Criterium du Bequet - Wor Faayth

“Wor Faayth makes the 900-mile journey worth it”

This was the first time that Brian Ellison has had a runner in the South of France and he was duly rewarded for a clever piece of placing as Wor Faayth landed this €27,450 prize with relative ease. The booking of Christophe Soumillon suggested that her connections meant business and she duly obliged after being sent off at odds of 2/1 on the PMU. In reality, favourite backers had very little to worry about and although she was slightly bumped leaving the stalls, she quickly recovered to sit in the ideal position behind the leader around the bottom turn. Once asked for an effort, she made rapid headway along the inside rail and pulled nicely clear in the closing stages, running the fastest time in the field for the final 600m in 35.02s. Her debut run at Carlisle in May has worked out well with the first 4 home all winning races since and she made no mistake on her 2nd start when a comfortable 3-length winner at Hamilton in June, but this was still a significant step forwards. It’s a long way from Ellison’s Yorkshire base to La Teste, but this was a very good spot for this daughter of Ardad, who was able to dominate horses with form in the South of France. Agiota (2nd) and Sternle (3rd) have both won races and brought a relatively solid level of form into the race, having perhaps run to marks in the mid-80s with their respective wins at Senonnes and La Teste, but they were no match for the British raider. A winning time of 1:10.08 is relatively impressive and with a finishing speed of 99.4%, there are no excuses for those in behind. Wor Faayth received a 1.5 kilo fillies allowance from the runner-up, but Agiota had his chance and sets a fair standard. It’s never an easy task to try and equate the French form with the UK, but I would be happy to say that the winner has run to a mark in the region of 90-92 to win on Sunday and she should be competitive at a similar level in the UK, assuming that her connections decide to run her at home. Given that we now know she can cope with travelling to France, there will be plenty of options at Deauville, Chantilly and the Paris tracks too and this may not be the last time that she crosses the Channel after such a successful away day.

• There will now be a short break in the content from Prixdelahorse.com as I take a slight breather from French Racing. Watching it full-time is a very fulfilling profession, but like every job, there is an occasional need to take a break and refresh. Thank you for your continued support and the blog will return in September as we start the build up to the new National Hunt season.