Back to Cagnes-Sur-Mer again on Wednesday as we continue the build up to the Turf season proper with an 8-race card. The best horse on the card is certainly PADRON in R1. He won a very strong Class 3 event here last month and will be a very short price to repeat the dose under Christophe Soumillon. At likely cramped odds he doesn’t make much appeal and so it is probably best to look elsewhere and in Race 3 (1:30 UK) there is an interesting 3-year-old from the same yard who could be worth noting on his turf debut.
HAPPY HARRY (1:30pm UK)
3-year-old Gelding trained by Jerome Reynier
Zarak x L’Etoile de Moscou (Peintre Celebre)
Mme. I Corbani, Jedburgh Stud, T De La Herroniere
Zarak is making a good impression as a Sire in France and his connections will be hoping that he can build on the good form his progeny showed in 2021, with a 19% strike rate and 20 winners from 71 runners. Most of the progeny have improved with racing and so there will be some hope from the connections of HAPPY HARRY that he can build on the solid start he has made to his career when he makes his turf debut on Wednesday. He is bred to be smart, his dam was Listed placed and ended her racing career in 2008 with a 2nd placed finish in a Listed contest at Deauville. The most successful of her progeny has been the filly Little Nightingale, who finished 3rd in the Prix de Diane in 2015 and her 2 other winning progeny have both won over the 10-furlong trip.
Happy Harry has not run to a level that would suggest he is likely to be matching the exploits of his half-sister, but 3 runs on the all-weather have not been devoid of promise and we can definitely upgrade his last run. He finished 4th in a claimer on the All-weather track here on 1st February and was slightly unlucky not to have a clear run in the home straight. Having been settled in rear he had to wait for the gaps to appear and by the time he had racing room the winner had flown. He was only beaten by 4-lengths and the sectional times from that race show that he was the fastest horse from the 3-furlong pole to the line and his connections saw enough in that effort to claim him for £25000. The step up to 2150 metres should help him and there are far fewer hard luck stories on the turf track as the field tend to spread out in the home straight. Antonio Orani should be able to get a nice lead from stall 7 and if he is going to make his mark, this looks to be the ideal opportunity.