12.58 Goffs Prix Robert Papin (Group 2) (2yo) 6f

MORE Irish trainers should target the Goffs Prix Robert Papin. Over the last 11 years, this juvenile Group 2 six-furlong contest has an average field size of under six and the locals don’t normally put up much of a fight: they have kept the prize at home just once since 2014, albeit that winner was the subsequent classic-placed Group 1 heroine Ramatuelle three years ago.

Joseph O’Brien has clearly got the memo. He saddled Green Sense to land a sub-standard five-runner renewal 12 months ago and, this time around, is responsible for two-thirds of a paltry field of three when Chantilly hosts the 130-year-old showpiece on Sunday.

King Of Cloughan may look like the pick of his pair, having broken his duck on the grandest possible stage when overcoming trouble in running to get the better of a huge field in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, having previously got to within three-quarters of a length of another Royal Ascot victor, Nola Soul, at Leopardstown.

But the strength of the Windsor Castle form is still open to question and my preference is for the other O’Brien contender, the No Nay Never filly, Beibhinn, who should get her own way in front and arrives here on the back of a career-best third behind the classy Sun Goddess in last month’s Group 2 Airlie Stud Stakes.

The field is completed by Tokaido, who completed a hat-trick when giving his trainer, Amy Murphy, her biggest success since moving her string from Newmarket to Chantilly in the Group 3 Prix du Bois at Deauville three weeks ago.

SELECTION: BEIBHINN

Next best: Tokaido

Later on the Chantilly card, Joseph’s brother, Donnacha, saddles La Fogata in the mile-and-one-furlong Group 3 Darley Prix Chloe, while the highly promising Francis Graffard-trained three-year-old Caravaggio gelding, Erdenali, puts his unbeaten record on the line in the mile Group 3 Prix Messidor.

** James recommended the Grand Prix de Paris winner Maltese Cross in last week’s edition