Deauville Sunday

3.40 Arc Prix Maurice de Gheest (Group 1) (3yo+) 6f 110y

The Aidan O’Brien-trained True Love and Johnny Murtagh’s Take Charge Star, two three-year-olds who are very closely matched on a line through Thesecretadversary, are the Irish challengers in a field of 12 for the ARC Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville tomorrow.

This six-furlong, 110 yards contest is a rare example of a European Group 1 in which O’Brien has had only limited previous involvement. King Charlemagne, in 2001, is his solitary winner and, in the quarter of a century since that success, Lope Y Fernandez, in 2020, is the one and only Ballydoyle inmate to have finished in the first three.

True Love should improve that modest record as it would be a surprise if she does not make the frame. A top-level scorer both over six furlongs as a juvenile and in May’s English 1000 Guineas over a mile, this daughter of No Nay Never had to wait for room before launching her challenge in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat over seven furlongs here last month, so she did well to finish second, half a length behind Thesecretadversary.

Take Charge Star got even closer to Fozzie Stack’s stable star when going down by just a neck in the seven furlongs Group 3 Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot having earlier failed to stay a mile in the Group 1 Irish 2000 Guineas. He has been kept fresh for this race but needs to prove that latest breakthrough effort was not a flash in the pan.

Raiding party

A five-strong overseas raiding party is completed by William Haggas’s Group 1 July Cup fifth and Commonwealth Cup third, Division; the Group 1 King Charles II Stakes fourth, Rosy Affair, from the George Boughey yard; and the Charlie Appleby representative, Wise Approach, who was a top class two-year-old but is on something of a retrieval mission following three modest efforts so far this season.

I expect True Love to fare best of the visitors but she may find one too good for her in the shape of the Patrice Cottier-trained Stolen Kiss.

This four-year-old son of the unheralded French stallion Chachnak was nothing more than a good handicapper a year ago but has made relentless progress in recent months and reached another career high on his latest start, when a very close fourth in a blanket finish to the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.

This extra half furlong should be in his favour and his trademark late burst may prove too much for these rivals.

SELECTION: STOLEN KISS Next best: True Love