Deauville Sunday

3.26pm Prix du Haras de Fresnay-Le-Buffard Jacques Le Marois (Group 1 3yo+ Colts & Fillies) 1m

Deauville is set to stage an awesome renewal of its flagship race, the Group 1 Prix du Haras de Fresnay-Le-Buffard Jacques Le Marois, tomorrow.

My suspicion is that the three-year-old generation will be found wanting and Inspiral can overturn Queen Anne Stakes form with Triple Time to land this straight mile event for the second successive year.

The 11-runner contest may lack Irish involvement but, with the exception of Angers, who himself won a classic by six lengths when last seen back in May (albeit that was a weak renewal of the German 2000 Guineas), all 11 runners have already either won or been placed at Group 1 level.

A strong pace is also guaranteed as Big Rock seems to love going from the front and is proven over a longer tip.

And, unlike so many of Europe’s biggest races over recent weeks, the race is unlikely to be blighted by soft ground – there is little rain in the forecast so the Normandy turf should have dried out to something approaching ‘good’ by tomorrow afternoon.

Trained by John and Thady Gosden, Inspiral beat the reopposing Light Infantry and Erevann here 12 months ago and has been forced to race on unsuitably soft ground on two of just three subsequent starts: most recently when an eased-down last of five in the Group 1 Sussex Stakes.

Likely target

John Gosden nominated this race (which he has won in each of the last three seasons) as a likely target immediately after the Sussex, so running here is certainly no afterthought. Inspiral’s only other recent outing, when a neck second to Triple Time in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes with Light Infantry two and a half lengths back in third, was a fine effort considering that she was said to have been short of full fitness on her first start for eight months.

Triple Time is very lightly-raced, having run just three times in the last two years. That Queen Anne performance was a huge leap forward on anything that he had produced previously, though, right from his juvenile days, trainer Kevin Ryan has spoken about him in the most glowing terms.

The rest of the older horse brigade consists of Life In Motion, who chased home her Andre Fabre stablemate Mqse de Sevigne in a substandard Group 1 Prix Rothschild over this course and distance a fortnight ago; and Onesto, who proved his quality when narrowly beaten in last year’s Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes but, as winner of the mile and a half Grand Prix de Paris, will surely lack both the pace and sharpness to lift this prize on his first appearance since November.

If the three-year-old vintage of 2023 proves stronger than I expect, it is hard to look beyond Big Rock, who posted a huge performance when runner-up in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club, with tomorow’s rival Marhaba Ya Sanafi two and a half lengths back in third. That form has since been franked by both the fourth, Grand Prix de Paris hero Feed The Flame, and fifth, Epictetus.

The line-up is completed by two other credible candidates in Good Guess and Hi Royal, though both would probably be better suited to softer ground and a slightly shorter trip.

SELECTION: INSPIRAL Next Best: Triple Time

On the Marois undercard, Joseph O’Brien’s Galway maiden winner Mythology takes on four rivals in the seven-furlong Group 3 Circus Maximus Prix Francois Boutin; Joseph’s Shamwari and the Jessica Harrington-trained Scarlett O’Hara are the Irish representatives in a field of nine for the mile and a half and 110yards Group 3 Prix Minerve; and the Prix de l’Opera winner, Place du Carrousel, ought to be good enough to land the mile and two furlongs Group 3 Prix Gontaut-Biron Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Ace Impact

Once the weekend’s action has been completed, attention will immediately turn to Tuesday’s Deauville feature, the €400,000 Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano over a mile and two furlongs, where the brilliant Prix du Jockey Club winner, Ace Impact, is set to begin his Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe preparations by taking on, among others, Aidan O’Brien’s long absent Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf victor, Victoria Road.