Haras-De-Fresnay-Le-Buffard Prix Jean Prat (G1)

It’s hard to be overly sure how much running alongside the stands side rail may or may not have improved the chances of THESECRETADVERSARY in this year’s Prix Jean Prat. He certainly got a very good ride from Christophe Soumillon, who achieved the perfect balance between maintaining a decent gallop and conserving energy for the final sprint for home inside the last 2 furlongs. Fozzy Stack’s stable star had won the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot in June so this victory certainly wasn’t coming from left field, but I still can’t quite shake the feeling that his position on the track and in the race gave him a significant edge, especially over the runner-up.

TRUE LOVE ran the fastest final furlong in the race in 11.28s and having been beaten by a winning margin of just 0.09s, the fact that she gave away 0.37s with a slow start in the opening furlong has ultimately made the difference. She recovered well under Ryan Moore, but having given the winner a decent start, she was still a quarter of a second behind with 2 furlongs to run and he certainly wasn’t going to stop. A winning time of 1:22.17 was fairly quick. Since the race distance was dropped back to 1,400m in 2019, only Too Darn Hot (2019) and Puchkine (2024) have gone faster, but in a race where Christophe Soumillon was able to dictate, True Love simply gave herself too much to do over what is probably a short enough 7 furlong trip. The winner has form over a mile and whilst he has now shown that this 7 furlong trip is probably his optimum distance, he was also very unlikely to stop inside the final 200m. The sectional times from McLloyd show that all 7 runners ran times under 11s for the penultimate furlong and with a finishing speed of 106.1% from the winner, the ideal place to be was in front with the stands rail to help. The winner holds entries in the City of York Stakes, the Prix Jacques Le Marois, the Minstrel Stakes, the Sprint Cup at Haydock and the Irish Champion Stakes, so it would certainly be fair to say that his options remain open. However, for the 2nd race in a row he has produced a career best performance over a 7 furlong trip and that is where I think he should remain for now.

True Love holds similar entries, although she is also entered in the Sussex Stakes at the end of the month. Taking on Bow Echo seems like quite a difficult task, but I do think the mile would suit her better. She blew the start, but she was really only getting going inside the final 2 furlongs and in a steadily run race over 1,400m, her lack of instant speed was exposed at this level.

The runners trained in Ireland were easy to assess, the runners trained in France were not. I’m slowly coming to the conclusion that the French 2,000 Guineas form was below par. The field are 2 from 14 since the race in May and none of the first 5 to cross the line have improved on their next starts. Rayif traveled well to a point, but he never looked like winning and he couldn’t hold off his stablemate inside the final furlong. He is a son of Sea the Moon and so there is perhaps a case to be made that the quicker Summer ground was against him, but against genuine G1 speed he has been found wanting. The stewards asked Mickael Barzalona for a comment after the race and he replied that “the pace was insufficient and that the colt was caught out for a lack of speed when it did lift”. I won’t entirely give up on him, he is a classic winner after all, but for now I think I can add him to the “wait for the rain in the autumn” list before he can be considered. Samangan ran another decent race and he is holding his form, but in both starts at the top table he has come up slightly short. I am sure they will find races for him, but I don’t think they are likely to be in G1 company this year.

If there is a small positive, then it would be Christopher Head’s NIGHTTIME. He has improved since running in the Poulains in May and having been closest to the winner in the early stages, I thought he stuck to the task well to finish 3rd. He’s by Wootton Bassett from the family of Midday and with Frankel in his immediate pedigree, I do think it would be worth exploring the option of stepping him up beyond a mile. Although he showed plenty of speed and justified the decision to return to 1,400m, the way he kept on in the closing stages would suggest that he could get further. It’s been a difficult year to try and assess the French colts and the best of them were probably not running on this card, but of those that we did see on Sunday, Nighttime is the one who is still improving in my opinion and if he is stepped up in trip, he will be a very interesting prospect to note.