Saint-Cloud Sunday

2.50 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (Group 1) (4yo+) 1m 4f.

Astonishingly, Aidan O’Brien has won more prize money with his six runners in France this year than he has done with his 200-plus competitors on home soil and he bids to extend that record when he is represented by Broome at Saint-Cloud tomorrow.

Yet the most intriguing O’Brien contender in the afternoon’s showpiece, the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, is trained not by Aidan but by his son, Joseph.

For Baron Samedi has been on an incredible international winning roll since undergoing a gelding operation as a 65-rated maiden little more than 10 months ago.

The son of Harbour Watch then reeled off four handicap victories prior to landing a Group 2 in Paris last October, a Group 3 at Navan this March, and a Grade 2 in New York four weeks ago.

That American success was over two miles, and the Navan race was over 14 furlongs, so this drop back to a mile and a half for his Group 1 debut may look ambitious.

Yet Baron Samedi has regularly exceeded expectations and every drop of rain that falls, with the ground sure to be soft and potentially could become very testing, will be in his favour.

He also proved himself well suited to the French style of racing in the Prix de Conseil de Paris, and that head defeat of Mare Australis was boosted when the runner-up lifted the Group 1 Prix Ganay.

Broome is tough and battle-hardened and he will be having his sixth start of a campaign which began with three wins and continued with a pair of seconds – when edged out by Helvic Dream in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and then when outgunned by Wonderful Tonight in the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot. He handles soft ground well and can be relied upon to give his true running

With Aidan’s other entry, Serpentine, dropping out at the final declaration stage, the possibility of a false pace increases.

Such a scenario would be against the pick of the home team, In Swoop, as the 2020 German Derby winner and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe runner-up does nothing in a hurry.

However, Francis Graffard’s colt loves soft ground and has done very well to win his last two starts despite each being run at a steady gallop.

Big player

Other big players are Ebaiyra, already a dual Group 2 scorer and still improving at the age of four under the expert tutelage of master trainer, Alain de Royer-Dupre; the German challenger, Kaspar, who also seemed to be progressing when defeating a strong Group 2 field at Mulheim last month; and the very lightly-raced Dubawi mare, Ambition.

But I expect In Swoop to come out on top, with Baron Samedi and Broome fighting it out for second place.

SELECTION: IN SWOOP

Next Best: Baron Samedi

1.33 Prix Eugene Adam (Group 2) (3yo) 1m 2f

Like the Grand Prix 80 minutes later, the mile and a quarter Prix Eugene Adam for three-year-olds will be a Franco/Irish/German affair.

Mendocino, one of the two German raiders, could be very smart, but the most likely winner is Pretty Tiger, who has been supplemented owing to the likelihood of soft ground, and can extend his superiority over Adhamo, who was just behind him when they finished sixth and seventh in the Prix du Jockey Club.

SELECTION: PRETTY TIGER

Next Best: Mendocino