Cagnes-Sur-Mer rolls on into a another meeting and this is a big day for the tracker. The 2 newcomers maidens, the Prix du Suquet and the Prix de la Bocca are always races to watch out for. Raabihah (JC Rouget) won the Fillies race in 2020 before going on to finish 5th in the Arc, whilst Port Guillaume (also JC Rouget) won the Suquet before going on to win the G2 Prix Hocqaurt later that season. The Rouget team have nicely bred horses in both races this season and the form of these 2 debutantes events normally works out well, though to try and find the winner would be madness given the expensive talent and potential on show. Instead, the 2nd race offers a bit more form to go on and there looks to be a decent prospect available for a claiming price of €25,000 if she runs as expected.
BLUE HEART
3-year-old Filly - trained by Ed Montfort
ECURIE QUADRABLUE
Dandy Man x Rose Heart (Dark Angel)
She has loads of speed in her pedigree, a daughter of Dandy Man out of a Dark Angel mare, she was always bought for the shorter distances and the fact has been born out in her 5 starts to date. She had form figures in maidens of 4,5,5,3, producing her best form in her final start when she was beaten under a length at Deauville on 8th January. The sectional times for that maiden show that she ran the fastest final furlong in the field and had she raced closer to the pace, she may well have won as the winner and 2nd were able to get the first run in the straight.
She entered handicap company on a mark of 36-kilos over this course and distance last Saturday and initially her connections will probably have been disappointed with her 10th placed finish, beaten 8-lengths. She broke well and looked to have the ideal position behind the leaders as they turned for home. Leo Roussel chose to make his challenge along the inside rail and she was briefly in front at the 2-furlong pole, but was unable to maintain her challenge in the closing stages. The race was run in a decent time of 1:17.57, a fast time for a 3-year-old handicap and she just wasn’t able to maintain her run. Recent weeks have shown that the inside rail is not the ideal place to be at Cagnes-Sur-Mer on the all-weather and the majority of winners have come wider towards the centre of the track, which showed in this race as all the horses who filled the frame came away from the rail and up the camber. This will be a quick turnaround just 6-days later, but she has backed up over a short period at the start of her career and this race is nowhere near as deep as that handicap. From stall 1 she should be able to get into a prominent position and if Leo Roussel has learned his lesson from Saturday, she should be able to come off the rail and use her speed to best effect at this lower level.