12.40 Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac (Group 1) (2yo Fillies) 1m

The powers-that-be at Coolmore Stud will be holding their breath as the stalls burst open for the Group 1 Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac as Aidan O’Brien’s Diamond Necklace and the Karl Burke-trained Aylin, the best two progeny so far of their first-season stallion, St Mark’s Basilica, cross swords.

A half-sister to two special fillies in Magic Wand and Chicquita, Diamond Necklace has only won at listed level compared to the Group 2 verdict that Aylin already has to her name.

Yet Diamond Necklace made a very favourable impression in the Ingabelle Stakes at Leopardstown on Irish Champions weekend and, again able to benefit from the services of her pacemaker, Venosa, she may just come out on top. Burke is enjoying a fabulous season with his juveniles, however, and it is likely to be close.

The best of the home team will probably be the unbeaten Green Spirit, who is the apple of trainer Christopher Head’s eye and beat two other members of this nine-runner field, Narissa and Clea Chope, in the Group 3 Prix d’Aumale.

SELECTION: DIAMOND NECKLACE Next best: Aylin

1.15 Qatar Prix Jean-Luc

Lagardere (Group 1) (2yo Colts & Fillies) 7f

Another fascinating France-Ireland-England clash in an nine-runner renewal of France’s top race for juvenile colts.

Aidan O’Brien has already pinched this prize on nine occasions and this time saddles the surprise Group 2 Champagne Stakes scorer, Puerto Rico.

That Doncaster success came when Puerto Rico adopted front-running tactics and could do so again here.

Britain is represented by the narrow Group 3 Solario Stakes winner, A Bit Of Spirit, from the Clive Cox yard, and his Ascot conqueror, Time To Turn, who is trained by Charlie Appleby, while the home team includes a pair of Group 3 scorers in Rayif and Nighttime.

In what looks like an open race, the best option may be an each-way play on Jean-Claude Rouget’s Campacite, who ran away with a valuable Deauville listed race when last seen six weeks ago.

SELECTION: CAMPACITE

Next best: Nighttime

1.50 Prix de l’Abbaye de

Longchamp Longines (Group 1) (2yo+) 5f

Europe’s top sprints have been nigh on impossible to predict this season, with no horse managing more than a single success.

Given that the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp Longines has a history of producing shocks and usually markedly favours those drawn low, virtually anything in the 19-runner field has a chance, even those for whom the form book gives little cause for optimism.

The only Irish representative here is Jack Davidson’s She’s Quality, who deserves to bag a big one having been runner-up in no less than four pattern races this term and beaten by just a length and a half when fourth in the Flying Five at the Curragh last time out.

The flat Longchamp sprint track is a very fast five furlongs so a tentative selection is Karl Burke’s speedball Night Raider, who was just behind She’s Quality in the Flying Five and would be ideally suited by this being run over four furlongs.

SELECTION: NIGHT RAIDER

Next best: She’s Quality

3.50 Prix de l’Opera Longines (Group 1) (3yo+ Fillies) 1m 2f

A strong Irish contingent head over for the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera Longines, with four of the 13 runners and four different trainers represented.

Aidan O’Brien’s selected contender is undoubtedly January, who is stepping up to a mile and two for the first time having been the bridesmaid in three Group 1 mile events in midsummer, while Joseph O’Brien’s Wemightakedlongway has been freshened up by an 11-week holiday since she chased home Minnie Hauk in the Group 1 Irish Oaks.

Paddy Twomey’s One Look has been out of the first two just once in her last seven starts, all in group or listed company.

But the best of the quintet could prove to be Jessica Harrington’s easy Blandford Stakes heroine, Barnavara, and she can get the better of Tamfana, who is back from a long lay-off and comes here in preference to defending her Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes crown.

SELECTION: BARNAVARA

Next best: Tamfana

4.25 Qatar Prix de la Foret (Group 1) (3yo+) 7f

A huge field of 16 lines up for this right-handed seven-furlong contest so luck-in-running is likely to play a big part in the result.

Francis Graffard is very hot on the chances of his Zarigana, but her tendency to pull herself up having hit the front makes life very difficult for her rider, Mickael Barzalona, especially given that this one is one of the few big races in the calendar run to the second winning post, making extreme waiting tactics very hard to pull off.

William Haggas knows all too well what is required to win this, having plundered it three years in a row with One Master, and his rapidly-improving More Thunder has a massive chance, albeit he is likely to go off at a short price.

At longer odds, it could prove worth chancing a return to form for Christopher Head’s Topgear, who is a real specialist at this trip.

SELECTION: TOPGEAR

Next best: More Thunder