Interesting maidens opening the Deauville card. Some well bred and potentially decent sorts in the races consisting of unraced colts and fillies.
I have decided to take a chance based on trainers in and out of form at the moment. For me the man to avoid has to be Andre Fabre because he is only 3/41 this past fortnight. That is poor by his standard and a concern with the French Guineas not that far away now. On the other hand Jean-Claude Rouget has found his form and six of his last ten runners have won. Alex Pantall has, I am told, the biggest stable in France and he has had a handful of winners but those five successes have come from 71 runners and that is a 7% strike rate. Meanwhile Francis Graffard continues in good form and his 7/25 is four times the Pantall strike rate on 28%.
For these reasons I went with Rouget's Edge Of Victory, who has an excellent pedigree being by Kingman out if French 1000 Guineas winner Beauty Parlour. He is not a big price at 7/4 but I have to give him a chance with the trainer coming to the boil. Wind Spirit was the other I was considering as she is as low as 2/1 with some firms but available at 4/1.
The other selection was Francis Graffard's Hyperbolique. She is by Dabirsim and while he wouldn't be my favourite sire based on the overall quality of his stock I am trusting that the trainer thinks a bit of her and will have her ready to go. The alternative was Bated Breath filly Cubit for the in form Pascal Bary.
12.25 Deauville Edge Of Victory 7/4
1.00 Deauville Hyperbolique 4/1
Just doing them as a win double, given that the first runner isn't much of a price.
In the Group 3 race Call The Wind is 4/7 Fav but Freddy Head is 0/17 this past fortnight and his supposed star filly Khayzaraan ran like a drain in the Grotte won by Tropbeau. Call The Wild is not for me.
