The second meeting of the Skybet Sunday Series does not make much appeal with four Class 4 handicaps culminating a card that features a number of short-priced favourites such as Hamlet’s Night (Even money, 5.15) and Alther Walden (11/10, 6.15), together with a couple of well-fancied Jim Goldie runners Dwindling Funds (9/4, 3.45) and Montezuma (3/1, 6.45).
Over at Longchamp, the first big race of the flat season features just five after the defection of Cualificar, with even the outsider of the quintet not totally out of contention. As always with French races, this is probably going to turn out to be tactical in the absence of any foreign contenders, so who will win the sprint in the straight?
The favourite is certain to be Arc winner Daryz from the Graffard barn in the Aga Khan colours. Over two furlongs shorter, will Jean-Claude Rouget’s Arc sixth Arrow Eagle be able to upset the odds? Arc disappointment Aventure also returns here and she won the Prix Allez France over course and distance first time out last term. In the same owners’ colours is Andre Fabre’s Bright Picture, who has winning Group 2 form last term and has won both starts this year in the Group 3 Prix Exbury and the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt last time in a four way finish that saw First Look finish fourth, Cualificar third and Leffard (eighth in the Arc) second. First Look won the Prix Dollar last term (Bright Picture third) but has been behind the Wertheimer and Frere gelding both starts this year and it is difficult to see any grounds for third time lucky against that stablemate. With jockey bookings no indication of preference between the two Fabre five year olds, I would be more inclined to go with Aventure than Daryz, whose only Group 1 win was over twelve furlongs and was beaten by a Japanese horse on his last outing at this trip.
Notable that in the opening four-runner Group 3 Prix de Barbeville, Graffard’s Asmarani beat Ferland’s Double Major for the third race on the trot but it was closer than last time!
