Prix Djebel - Afandy

At some point today I have to sit down and try to make sense of the result in the Prix Imprudence with it’s 64/1 winner (Showna). That will require a couple of strong coffees and some forgiveness of plenty of the runners, but before we get to that, I will allow myself a small amount of congratulation after Afandy romped to an all the way victory in the Prix Djebel. As you can see from the related articles below, he was one of the first horses that I picked out in 2026 and although he was beaten in the Prix de la Californie at Cagnes-Sur-Mer, I think we can now safely put that down to being an error of judgement from Cristian Demuro and he has firmly restored his reputation with this success.

A winning time of 1:20.73 made this the fastest winning time in this race in the last 15 years. The ground played a significant role in that and the overall time for both this race and the Prix Imprudence would suggest that it was probably heading towards "Good to Firm" in the April sunshine at Deauville. However, having made all the running after an opening furlong of 14.47s, we can certainly give Afandy a sectional upgrade for the pace that he set and ultimately maintained. The McLloyd sectional times show that he quickened again with 3 furlongs to run, coming home with furlong splits of 10.73, 10.62 and 11.54s at a top speed of 67.7 km/h. This was a serious performance on the clock from Jean-Claude Rouget’s son of Mehmas, who average 11.53s per furlong over the 1,400m trip. He’s an Al Shaqab homebred and would look to be one of the most exciting prospects that those owners have had in France in recent years. As I said back in January, he is a gelding and much like when Lazzat won this race a couple of years ago, his options will be limited for the next few months as the colts take centre stage. However, in his post-race interview, Jean-Claude Rouget implied that they would be following a similar route with Afandy, aiming at the Deauville races in the Summer, with the Prix Jean Prat mentioned as a possible target. There are some Listed and G3 races that he could take in along the way, perhaps the G2 Prix Paul de Moussac at Paris Longchamp in June would look to be the most obvious fit. Either way, I am in no doubt that Afandy should be capable of developing into a Group 1 performer later in the season based on the evidence that we have from the Prix Djebel.

If Afandy is that good, then I should also give some credit to the runner-up, Samangan. On his first start of the season, he looked to be carrying at least some condition and under the circumstances, I thought that he ran a fine race for Francis-Henri Graffard. This was his first start since October and having traveled nicely under Mickael Barzalona on the stands side before being left behind in the final furlong, he ran a very promising race. Afandy clearly had a fitness edge and Samangan put 2 lengths between himself and the rest of the field with closing splits of 10.55 and 11.65s. With the benefit of this run, he would look to be a contender for the Poule D’Essai des Poulains in a few weeks time.