick-me-up for the global ownership empire of Ace Stud/Forz Europe just days after the loss of its top three-year-old colt, Gewan, when he sustained a fatal injury during a racecourse workout.

This was an odd race as, despite setting a none-too-frenetic pace, Green Spirit’s stablemate, Ceramic, was able to slip 10 lengths clear of the field approaching the home turn. It soon became clear that the favourite was making heavy weather of catching her fellow Wertheimer and Frere homebred while, alongside her, Evolutionist began to lengthen her stride as retained jockey Shane Foley asked for maximum effort.

It was one-way traffic in the final furlong, as Evolutionist powered clear and Green Spirit and Ceramic slipped back to fourth and fifth behind Narissa and Pierchic.

Burke said: “The race set up well for Evolutionist as she stays very well. She has been working well but I was a little worried beforehand as a couple of our nice horses have run below par of late.

“Now we can have an interesting conversation about running her in a Guineas, either back here or at Newmarket, but after that I’d say she’ll definitely be aimed at the Prix de Diane.”

Trained by Francis Graffard, runner-up Narissa is a possible improver, given that she already has a Group 1 third to her name and was given and educational ride here having been dropped out in last place.

Prix de Fontainebleau

The winning time from the Grotte was over two seconds slower than was achieved 75 minutes later by the colts in the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau. The uncontrollable Czech raider Dorzal set a scorching gallop here, so the contest ended up being a searching test of stamina, which is possibly not ideal given that most of the eight runners were making their seasonal debuts and may have been better served by a more gentle reintroduction.

Again the favourite was a Christopher Head inmate sporting the ‘blue with white seams’ Wertheimer silks. The colt in question, Nighttime, looked set to score despite racing freely and having to overcome a troubled passage when hitting the front passing the furlong pole but was then outbattled by Komorebi, a son of Pinatubo who had raced much more professionally and prevailed by a short neck, the front pair pulling two and a half lengths clear.

Winning trainer Andre Fabre confirmed afterwards that Komorebi would now be aimed at the Poulains, but I would fancy Nighttime to reverse the placings should they meet again.

Prix Noailles

The third prestigious trial on the card was the Group 3 Prix Noailles, a prep for May 31st’s Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club run over the full classic distance of one mile, two furlongs, and 110 yards. This resulted in a length-and-a-quarter front-running success for the Mauricio Delcher-trained Persian King colt Pearled Majesty, who showed plenty of signs of greenness in front but still won a shade cosily thanks to the expert handling of Christophe Soumillon.

Joseph O’Brien’s recent Naas winner Hardy Warrior was sent off favourite and had every chance up the straight but was deprived of second place close home by Space Waltz, who conjured up an eye-catching late burst having been denied a clear run at a crucial juncture.

Delcher said: “I am really pleased with the way that Pearled Majesty was able to pick up and sprint after he had been forced to make the running. He’s really lived up to our hopes today and will now head for the Jockey Club.”