PRIX FREDERIC DE LAGRANGE

Monday saw the start of the Vichy Summer Festival, one of my favourite weeks of the year. Unfortunately, that coincided with the final day of the Test Match at Lord’s and with that distraction, I missed what looked to be a gift of a price about Yellow Jersey to win the Listed Prix Frederic de Lagrange. Regular readers of this blog will know that I was extremely impressed by his debut win at Saint-Cloud earlier in the season (see related articles) and with 3 subsequent winners having come out of that maiden, he would probably have been a decent bet at the morning price of 100/30. Alas, that’s one that got away but aside from my feeling of missing out, this was a superb performance from Andre Fabre’s 3-year-old who has dominated this Listed contest under a very confident ride from Alexis Pouchin. Settled behind the early leaders, he was pulled out to challenge with 400m to run and quickened readily, finishing the race with furlongs of 10.82 and 11.32s to win by over 2-lengths. He was the only horse to dip below an 11-second furlong in the contest and in truth, he was probably a class above this level. Before you get too excited about his prospects, it’s important to remember that he is a gelding and as such his options are more limited as he climbs the ladder. However, he holds an entry in the Arqana 3-year-old race at Deauville next month and given that the race is a €130,000 contest, that must be a tempting target. On this evidence, he will be hard to beat wherever he goes.

As for those in behind, Zingaro came into this race on the back of a Quinte Handicap win at Paris Longchamp in May and looks to have improved again on his first try in pattern company. He was no match for Yellow Jersey in the closing stages, but time may well prove that he faced a near impossible task on these terms and he certainly showed more than enough to suggest that he could win a Listed race next time, putting a gap of nearly 2-lengths between himself and the 3rd placed Quinteplus. He came into this race in search of a hat-trick after a pair of wins at Angers and Lyon Parilly and helps to give some further depth to this piece of form. The 3 of them largely controlled the race, especially in the final 1,000m, but with a finishing speed of 113.6%, there is a slight note of caution that’s needed given the race turned into a sprint. However, Yellow Jersey is a son of Dubawi from the family of Paix, Pacifique, Magic Wand and Chicquita, so the fact that he was able to show so much speed with all tat stamina in his pedigree bodes very well, especially for French racing. I should also give a small mention to the 4th placed horse, Master Cath, who ran the fastest final furlong in 11.30s and who was too far back to get involved off such a steady early pace. He’s won 5 races already this season and looks to be capable of making his mark at this level too, though the winner is the only horse that I would be confident to be with in a higher grade.