ParisLongchamp
Sunday
3.25pm Prix Ganay World Pool By PMU (Group 1) 1m 2f 110yd
Longchamp stages the first Group 1 of the European season tomorrow with the running of the Prix Ganay World Pool By PMU.
Although this mile, two furlongs, 110 yards event lacks foreign representation among its six-runner field and involves only four different trainers, it is still a top class contest full of intrigue.
Three of its combatants (Daryz, Aventure and Arrow Eagle) won in Group 1 company last autumn whilst three more (Bright Picture, First Look and Cualificar) have recent Group 2 successes to their names.
The star attraction is Daryz, who will be racing for the first time since he edged out Minnie Hauk in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with the rest of a typically large and high calibre field left trailing in their wake, five and a half lengths and more adrift.
His trainer, Francis Graffard, reports that he is the type of individual who can easily put on plenty of condition during a winter break, so he has had him back in work for some time and given him two racecourse gallops.
Fully wound up
Nevertheless, it is hard to imagine that this son of Sea The Stars will be anywhere near fully wound up for this reappearance and, given how much he seemed to improve for his first try at a mile and a half in the Arc, this shorter trip will not be in his favour, especially with a strong pace far from guaranteed.
Against that, Graffard has nominated the mile and two furlongs Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot as Daryz’s main early-season target, so he clearly believes that he has the required speed to thrive over this kind of distance.
Aventure and Arrow Eagle, the next two highest-rated in the field on official ratings, have similar issues to Daryz in that they are making their comebacks and are already proven over further.
It could therefore prove sensible to overlook the top three and side with Cualificar, one of three runners from the Andre Fabre yard. He might have been over the top when only 15th in the Arc and posted a highly encouraging return to action when a close third to his race-fit stablemate, Bright Picture, in the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt three weeks ago.
SELECTION: Cualificar
Next best: Aventure
Longchamp
On the Longchamp undercard, Asmarani, a four-year-old gelded son of Sottsass with the same Graffard-Aga Khan Family trainer-owner combination as Daryz, can confirm himself as a coming force in the staying division by landing a five-runner Group 3 Prix de Barbeville over a mile and seven furlongs.