Saint-Cloud Sunday

12.23 Criterium International (Group 1) (2yo Colts & Fillies) 1m

Saint-Cloud hosts the final Group 1 races of the French season on Sunday and Aidan O’Brien can improve upon his excellent record of seven victories, including in both 2024 and 2025, in the first of them, the Criterium International for juveniles, courtesy of Capability Brown.

This Dubawi half-brother to Saxon Warrior has thrived for a switch to front-running tactics and, having proven himself on testing ground when landing a Curragh maiden, then took a massive leap forward when making all in the Group 3 Killavulan Stakes.

He is joined in a field of seven by stablemate Aix La Chapelle, who needs to step up on what he achieved in finishing fifth in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and will be encountering a soft surface for the first time.

The home team consists of two useful colts in the shape of Richard Chotard’s dual Arqana sales race hero, Master Man, and the Francis Graffard-trained Group 3 Prix des Chenes victor, Zakkan.

But the biggest danger to Capability Brown may be Charlie Appleby’s First Law, who did not appear to handle the idiosyncrasies of Newmarket’s Rowley Mile when fourth in the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes and should relish these underfoot conditions.

A three-strong British contingent is completed by the German Group 3 scorer, Gymbaazy, from the Owen Burrows stable, and the Ed Walker-trained Alfred Wallace.

SELECTION: CAPABILITY BROWN

Next best: First Law

1.33 Criterium de Saint-Cloud (Group 1) (2yo Colts & Fillies) 1m 2f

Aidan O’Brien also has a strong hand in the other two-year-old feature, the Criterium de Saint-Cloud, as he accounts for three of this mile-and-a-quarter event’s seven runners.

Pick of the trio is undoubtedly Drumbeat, a Wootton Bassett colt who posted a big personal best when running away with the Group 3 Zetland Stakes over this trip at Newmarket a fortnight ago.

The other Ballydoyle raiders are Shakespeare, who finished two and a quarter lengths behind Drumbeat when they filled third and fourth places in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes, and Victory Speech, who is likely to make the running.

However, Drumbeat may not quite have the same amount of class as the final Irish challenger, the Joseph O’Brien-trained Jesus Green.

This Ghaiyyath colt has already finished in front of Drumbeat in a Leopardstown maiden and his second place in the Golden Fleece Stakes was franked when the winner, Darkness Falls, went on to complete a Group 1 double in the Dewhurst Stakes.

All of the other three members of the line-up have been deemed worthy of a supplementary entry. Perhaps the most interesting is the solitary home hope, Pierre-Etienne Dubois’ Just Yet, who showed considerable improvement to land the course-and-distance trial for this race, the Group 3 Prix de Conde, earlier this month.

Charlie Appleby is double-handed, with stable jockey William Buick opting to ride the Group 3 Autumn Stakes third, Al Jabbar, while Billy Loughnane will be aboard Royal Acclamation, who is making a big jump up in class having only got off the mark two weeks ago in a mile-and-one-furlong novice race at Goodwood.

SELECTION: JESUS GREEN

Next best: Drumbeat

2.50 Prix Royal-Oak (Group 1) (3yo+) 1m 7f 110yd

Last year’s runner-up, the Aidan O’Brien-trained Queenstown, may again have to settle for the bridesmaid’s spot, this time behind the late-flowering veteran, Al Nayyir, in the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak.

Queenstown has been kept busy since returning from a 10-month absence with a Group 3 triumph at the Curragh in late August, finishing placed in consecutive Group 1 outings in the Irish St Leger, Prix du Cadran and British Champions Long Distance Cup.

So, he will not have the freshness of the eight-year-old Al Nayyir, who has not run in the two months since lifting the Group 2 Lonsdale Stakes at York and will have his ideal conditions (a conventional left-handed track and some cut in the ground) as he attempts to give his Newmarket handler, Tom Clover, a breakthrough top-level success.

In a field of eight, O’Brien also runs Amelia Earhart, who has six lengths to find with Queenstown on recent Ascot form, while Ross O’Sullivan and Donagh O’Connor will be hoping to pull off a fairytale underdog success with another eight-year-old, the Irish Cesarewitch hero, Chally Chute.

Further international flavour is added to the mix by the presence of Sir Mark Prescott’s 2025 Group 1 Prix de Royallieu victrix, Consent, while Chantilly trainer Amy Murphy saddles the progressive young stayer, Jabracadabra, three weeks on from his Longchamp Group 2 victory.

SELECTION: AL NAYYIR

Next best: Queenstown

There are Irish invaders in all three of the Group 3 contests on the undercard. Joseph O’Brien will saddle both Sindria (the choice of Dylan Browne McMonagle) and Qualixia in the nine-runner extended mile-and-a-quarter Prix de Flore and also takes on 12 opponents, including six from Britain, while their stablemate Beset is in the one-mile, six-furlong Prix Belle de Nuit.

And, in the 10-runner Prix Perth over a mile, Joseph has supplemented his recent Naas listed winner, Princess Child, while Denis Hogan bids to land his first flat pattern race with dual listed scorer, Meriden, who will be partnered by Chris Hayes.