Prix de Ranville - "Gold Tweet"

Prix de Ranville

Compiegne - 10/09/2025

5YO+ C2 Hurdle - 3,600m - Tres Souple 4,1

A race won by a confirmed front runner in Gallipoli. Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm have had a very fast start to the autumn season in Paris, landing 2 winners on the opening day at Auteuil and adding to that with a further 2 winners on this Compiegne card. We hadn’t seen Gallipoli since he finished 2nd to Kamaro d’Huez in the Leopold D’Orsetti hurdle here last November, but with the yard going so well he was clearly close to peak fitness for this return. His record over hurdles now stands at  4 wins from 16 starts and 3 of those wins have come at Compiegne. Sent forwards by James Reveley, he was kept wide on the first circuit and as far as the 2nd last, Reveley was keen to keep his mount off the inside line. Brought to the stands side as they turned for home, he quickened between the last 2, forcing a mistake from the beaten favourite and eventual 3rd, Impressive. Once jumping the last in front, with the rail to assist, he kept on relatively easily to win by 9-lengths, giving away weight to the placed horses in the process. He has backed dup once before in his career, but that was back in 2021 and having enjoyed a relatively soft time of things in front, he is not the certainty next time that a 9-length winning margin might suggest, for all that he has won this with some authority.

Impressive had been winning at a lower level throughout the summer, but whilst he was a wide margin winner at Senonnes and Vittel, he took a significant rise in class here and was found out. He won the Listed Prix Go Ahead as a 3-year-old and he was thought good enough to run in G1 chases in the past, but he made a couple of small errors before blundering through the top of the 2nd last, which all but ended his chance. There are no real excuses for this defeat and it may simply be that he has been well placed and subsequently found out against better horses.

Gold Tweet is the horse to note. He’s a classy type on his day and having been settled deliberately behind the front 2, he was as much as 12-lengths behind the leader at the bottom of the hill. He has made some progress to close in the straight, but Gabin Meunier chose to make his effort away from the stands rail in the centre of the course and with “gentle encouragement”, he was the fastest finisher from the back of the last flight to the line in 16.85s. There is a G2 Chase here in October that seems the most obvious place to go with him, though he would also have the option of the Prix de La Gascogne in 3-weeks time too. He will almost certainly improve for this run and the majority of his best form has always come between October and January in the past. It will be interesting to see if he is brought to the UK again this season, as he was when 4th in the Betfair Chase behind Royale Pagaille last November (beaten 18-lengths). Given the way that he travels into his races, Compiegne seems to suit and having touched a single figure price in running at Haydock, he didn’t appear to get the trip in attritional conditions. The intermediate 4,400m trip in France is the ideal for him, but given how well he closed in the straight, chasing home a winner who sets a fair standard when getting his own way in front, he is a horse to note and there is every chance that he will be able to overturn this form.

The front 3 pulled firmly 9-lengths clear of the lightly raced Kourvit (Chaille-Chaille & Pamart), who made little headway having been ridden quietly with the “also-rans”.