Deauville Sunday

2.52 Qatar Prix Jean Prat (Group 1) (3yo colts and fillies) 7f (straight)

John Gosden had a big race double at Saint-Cloud last Sunday and can carry on the good work by landing the Group 1 Qatar Prix Jean Prat at Deauville tomorrow.

However, the horse to complete his French hat-trick could be Robert Havlin’s mount, Azano, rather than last year’s champion two-year-old, Too Darn Hot, who will be ridden by Frankie Dettori.

Azano did well to hang on for a length victory having helped force a strong pace in the Group 3 Prix Paul de Moussac at Chantilly last time and should be suited by this drop back to seven furlongs. He can repay the bold decision of his owner-breeder, Martin Taylor, to bypass Royal Ascot and wait for this race.

Too Darn Hot would be nigh impossible to beat if getting back to his juvenile form. However, he has had a frustrating start to the season, forced to miss the 2000 Guineas with a minor injury and then being tried at both a mile and a quarter and a mile.

His connections could be clutching at straws with this further drop in trip and, at a short price and having his fourth start in little more than seven weeks, is worth taking on.

Azano’s biggest danger could instead be another Newmarket-based horse, Space Blues, from the Charlie Appleby yard. He was rated only 93 when winning a handicap at York seven weeks ago but has made giant strides since then and was unlucky in running when caught close home in the Group 3 Jersey Stakes over this distance at Royal Ascot.

A six-strong British raiding party is completed by Royal Marine, who has failed to make the first three in four outings since winning the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at ParisLongchamp last October, and the Richard Hannon pair of Watan, just behind Azano in listed company on his latest start, and the German 2000 Guineas hero, Fox Champion.

Home team

The home team is led by the one-two from the Group 3 Prix Djebel over this trip at Maisons-Laffitte in April, Munitions and Graignes. Graignes then reversed those placings when a never-nearer fourth (four lengths in front of Munitions) in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains. He is open to further improvement on just his third run of the season and his late-closing running style could prove ideal on this straight course.

SELECTION: AZANO

Next best: Graignes

Racegoers will get a chance to find out the strength of the form of Azano and Watan 75 minutes before the Jean Prat when James Tate’s Far Above, behind the pair when fourth at Newmarket last month, takes on a closely-matched field including André Fabre’s well-bred Siyouni colt, Epic Hero, in the Listed €55,000 Qatar Prix Kistena over six furlongs.

After the Jean Prat, there are five more British visitors in the Listed €48,000 Qatar Prix de la Calonne for fillies and mares over a mile, led by Ralph Beckett’s Di Fede, fifth in the Group 2 Duke Of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot.