PRIX PRIDE OF KILDARE

PRIX PRIDE OF KILDARE

Auteuil - 1st October

I’m quite a big fan of the Prix Pride of Kildare at Auteuil which is one of the last debutantes hurdles for the 3-year-olds in France every year. The race has produced the likes of Gust of Wind, Jazzy Matty, Live Conti, Macho Man, Feel Gut and Forty Fifty and those have come in just the last few years. It’s probably one of the last opportunities to get hold of a 3-year-old prospect in France before the new National Hunt season in the UK and Ireland really gets going. So what about the 2026 renewal? Here are my notes on the main players.

Well the first point that I would like to make is that I don’t think this race was as good as some of those recent renewals. There were plenty of runners in contention as the field turned for home, but the overall time was slower than both the 4-year-olds later on the card and the earlier claiming hurdle run over the same course and distance. By itself, that’s not always a deciding factor, especially with such young horses, but the number of jumping errors and the bizarre set of circumstances after the last flight have left me with a lot of question marks. I’ll start with the runner-up News des Briers. He had the benefit of 14 starts on the Flat before this hurdling debut, winning once and earning a rating of 25 kilos from the French handicapper (55 in UK terms). Having reached prominently, he was in the ideal place but jumped violently to his left in the latter part of the race and lost several lengths over each obstacles as a result. Despite this, he jumped the last in front and had a 5 length lead with 100m to run, only to pull himself up in the latter stages to be chinned in the final strides. Even without his earlier Flat form, this would raise a few question marks in my form book and the manner of his defeat, despite being able to control the race around the final turn, does not inspire me.

OEHLEN picked up the pieces for Francois Nicolle and Tristan Lemagnen. He has the pedigree of a Prix Pride of Kildare winner being a gelded son of No Risk At All and a half-brother to 6 winners, including hurdle winners Porto Pollo and Nicos Invicta. An SP of 20.0 PMU doesn’t offer too many clues about his connections pre-race expectations, but having also made an error at the last, I liked the way that he rallied in the closing stages to close on the stopping leader. He won and that can only be seen as a positive, but he looked readily outpaced between the final 2 flights before staying on again and I can’t help but feel that a stronger leader would not have come back.

Neverland du Clos (3rd) and Raffles Tempo (4th) were both ridden very patiently and had little chance as a result. They both finished quite nicely, though having jumped the 2nd last within a length of the winner, Raffles Tempo could perhaps have finished a little closer. He’s a Beamed de Houelle gelding from the family of Amazing Comedy and may well prove to be better over a longer trip in time. He made some nice headway around the final turn, but like the runner-up just lacked the turn-of-foot between the final 2 flights after closing. Neverland du Clos ran a very similar race and may take a step forward for Champion trainer Mickael Seror, but he wore a hood for this debut and was ridden very quietly towards the rear. Almost last as they came to the 2nd last, he dived over the last before finishing strongly to be a never-nearer 3rd. He clearly has some ability and is probably the one to take from this race for next time, but he was readily left behind when the pace lifted and would probably benefit from a stronger pace.

The beaten favourite was the Arnaud Chaille-Chaille and Francois Pamart trained Keep It Simple who runs in the colours of Sean Mulryan. He won a Bumper at Craon in early September, but he wandered around in the closing stages and was all out to win by a neck. The market had perhaps overreacted slightly to that form by making him the 2.5 favourite on the PMU, but he left Auteuil with no real excuses. Having sat behind the pace, he made headway around the turn and closed on the leader before finding little when asked for maximum effort. He should improve with racing, but he still looks like he has some growing to do to fill his tall frame and looked largely one paced when it mattered. He is a Doctor Dino gelding whose dam placed in graded company over hurdles, but despite his pedigree, he shapes like a longer term prospect at this stage.

Other to note from this race would be Wolf Prince (Daniela Mele) who was ridden as the stable’s 2nd string and who will almost certainly improve for the benefit of this first run. Similar comments could also be applied to the 5th placed Wolf D’Auteuil (George and Zetterholm) who was sent off the 2nd favourite at 6.0 PMU. He was widest of all in the home straight, but kept on at the one pace after the last flight and ought to be a bit more streetwise next time out.