His trainer may be wrong to say he disliked the yielding ground but he surely disliked the sprint finish. He’s bred for 10 furlongs and if he had been a bit further back when the sprint began turning into the home straight I suspect he would not have prevailed.

Karakontie had to engage in a lengthy duel with the runner-up all the way through the final quarter mile to score by a neck. I rated his performance a length per mile below that in the Prix Fontainebleau where he finished a close second to the smart Ectot off a stronger early pace.