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News In Brief of French Racing and Trotting - 25th August 2021.
This week's news-in-brief covers both thoroughbred and trotting developments with the final qualifier for the Trophée Vert, Deauville's summer carnival as well as International performances
Clegs des Champs
Clegs des Champs has now recovered from a training injury that occurred in early July and will likely now take part in the Mounted International G2 Prix Camille Lepecq (2175m) this Saturday at Vincennes.
Jérôme Reynier
The Marseille based trainer has continued to show his specialist favoured area in Italian racing when visiting with Rumbles of Thunder (Night of Thunder) and Quickstep Girl (New Bay) to make the frame in the Listed Premio Merano. It is expected the pair of fillies will now target Back type races in France.
Montier-en-Der
Montier-en-Der staged the final qualifier in the 2021 Trophée Vert series before the final on Monday 6 September at Craon. Eight-year-old, Diégo de Cahot recorded his 21st grass triumph last Sunday. This has further boosted his grass record of an astonishing 91% strike rate when finishing top two in grass races.
Trophée Vert
After Diégo de Cahot's victory last Sunday, where he is automatically qualified for the final, the classification currently stands with the following:
1. BY AND BY - 49 pts
2. DETROIT ACE - 46 pts
3. CLARCK SOTHO - 36 pts
4. EMENCOURT D'AZIF - 35 pts
5. ALBA CASH - 33 pts
However, By And By's participation is in doubt so overall success from the top five based on accumulated points could be down to four.
Alson
French Group One winner, Alson, will start a new phase to his career at a German riding school - Gestüt Fährhof. This school is connected to the owner and breeder Gestüt Schlenderhan. The son of Areion was a four-time winner at two years old and runner up in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère (1600m) in 2019. He found success in the G1 Critérium International (1400m) the following year at Longchamp and is also a brother to Ancient Spirit (Invincible Spirit), winner of the G2 German 2,000 Guineas (1600m) in 2018.
The Montecatini Grand Prix
Alessandro Gocciadoro trained and drove Vernissage Grif to success in the Montecatini Grand Prix (1640m) on Sunday 15 August at Montecatini-Terme, located in the Tuscany region of Italy. The seven-year-old won the heat in an impressive kilometre rating of 1'10''2 and posted a smart performance in the final with a 1'10''3. French runner, Billie de Montfort (Jasmin de Flore) finished second behind Vernissage Grif on both occasions during the evening. Vernissage Grif could now be heading to the Lottery Grand Prix (October 3) in Naples, a race potentially being targeted by Face Time Bourbon.
Suesa
The François Rohaut trained Night of Thunder filly produced another big effort last week at York in the UK. Despite being slow out of the stalls and at the back of the field, jockey William Buick, maintained calm on the filly and she made good headway to eventually finish a good fourth, only two lengths behind the winner, Winter Power in the G1 Nunthorpe Stakes (1000m). The trainer indicated after the race the G1 Prix de I'Abbaye to be run on 'Arc' day would be her next target.
Enghien's Summer Meeting
Last Wednesday marked the end of Enghien's summer meeting. Ready Cash and Ganymede tied together to be leading stallions with eight winners. Delfino (Speedy Blue) was the most successful horse throughout the meet with two victories. In the owner's competition, Philippe Allaire was top of the table whilst the top three drivers were headed up by Franck Nivard with sixteen wins, one more than Alexandre Abrivard. Éric Raffin was third with fourteen. The trainer's competition was taken by Laurent-Claude Abrivard with eleven wins ahead of Fabrice Souloy (nine) and Philippe Allaire alongside Jean-Michel Baudouin with seven each.
Snowfall
Snowfall continued her domination this season when a comfortable four length winner of the G1 Yorkshire Oaks (2400m) at York (UK) last Thursday. The Aiden O'Brien trained Deep Impact filly does not hold an entry in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (2400m) at Longchamp on Sunday 3 October but would need to be supplemented.
Deauville
Perfect Power and Grand Glory were the Group One victors on Sunday at Deauville when taking their respective Group One events. The former was a UK trained winner of the G1 Prix Morny (1200m) for two-year-olds making late ground to snatch victory and the latter was a short head narrow winner in the G1 Prix Jean Romanet (2000m). For more information regarding these two races, please look at the G1 review.
