ARQANA SERIES - CRITERIUM D'ETE

I really like this series from Arqana and Deauville. Adding incentives for buyers at the yearling and 2-year-old Breeze Up sales can only be a good thing and having the opportunity to run a juvenile for a €130,000 first prize is a great carrot to dangle in front of connections. There were 4 such races on Thursday’s card at Deauville and I could probably have written 6,000 words about the various runners. These races are some of the most valuable races for the juveniles in the French Racing Calendar and as a result, they are often used as a target by anyone who is lucky enough to own an eligible horse. It was no surprise to see plenty of representation from the UK and Ireland in these fields, but I couldn’t write about them all so I decided to try and find just 1 horse to note.

There were plenty of candidates, but the one that I decided to settle on was the winner of the 2-year-old Class 2 race, MASTER MAN. Trained by Richard Chotard, he made a winning debut at Marseille-Borely in June before finishing a close 2nd to Jorolina (Francis-Henri Graffard) at Chantilly in July when trying to concede 4-kilos. She had been supplemented for that race and ran in the G3 Prix du Cabourg next time, albeit rather poorly. However, the pair pulled over 10 lengths clear of the rest at Chantilly and having been just 0.14s slower than Jorolina over the final quarter of a mile, this step up to 1,300m seemed highly likely to suit. Sent off at odds of 3.6 PMU, Master Man sat behind the early leader under Anthony Crastus before being shaken up with 500m to run. Having hit the front, he began to roll around on what the times would suggest was close to Good to Firm ground and appeared likely to be swamped by the closers as he was one of 5 runners within a quarter of a second of each other as they approached the furlong pole. He could easily have finished 4th, but he showed a great attitude to stretch when asked to and put his head down inside the final 50m to win by a short-head. He is a big son of Goken with a long stride and beat the right horse with Moondance in 2nd place after she filled the same position in the Listed Criterium du Bequet at Mont-de-Marsan in July. She paid a compliment to the form of Belisa Bay in the process, but the horse with the most scope for improvement is still Master Man in my book.

There will almost certainly be deeper races run for €130,000 this year, but Master Man should not be underestimated. I think he won this race despite the fact that he appeared to find this ground lively enough and if the rain ever comes, I think there will be further improvement to come. He showed a fantastic attitude inside the final furlong and hit the line very strongly, which would suggest that a further step up in trip may still be in range. His dam (Levitha) is a half-sister to The Last Dance and Godspeed and so there is a case to be made from his pedigree that he should be more than capable of making up into a pattern class performer. Having won this race, his connections are likely to have little choice but to throw him into a Group race next time and see how his form stacks up. If he gets a slightly easier surface at some point, I think there will be more improvement to come and eye-catching entries in the Prix Morny and the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere would suggest that his connections feel the same.