Saint-Cloud Sunday

4.30 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (Group 1) (4YO+) 1m 4f

This year’s Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud has no overseas representation and features just five runners, so is sure to be overshadowed by the Irish Derby, run 20 minutes previously at The Curragh. Right?

Wrong. The Grand Prix is not going to be plundered by a foreign trainer for a fifth consecutive year, but the overall standard of its field is arguably the best in the race’s 120-year history.

Last year’s Arc runner-up, Aventure, is going up against the 2024 King George hero, Goliath, and two dual Group 1 winners, Iresine and Junko, with the quintet rounded off by Calandagan, a six-length Group 2 scorer, who has since finished second in four of the world’s most prestigious middle distance races. So much for Royal Ascot attracting all of the continent’s best talent. Junko is the first member of the line-up to draw a line through, since he is not the horse of old and is likely to be set the task of making the running for his fellow Wertheimer brothers home-bred, Aventure.

Iresine, who started favourite for this race when fourth 12 months ago, is next to be discounted. Like Junko, this eight-year-old is probably on the wane these days although, were he to get an end-to-end gallop, this one-dimensional come-from-behind specialist could possibly still pull a rabbit out of the hat.

Calandagan also strikes me as an unlikely winner for the obvious reason that he has been defeated in all four of his top level sorties. He had no excuse at all in the Coronation Cup last time, but simply could not shake off Jan Brueghel.

The finish is therefore set to concern Goliath, who got a confidence-boosting Group 3 victory under his belt last time, and Aventure. Preference is for the latter, who has not been brought under firm pressure in either of her winning starts this season and whose jockey, Maxime Guyon, can decide beforehand precisely what kind of tempo he would like Junko to set.

SELECTION: Aventure

Next best: Goliath

EARLIER on the card, Joseph O’Brien’s Group 1 National Stakes winner Scorthy Champ and the George Scott-trained Bay City Roller, who was successful in Group 2 company last September, step up in trip in the six-runner Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam over a mile and a quarter.

They face stiff opposition from Francis Graffard’s unbeaten Sea The Stars colt Daryz and, in particular, Sinileo, who was too inexperienced to do himself justice just 16 days after his debut when eighth in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club.