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What I found bizarre yesterday was the notion that people (especially “ladies”) might like to “get dressed up at home” and send in photos of themselves doing so.
Can anyone on this forum explain to me why this might be anything other than a totally nonsensical thing to do?
Race number 7 although just a claimer looked interesting on paper as 9 of the 12 runners had the benefit of a previous run, 6 of them having contested the 900m claimer at St Cloud fifteen days ago.
That race was run on much softer ground “Collant” (4.4 on the stick) in contrast to the official going of “Bon” (3.2) here at Fontainebleau.
As might be expected in a 1000m race on fast ground, racing prominently was a big advantage with the first four home occupying variations on those places for the whole race and nothing else ever really getting involved.
Lagoone Chope was the beaten favourite in that St Cloud race. Like her winning stablemate, Vanilla Bleue, she was claimed by Frederick Rossi. Equipped with blinkers for this re-appearance she was again sent off as favourite. Her backers collected this time with the only slightly anxious moment being when Maxime Guyon asked her to take it up just outside the 200m mark and she wandered left and right before getting the message. Taking no chances, Guyon drove her right out and she was well on top by the finish.
Jazzy Wood, fifth at St Cloud, got a bit closer to the winner here and showed good pace against the rail, he may find a similar race but is clearly no world beater. Blue Dream, fourth at St Cloud and supported in the market to turn the tables on Lagoone Chope on 1.5kg better terms wasn’t able to do so and was slightly disappointing, becoming a little unbalanced over 300m out and never launching a challenge. Both his runs to date have suggested to me that he has ability but not the pace to win over this trip. Connections submitted a “friendly claim” for 40k euros so they are clearly keen to keep him for another day.
The three newcomers were all sent off at double figure prices and only La Mathilde showed a glimmer of promise and nowhere near enough to suggest she will be winning imminently.
Beauty Fatale did best of the three runners representing the Lyon-Parilly maiden that opened the season and seemed sharpened up by the first-time cheek-pieces. Again she may find a small race but isn’t one to go overboard on.
Sone of the also rans have now been beaten twice in this grade and look very moderate performers, certainly over these short distances.
The next races are on Tuesday, a race for newcomers at Chantilly, and a maiden at the lesser known venue of Tarbes in South-West France where the previously noted Detesnouvelles is amongst the entries.
TKF – Yes that was frustrating re the missed start at Lion D’Angers – I’m puzzled by how Joli Coup and Rickman both became detached yet made up the lost ground quite easily with no obvious let up in the pace. I agree regarding the winner’s style but she was getting a lot of weight from the second and third, it was hard not to be taken by that little surge of pace that effectively won the race in the blinking of an eye however.
I see our friend Feli Chop is entered at Fontainebleu on Friday, he helps tie up the form lines a bit if nothing else!
Really enjoying the analysis of the UK and Irish races you and Colin Phillips are providing – I don’t have to bother watching those races as it’s all taken care of by the pair of you.
Two more juvenile races over the bank holiday weekend.
On Saturday the first race to include a bend and the first race over more than 1000m. Due to a stalls malfunction this race went off a few minutes late which caused France Galop to miss the first 100m or so which was annoying as two of the runners were already some way behind at this stage. Unfortunately there is no sectional timings report for this race either so it’s hard to tell if the pace slowed down for the 200-400m segment. This certainly appeared to be the case as the two detached runners had comfortably latched on to the rear of the main group by that stage.
One of these early stragglers was Joli Coup. Having made up the lost ground he ran very green all the way up the straight but was still able to stay on well enough to take second, albeit having no chance with the winner. This was an undoubtedly eye-catching performance but a bit too obvious for me. He may well win next time but is likely to be over-bet and not represent any value. It’s also worth nothing that he has already been gelded so may not be entirely straightforward.
I also won’t be backing the winner, Miss Cleopatra, next time out either as although the manner of her 2.5 length victory was quite taking, with a nice surge of acceleration to put the race to bed at the 200m pole, once the fillies allowance and her rider’s claim are taken into account she isn’t rated any more highly than the second or third, who were both trying to concede 5kg to the winner, a tough enough task at any time let alone on your racecourse debut.
A word about the disappointing favourite, Prettycharly. She showed good speed to halfway but dropped out very quickly once pushed along. She pulled hard here and also ran very freely on the way to post so possibly lost her race before it had even started. She clearly has some pace and might win a similar event if learning to settle.
