Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary (Group 1)

IT was another chastening weekend for patriotic French racing fans as overseas challengers carried off both of the Group 1 prizes staged at ParisLongchamp last Sunday.

The victories of the Joseph O’Brien-trained Above The Curve in the St Mark’s Basilica Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary and Dreamloper, sent across the Channel from Lambourn by Ed Walker, to land the Prix d’Ispahan, meant that over the last 12 months home-trained horses have won a pitiful five of the 28 top-level flat races staged in France.

That’s the same dismal figure that the routed British team managed against the might of Ireland at last year’s 28-race Cheltenham Festival!

What made matters worse was that both foreign invaders scored with a good deal in hand. And it’s not even as if the exceptional level of French prize money is attracting the crème de la crème from overseas – afterwards Above The Curve’s Saint-Alary victory was thought worthy of a modest rating of just 106 by the international handicapper while Dreamloper was left unchanged at 109 following her routing of the d’Ispahan field.

Travel difficulties

To put the tin lid on things, the 1,000 Guineas runner-up Prosperous Voyage, a red-hot ante-post favourite for the Saint-Alary, was a late defection from the field after falling foul of unspecified travel difficulties in Dover and failing to get on the ferry, making her name look like a sick joke. God knows how far she might have won by if she had actually made it to Paris!

Before Prosperous Voyage’s withdrawal, the Saint-Alary had looked like a decent race and it could still be that Above The Cut ends up adding lustre to the roll of honour of this mile-and-a-quarter event for three-year-old fillies.

By the US Triple Crown-winner American Pharaoh, out of an unraced half-sister to Giant’s Causeway, Above The Curve simply shadowed the front-running Blue Wings until moving into the lead with a furlong and a half to race and she had a comfortable length to spare over the recent Group 3 scorer, Place du Carrousel, at the line.

Her jockey, Ryan Moore, said: “Above The Curve is a very good filly. She’s still babyish and the pace was a bit slow so it turned into a sprint.

“She’s a huge girl but she’s not quite sure what you want her to do yet and there is plenty more to come. She has a good turn of foot but is still learning how to use it.”

Her trainer suggested that the Pretty Polly Stakes (at the Curragh on June 26th) or the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) a week earlier, might be her next port of call.

The Diane has been won by Joseph’s father, Aidan, and brother, Donnacha, over the past two years so surely it would be rude to pass up the chance of a famous family hat-trick?

Prix d’Ispahan (Group 1)

ED Walker made a big breakthrough when Starman brought him a first Group 1 success in last year’s July Cup but, when that crack sprinter was forced into retirement with just eight racecourse appearances under his belt, he must have wondered how long it would be before he was back on the grandest stage.

He need not have worried. A daughter of Ballylinch Stud’s Lope De Vega, Dreamloper was extremely flighty at the start of her career, but she has made relentless progress since letting down favourite backers in handicap company at Royal Ascot 11 months ago.

Once she ended last term with a Sun Chariot Stakes third and begun this one with a Group 2 success, she obviously needed to be taken seriously even when dining at the very top table.

Yet even her staunchest supporters must have been surprised by the ease with which she disposed of her five opponents, who included a Group 1 scorer and two more with Group 2s in their lockers, in the Prix d’Ispahan.

In her pocket

Aggressively ridden by Kieran Shoemark, she hit the front with over two and a half furlongs to race and had the €142,850 winner’s prize virtually in her pocket when four lengths clear a furlong and a half later. That margin was halved passing the winning post, but partly because Shoemark was easing her down in the closing stages.

Walker could barely believe his eyes. “She’s improving in leaps and bounds, I’ve no idea where it’s coming from,” he said.

“She’s taken a lot of figuring out but mentally is easier on herself these days, Her lass, Molly Stratton, deserves a lot of credit, she rides her all the time and they get on so well.

“To beat the boys, and good boys too, is fantastic, and I wouldn’t be afraid of anything after that performance, maybe with the exception of Baaeed. I see the Nassau Stakes [back against her own sex at Goodwood on July 28th] as the perfect race for her.”