The Group 1 Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly today is the last chance for the European three-year-old milers to gain a Group 1 success before they have to step up a gear and take on their elders.
Aidan O’Brien, Richard Hannon and Mahmood Al Zarooni take the opportunity to send, respectively, Zoffany, Strong Suit and Neebras overseas in search of that Group 1 win, but they face competition from the domestic team, headed by the Andre Fabre-trained Mutual Trust.
Prince Khalid Abdullah’s colt is unbeaten in three runs, and he showed a smart turn of foot to win a Group 3 contest over today’s course and distance three weeks ago.
Of the three raiders, the form book says that Neebras is third best. The Godolphin colt was beaten by Strong Suit on his racecourse debut at Newbury last year, and he finished almost two lengths behind Zoffany when they finished fourth and second respectively behind Frankel in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot last month.
Zoffany’s run there was hugely encouraging. A top-class juvenile last season, winner of the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes, he disappointed on his final run last term in the Irish National Stakes, and he was on a recovery mission at Ascot after finishing second behind Bewitched in a Group 3 at Leopardstown on his only run this term before the royal meeting.
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Ryan Moore rode him conservatively out the back at Ascot, delaying his challenge until he reached the two-furlong pole. Now that connections know that he stays a mile, Moore can be more aggressive this afternoon, but the market is onto him, and best odds of 5-2 are no better than fair.
Conversely, Strong Suit looks overpriced at around the 4-1 mark. Richard Hannon’s colt was also a top-class juvenile last season, winning the Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot before he disappointed behind Zoffany in the Phoenix Stakes and Dream Ahead in the Middle Park.
However, he underwent a breathing operation after he was well beaten by Frankel in the Greenham Stakes on his debut this season. The benefits were reaped when he ran out a winner of the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot last month.
He travelled well through that race, at the head of the pack that chased the leader. He then picked up when Richard Hughes asked him to, and kept on well all the way to the line to beat a couple of potentially useful rivals in Codemaster and Western Aristocrat, giving the pair of them 5lb. There is every chance that he will come on for that run.
He still has to prove his stamina for a mile, but his rider seems to think that he will get the trip and, if he settles as well as he did at Ascot, he will give himself every chance.
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Hughes and Hannon won the Prix Jean Prat last year with Dick Turpin, they know what is required, and there is every chance that Strong Suit can follow up this afternoon.