FOREIGN-trained horses dominated the two pattern races last Sunday and it was almost the same at ParisLongchamp 48 hours later, when only a last minute surge by Vaucelles in the €90,000 Group 2 Prix de Malleret stopped British raiders from collecting all five of the long weekend’s five pattern contests.

Had Vaucelles failed to get up, much of the credit would have been due to Mickael Barzalona as, in a slowly run mile-and-a-half event, he almost stole the race by whizzing from last to first rounding the final bend aboard the David Simcock-trained Oriental Mystique. She was still in front three strides from the line.