Prix Jean Prat (Group 1)
SINCE it was reduced to seven furlongs in 2019, the Prix Jean Prat has quickly assumed the mantle of being one of Europe’s most difficult Group 1 races to fathom, maybe not surprisingly given its unusual race distance at a time of year when the three-year-old pecking order is still taking shape.
Last Sunday’s renewal only enhanced that reputation. The race changed complexion on numerous occasions and ended up with a 12/1 outsider, Woodshauna, the one and only blacktype winner from the first crop of the Haras de Boquetot sire, Wooded, coming from last to lead close home in a tight finish where just half a length covered the first four home.
The three foreign challengers in a field of nine, Harry Charlton’s Cosmic Year, the Charlie Appleby-trained Shadow Of Light, and The Lion In Winter, from the Aidan O’Brien yard, were sent off as the top three favourites in that order.
Out of the stalls and Maranoa Charlie got precisely the kind of easy lead that has brought the best out of him in the past, with The Lion In Winter just a little exuberant in fourth, more prominent than the other two visitors.
Cosmic Year made smooth headway down the outside to draw almost level with the leader with two furlongs to run, with Shadow Of Light not far behind but going slightly less well. Cosmic Year then found next to nothing when under pressure approaching the furlong pole and Shadow Of Light seemed likely to assert.
Last to challenge
But the Godolphin representative also failed to deliver, as did the outsider Cacofonix, who had made a promising run towards the inside rail, and Woodshauna, the last to challenge after momentarily having had to wait for a run, got up to score by a neck and a short-head from Maranoa Charlie and The Lion In Winter, two colts who had initially dropped back before finishing to good effect.
This was a fine result for the big-spending American owner, John Stewart, who has made waves across the bloodstock world in the last couple of years under the banner of Resolute Racing.
He bought Woodshauna for what now looks like a bargain £625,000 at last month’s Goffs London Sale. Although Woodshauna did not then run at Royal Ascot, his form received a significant boost there when Time For Sandals, his victim when they filled the first two places in the Group 3 Prix Texanita, landed the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup,
Winning trainer Francis Graffard, who had kept up his recent purple patch of form by landing both of the feature listed races on Saturday’s Deauville card, said: “Woodshauna is a horse who just keeps on improving, every time I have stepped him up in class he has responded in a big way.
Stronger and stronger
“I decided to give Ascot a miss, so that I could concentrate on this race. He’s mentally very sound and he’s got stronger and stronger physically. We will see how he comes out of the race, but he is entered in the Prix Maurice de Gheest [over six furlongs, 110 yards on August 10th].”
“He can really accelerate and the way that the race developed, with him being covered up for so long, allowed him to use that burst of speed. It’s magnificent for John Stewart, he respects his horses and hopefully results like this will mean that he will maintain his European involvement.” Graffard will no doubt have found the post-race report to Stewart rather easier than a week before, when he had to try to explain why Goliath had finished tailed off in the black Resolute colours at the back of the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud field.
Late as possible
Successful jockey Christophe Soumillon added: “My draw in the outside stall meant that I had no option but to drop him out and my intention was always to get there as late as possible.
“I was confident until I had trouble finding a gap and thought that my chance might be gone. When he saw daylight, he was off like a bullet from a gun.”
The Christopher Head-trained Maranoa Charlie, who also changed hands recently, is now set to contest the upgraded Group 1 City Of York Stakes on August 23rd at York, local to the home of his new owners, the Bond family.
Quizzed about The Lion In Winter’s performance, O’Brien responded: “He’s run a very good race. We now have the option of coming back here for the Jacques le Marois or heading to Goodwood for the Sussex Stakes.” The son of Sea The Stars certainly shaped like he would appreciate a step up to 1m, possibly in conjunction with the kind of aggressive riding tactics which suited him well in last year’s Acomb Stakes.
BEAUVATIER, a son of Lope De Vega trained by Yann Barberot, has not quite lived up to the promise of a brilliant juvenile career in 2023, when he won his first four races and was Group 1-placed on his final start.
Yet he still managed three more top-four finishes at the highest level last term and, dropped back to six furlongs, got his head in front for the first time in almost two years in Sunday’s Group 3 Singapore Pools Prix de Ris-Orangis, coming home a convincing length and three-quarters ahead of the race’s 2023 winner, Spycatcher.
Compensation
The trainers responsible for the second home in each of the day’s pattern races both gained compensation elsewhere on the card. Spycatcher’s handler, Karl Burke, lifted the Listed Prix Goldikova with his Night Of Thunder filly, Bright Thunder, while Christopher Head has unearthed an exciting prospect in the shape of the two-year-old Wootton Bassett colt, Nighttime, who ran away with the Prix Roland de Chambure by three lengths and has the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere as his end of season target.