Prix d’Ispahan (Group 1)

ONE of my strong impressions at the end of the 2024 French flat racing season was that its Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, won by the subsequently-retired Bluestocking, had been a sub-standard renewal. Now I am not so sure.

Since late April, the horses who filled the next three places behind Bluestocking - Aventure, Los Angeles and Sosie - have each run twice, winning all of those six races, including three Group 1s and two Group 2s.

Early indications are that, regardless of the strength of the Class Of ’25, last term’s classic generation will provide stiff competition when Europe’s premier all-aged race takes place again in early October.

While Los Angeles strutted his stuff at the Curragh last Sunday, Sosie was on parade at Longchamp, where the drop back to an extended mile and a furlong for the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan was to provide a test of speed for this Wertheimer brothers home-bred son of Sea The Stars.

He passed that test with flying colours, scoring by a length from Sardinian Warrior to prove that, like Los Angeles, he is no one-dimensional mile and a half performer.

Before we get too carried away with the quality of Sosie’s performance, it is important to remember that Sardinian Warrior had possessed an official handicap rating of no more than 97 as recently as November and was making his pattern race debut here.

Impossible to catch

It also should be pointed out that the John and Thady Gosden-trained runner-up might have proved impossible to catch had the race been run in a different fashion. As it was, Caramelito denied Sardinian Warrior the chance of an uncontested lead by setting a strong tempo and Elmalka then forced her fellow Newmarket-based raider to make his move earlier than was ideal to avoid getting boxed in.

Both those factors played into the hands of Sosie, who got outpaced entering the final turn but was able to use his greater depth of stamina to overhaul Sardinian Warrior in the final 100 yards.

A less solidly-run contest would probably have seen the English visitor’s superior speed prevail.

The result continued a fine spring for the Wertheimers, who are also responsible for Aventure, and winning handler Andre Fabre revealed afterwards that Sosie’s next assignment is likely to be the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown, leaving the Christophe Ferland-trained Aventure to carry the famous ‘royal blue, white seams’ silks in the obvious mid-summer French option, the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

Sardinian Warrior is seen as more of a miler by the Gosdens, so will drop down to that trip for the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Prix Vicomtesse Vigier (Group 1)

IT is rare for an older horse to go from being unraced to triumphing in a top-level contest within the space of little more than five months, especially when that period encompasses the entire winter.

That is precisely the feat that Candelari pulled off when landing the newly-elevated Group 1 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier at Longchamp last Sunday.

Ridden by the highly capable Clement Lecoeuvre, deputising for the suspended Mickael Barzalona, Canderlari avoided getting caught out of his ground again as he had been when suffering his only defeat in the Group 3 Prix de Barbeville four weeks earlier, and saw out the mile, seven furlongs, 110 yards trip readily to register a dominant three and a half-length victory.

Sevenna’s Knight, the Arc fifth, just held off the Barbeville hero, Presage Nocturne, to take second place with the veteran Trueshan finishing an honourable, if distant, fourth.

Up for grabs

With its two-time champion Kyprios suddenly out of the way, the Ascot Gold Cup is up for grabs now.

That is the direction in which trainer Francis Graffard intends to send Candelari, a gelded son of Frankel who is owned and was bred by the late Aga Khan and was nearly shipped off to the sales ring last autumn, before he had ever visited a racecourse.

Now one of the continent’s hottest staying prospects, he could so easily have been jumping hurdles if his owner-breeders had taken a different course of action.

As Nemone Routh, representing the Aga Khan’s Studs, revealed afterwards: “Candelari is a very big horse who needed lots of time to allow him to mature. His work wasn’t bad but, on very soft ground, he was not showing us a great deal, so we had him gelded and entered him for the November Sales.

“Then, because he was close to being ready for a run, we changed our minds, and our patience has been rewarded today.”

Graffard added: “That was a true test, both in terms of quality and numbers, and proved that Candelari has the potential to be a champion stayer. Let’s see how he recovers. He holds a Royal Ascot entry and I like to take up a challenge over there when I get the chance.”

A six-year-old son of Wootton Bassett trained by Christopher Head, Topgear is now set to drop down a furlong to contest the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes on the final day of the royal meeting.