Prixdelahorse Tracker - Norman Prince

Norman Prince

3YO AQPS Gelding by Born to Sea

Trained by Mathieu Pitart

Form: 2

Notes: All eyes will be on the French Classic trials at Deauville today and rightly so, but away from that there was a card at Lignieres-en-Berry and one of the 3-year-old AQPS debutantes really caught the eye. NORMAN PRINCE is a 3-year-old gelding by Born to Sea whose dam is a half-sister to the 2020 Champion Hurdle winner Epatante. That’s an eye-catching name to have on any page, but this was a very promising debut and Norman Prince showed plenty to finish a never-nearer 2nd at Lignieres, beaten 2.5 lengths by No Risk Allen. The winner had been 3rd on his debut behind No Tears at Argentan last month, a horse who has subsequently been sold to join Willie Mullins in Ireland for the 2026-27 campaign. Settled behind the leaders at a sedate early pace, No Risk Allen was perfectly placed and able to come wide into the home straight to get the first run. Having kicked clear with 200m to go, No Risk Allen was home and hosed to win as he liked, but behind that, Norman Price ran a fine race.

Having raced behind the winner in the early stages, he was left behind when No Risk Allen switched wide off the home turn and having been in 6th place with 300m to run, Norman Prince could have been forgiven for finishing there. Instead, despite having to wait for those in front of him to drift across to the inside rail, he was brought wide by Jerome Claudic and made remarkable progress in the final furlong, closing around 5 lengths on the winner to finish a clear 2nd. The winner was conceding 1.5 kg to Norman Prince, but given the way that the pace developed in the latter half of the race, I thought that Norman Prince was the best horse in this field and he should get the chance to go one better with a clear run around next time.

Last year, the same connections ran Milpat in an AQPS race at Moulins and after a similarly promising debut, he was sold to join Jamie Snowden in the UK, adding a Huntingdon bumper to his CV in December for the McNeill family. As with any promising 3-year-old, there is always the chance that Norman Prince could have his suitors in the UK or Ireland, but either way this was debut to note and you will struggle to find a shrewder set of connections than James Finch and the late Sam Sutton.