And so on to Marseille-Borely on Easter Monday, a 950m maiden for unraced juveniles run on unusually fast ground by French standards “3.0” on the penetrometer and officially described as good (of the 400 or so two year old races run on turf in 2020, only 16 were run on ground this fast or faster).
Only six went to post, possibly put off by the ground conditions and in this sixth race of the season we finally had a colt win and a favourite win.
Lesslepasser, sent off at even money on the PMU (6/4 UK industry SP), disputed the lead throughout with Uncle Bo (weak in the market but ran a sound race) until mastering that rival with over 300m to run, and then just having to be nudged out to hold the late challenge of Gorl Pit. I thought he had a little bit in hand here and he is clearly well regarded although shortly after the winning post he jinked right and unshipped Gregory Benoist. I assume he was soon caught and didn’t sustain any injury as a result of this.
The one I am interested in from this race is the third Secret Feeling. Jessica Marcialis had problems getting this daughter of Recorder to settle and although tracking the leaders, she was still inclined to pull too hard. She then hit a slight flat spot when the winner quickened and was twice intimidated by Gorl Pit lugging into her under pressure. Despite these difficulties she finished on the bridle and only beaten a length and a half. Charley Rossi rarely has first time out winners and Secret Feeling was the outsider of the party here at 12/1. I expect her to improve on this and pick up a similar sprint maiden in the next couple of runs.
Next up is a claimer at Fontainebleu on Friday where five of the fourteen entries have run previously.
The Prix De Debut at Chantilly was restricted to newcomers “Inédits” in the local parlance and the race itself was dominated by those racing up with the pace. The winner Diablotine was smartly in to her stride and although swerving left at the 200m pole when given a reminder by Aude Duporte, she soon recovered and stretched away for an emphatic five length success.
Seemingly unfancied at 14/1 and hailing from a yard that didn’t have a juvenile winner last season she clearly has plenty of pace and could win again in this early part of the season, assuming that the third countrywide lockdown announced yesterday by President Macron doesn’t disrupt the fixture list.
The beaten favourite, Massa Chop, trained by in-form Jane Soubagné was a bit restless in the stalls (waiting for Spellchope to load) and slightly missed the break. Never travelling well and looking a little awkward in first time cheekpieces, better was clearly expected but I won’t be in a hurry to back him next time on this showing.
One of the other market principals that I am more inclined to give another chance to is Glen Carlos. The booking of Pierre-Charles Boudot for Eoghan O’Neill’s colt suggested a big run was expected as did the 7/2 SP. At halfway his backers might have thought they were going to collect as he travelled strongly in the front rank. However when push came to shove he was very green, drifting into the centre of the course and Boudot, quickly realising that his mount did not have the experience to muster any sort of challenge, allowed him to come home in his own time. This kindness should be repaid in due course. The sectional timings report show that this son of Goken ran the fastest 200m segment of the race of any of the field with his 10.89 effort between the 800m and 600m points.
Sectional timing report can be seen here:Prix du Debut sectional report
Good stuff TKF, how do you manage to keep on top of all these races?
When I’ve tried to follow UK two year olds in the past there are just so many races that by about Royal Ascot it becomes too onerous and fizzles out. Do you at some point look to lessen your workload and, say, ignore sellers and claimers and just concentrate on maidens and conditions races?
BTW I agree Vanille Bleue was impressive at St Cloud – did you see she was claimed for 46k afterwards? I think she will be joining Frederic Rossi who is a trainer I hold in high regard – he claimed a filly called Miss Louna last season when she won at Clairefontaine and she ended up Listed placed (and was third in a Class 1 at Toulouse this month) – so I’m moving away from my original thoughts that she might be hard to place.
I’ll be interested to see what you make of the Chantilly maiden tomorrow – I’ll post my thoughts on the other thread in due course.
“Oppressed minority” indeed. This strikes me as being an attempt to stamp out a leisure activity that some people disapprove of (or bankrupt the organisations that provide people with the opportunity to bet) wrapped up in the “we must protect the most vulnerable in society” spiel.
