Parislongchamp Sunday

2.50 Emirates Poule D’essai des Poulains (Group 1) (3yo Colts) 1m

Just how good is Puerto Rico and how fit will the Aidan O’Brien-trained colt be when he takes part in his first race for six and a half months at Longchamp tomorrow?

Those are the big questions that need to be answered before Puerto Rico lines up against 12 rivals, including his stablemate Dorset, in the Group 1 Emirates Poule d’Essai des Poulains.

Will we see the all-conquering version of the son of Wootton Bassett, who ended last season with three consecutive wins (a Group 2 followed by two Group 1s), or the horse that had been defeated in all five career outings prior to that late-season splurge?

O’Brien has explained that Puerto Rico suffered a setback in the spring of his juvenile campaign, so had some catching up to do once he made it to the track and should be forgiven those early reverses. Yet we are still in the dark about quite how ready he will be to contest a classic on his reappearance, especially bearing in mind that, in recent years, many of the Ballydoyle three-year-old colts have tended to take a leap forward from their comeback races.

Puerto Rico undoubtedly boasts the best form, having comprehensively accounted for two of the leading home contenders, Nighttime and Rayif, when landing France’s top two-year-old race, the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, but there are enough doubts surrounding him for his current odds of under 2/1 to look less than appetising.

Promise

Nighttime ran a race chock full of promise under a sympathetic ride on his reappearance, getting to within a short-neck of Komorebi with Elastic two and a half lengths back in third in the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau over this course and distance four weeks ago.

But he is drawn widest of all and a cloud continues to hang over the wellbeing of the string of his trainer, Christopher Head: he has not saddled a winner for almost two months and has had just 20 runners in the intervening period.

So the biggest obstacle to a fourth O’Brien Poulains triumph in the last 11 years comes in the shape of the solitary British raider in the line-up, Hankelow, from the Karl Burke yard.

An Irish-bred son of Night Of Thunder, Hankelow suffered a single (very narrow) defeat from his three starts last year and signed off with a length-and-a-quarter success in the Group 3 Autumn Stakes.

Fitness should not be an issue as he was declared to run in the Craven Stakes almost a month ago only to be withdrawn because of the fast ground, and recent rain, which means that Sunday’s going is likely to be officially ‘soft’, will be very much in his favour.

Dorset, the front-running winner of both the Goffs Million and the Group 3 Killavullan Stakes last autumn, is no mean performer in his own right but did not show enough when seventh on his seasonal bow in the Group 3 Red Rocks Stakes to make him of much interest here.

SELECTION: HANKELOW Next best: Puerto Rico

3.25 Emirates Poule D’essai des Pouliches (Group 1) (3yo Fillies) 1m

It has now been a quarter of a century since Aidan O’Brien saddled his one and only winner of the Group 1 Emirates Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, Rose Gypsy. He can break that drought here with the supremely talented Diamond Necklace, who can take her record to a perfect four-from-four by proving too strong for Narissa.

O’Brien was surprised by the precociousness Diamond Necklace, a daughter of St Mark’s Basilica, displayed last season, winning all three of her starts including the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac over this course and distance, when she had Green Spirit and Narissa a length and a further length and a quarter back in second and third.

This race has long been on her agenda and, given that she is reportedly easy to get fit and has the services of a pacemaker, Venosa, to avoid a falsely-run race, she should prove extremely hard to beat. In a big field of 15, she is handily positioned in stall 3.

Form boost

Green Spirit hails from the out-of-sorts Christopher Head stable and could only manage fourth place in the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte on her comeback – form that was given a boost when the winner, Evolutionist, chased home Diamond Necklace’s stable companion True Love in last Sunday’s 1000 Guineas. Narissa, whose trainer, Francis Graffard, has started the season with a bang, finished behind Green Spirit on three occasions last term but was ahead of her in second in the Grotte despite being given a ride that was much more about teaching her to settle than it was about winning.

Zanthos, trained by Simon and Ed Crisford, has the best chance of the three British raiders: the other two, Isle Of Fernandez and Half Sovereign, have plenty of ground to make up on their Group 3 Prix Imprudence conqueror, Showna.

But Zanthos has not raced since landing the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes in September and her lack of size suggests that she may struggle to convert her excellent juvenile form into a successful classic campaign.

SELECTION: DIAMOND NECKLACE Next best: Narissa

12.50 St Camille Pissarro

Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary (Group 2) (3yo Fillies) 1m 2f

Aidan O’Brien is represented by the Group 2 Debutante Stakes victrix Composing in a field of six but she may struggle to deal with Francis Graffard’s exciting unbeaten Frankel filly, Gilded Prize, who will be ridden by Colin Keane.

SELECTION: GILDED PRIZE Next best: Composing