I’ve only recently joined the forum but have been a long time “lurker” and I can say that almost without exception the regular posters on here couldn’t possibly be described as “vulnerable” and seem to be well educated, literate and rational yet these are the people that will be affected by this unwelcome and unwarranted interference.
Meanwhile should we expect people buying scratch cards or playing Bingo or the obscene Euro Millions and other “games” where the outcome is based solely on chance and no amount of analysis or research can assist you in winning to be subject to similar scrutiny. Or moving further afield will we see the people that buy new clothes every week or upgrade to a new phone when there’s nothing wrong with their “old” one having to demonstrate that they can afford to toss this money away.
Some people are problem gamblers that’s not in doubt and I don’t have the answer to how best to help them but this isn’t it (and I honestly don’t believe there is much intention to help those people, it’s much more about “this on line betting is terrible isn’t it, we must put a stop to it”.)
Interesting that you felt Feli Chop “ran on with promise both times” on his two starts – I’m also analysing the French juveniles this season (see my thread “Les Chevaux De Deux Ans” for my verbose waffling thus far) and I noted in my comments in running:
Lyon: P1 slowly into stride and soon behind, nudged along and some late headway but carried head to one side and looked a bit awkward here in first time c/pieces
St Cloud: B1 awkward in midfield, driven along from halfway and inclined to hang left, stayed on under pressure to take 2nd near finish, showed benefit of debut run but looks tricky
I’ve rated him as improving 4kg from his debut run but think he was slightly flattered by staying on past beaten rivals that had tried to lay up with the pace making winner. As always it’s all a matter of opinions and I’m always happy (and rarely surprised) to be proved wrong.
Very fair comments, thanks for the explanation and apologies for the brief diversion from the main thrust of your thread.
Apracing – have you considered having a horse trained in France? I don’t know how the fees etc compare but looking at tomorrow’s Doncaster’s card and yesterday’s St Cloud fixture and the difference is stark particularly at the lower end. I couldn’t believe the three year old maiden is worth only £2862 – there were three such races at St Cloud yesterday worth €13500 for the two races confined to newcomers and €17500 for the “open” maiden. Also a €25k handicap for five year olds and upwards – when did you last see one of those in the UK?
I appreciate this is a deviation from the original point you are making but interested to get your take on it nevertheless. Base yourself in Deauville, race your flat horses on the All Weather track there and plot up some jumpers for a trip down the road to Dieppe – what’s not to like? (Food probably better too!)
No notebook entries after the third race of the season although the winner, Vanille Bleue, was undoubtedly impressive, quickening away in good style having raced prominently throughout, and scoring by three and a half lengths despite being eased close home.
Although this race was a claimer the winner’s prize of €12k compares favourably with the €9k to the winner of both maidens run so far and with claiming prices ranging from €20k to €36 this race was probably at least as good as those contests, however the run of second placed Feli Chop making a quick reappearance having been well beaten at Lyon-Parilly casts some doubts on that.
The winner, was in at the €20k mark which allowed her to receive a nice chunk of weight off most of her rivals, was subsequently claimed by Mbaye Niang for €46k so he was obviously impressed by what he saw. I think she may be hard to place going forward and I tend not to follow these first time out winners for that reason but am happy to be proved wrong.
This was Jane Soubagne’s first winner of the season. I suggested in a previous post that her string would be well forward and her four two year olds to run so far have finished 2nd, 3rd, 1st, 3rd so she remains a handler to keep a close eye on in these opening skirmishes.
The next contest is not until Thursday 1st April when Chantilly hosts the imaginatively entitled “Prix Du Debut” for unraced juveniles. Familiar names amongst the trainers represented are Gavin Hernon and Eoghan O’Neill whilst Madame Soubagne has entered Massa Chop, a Captain Chop half-brother to seven winners of thirty five races of varying qualities.
À bientôt!
Wonder what his highly rated horse was officially. Dayjur perhaps.
I was always curious as to why Sakhee got ‘moved’ to Godolphin.
Wasn’t that in the infancy of Goldolphin so possibly done in order to have an already proven G1 performer to launch the operation with a bang. That’s just my speculation rather than anything factual.
I don’t know about officially highest rated but Dayjur’s Nunthorpe win remains the fastest horse I’ve seen in the flesh. I think he had a couple of two year olds pick up Group races at that Ebor meeting too (Mujadil for Robert Armstrong perhaps or maybe Mujtahid – one of them must have won the Gimcrack).
Good call MoodyMan re Elmaamul – I have similar positive memories of Zaahi when he bolted up in the Diomed stakes on Derby Day in 1993 (might have been 1992) – supposedly as they pulled up afterwards Pat Eddery on whatever had been a distant second said to winning rider Richard Hills “that horse should be in the next race”. Also Ajfan sneaking into the frame at massive odds in the 1000 Guineas around the same time.
The more I think about it the more the memories are coming back. Willie Carson in trademark head down punching away style on Salsabil, Shadayid always on the verge of boiling over, under rated Marju, Nashwan’s siblings (in approximate order of merit) Unfuwain, Alwasmi, Mukaddamah.
Second race of the French two-year-old season run today at La Teste Buch situated in the South West of France not far from Bordeaux.
This race was, as you might expect, a run of the mill maiden run over 1000m and, like the opening event at Lyon-Parilly on Saturday, featured a short priced favourite that failed to deliver. Sent off at 13/8, Speed Chop was a little green but held every chance over 200m out before finding no extra and weakening to finish fifth.
The winner Ma Noire made all the running and despite looking to hang right throughout the last 400m still had enough in reserve to win unchallenged. Her trainer, Bruno Montzey, had his first winner of any kind this calendar year at the weekend so looks to be running into form. He saddles Sam Blaster (was also entered in this race) in the £12k claimer at St Cloud tomorrow so it will be worth keeping an eye on how he goes there.
It’s easy to get carried away with promising performances from beaten horses at this time of year and I will be trying to resist that temptation but two of the also rans here are worthy of note. The first of these is Easy Skanking (which wasn’t the easiest name for the French on course commentator to get to grips with). This filly is trained by Maurizio Guarnieri who handled the smart Plainchant last year (now joined John Gosden apparently) and whilst I’m not suggesting she is anywhere near as good as her she showed enough here to suggest a similar race will be no problem. Sent off at 7/2 second favourite the daughter of promising sire Shalaa showed good speed to dispute the lead for the first 200m before dropping into a tracking position. She was still going OK, although just starting to be pushed along, when losing momentum due to the favourite taking her ground on the rail (rider given a one day ban for this misdemeanour).Maxime Guyon very quickly accepted the situation and eased her right down in the last 400m. Expect her to make amends for this shortly.
The second runner of note was Detesnouvelles who showed good speed for the first 600m but then ran green when asked to quicken up and could only find one pace in the closing stages under a sympathetic ride from Ioritz Mendizabal. She will learn a lot from this.
France Galop produce sectional timings for some of the bigger tracks. I’m not so sure how useful they are in the context of French races where they seemingly never go an even gallop but this is the full report from today’s race: Tracking report for 2yo maiden at La Teste
Thanks VTC. I’m not expecting many bets this early in the season but it helps my thought process to put things down in black and white
This is very sad news. Always followed his horses from Al Bahathri in the mid eighties through to Elarqam more recently. I can’t really explain why, I liked his colours and even found the indecipherable Arabic names quite alluring in a funny sort of way.
What was the best horse he owned, Nashwan, Dayjur maybe?
Hopefully not a sign of things to come with the opening two-year-old contest being won by unconsidered 16/1 shot (33/1 on the PMU) Jose Josephine just getting the better of Maroon Six in a tight finish.
The good showing of the runner up reinforces my belief that Jane Soubagne will have her string well forward in this early part of the season and she has two entries in both the maiden at La Teste on Wednesday and the quite valuable claimer at St Cloud on Thursday.
Best Sixteen was sent off a rather miserly 11/8 favourite and on the face of it, was a little disappointing. However I think he was disadvantaged being drawn 11 out 11 and having to race alone in the centre of the course (The winner and runner up were drawn in stalls 1 and 2 respectively). He was also inclined to hang left from halfway when asked to pick up the pace by Pierre-Charles Boudot. Despite this, he was going on nicely at the finish under hands and heels (the front two had much harder races) and I suspect connections will be keen for him to make amends in a similar contest sooner rather than later. He is the first “notebook” entry of the season.
Of the rest Hurly Cane made up a lot of late ground having been outpaced early on but I think her staying on was exaggerated by the pacesetters being eased off in front once beaten so I won’t be adding her to the notebook just yet.
