French racing Sunday tips: Graeme North best bets

Our French expect Graeme North previews the top-class action from Saint-Cloud.

It’s not always easy to judge potential underfoot conditions from afar but having spent the last few days in Northern France with seemingly never-ending bursts of rain it’s not difficult to imagine the turf will be very testing at Saint-Cloud’s meting on Sunday on which six Group races are due to take place.

Indeed, the going stick has been given as a lowly 3.8 and while no details about how far out the rail will be – usually a long way at this fixture – it’s a long way from high-summer Flat conditions.

The opening Group 1 contest is the Criterium International over a nominal 1600m and it has attracted seven runners no less than five of who are trained by Aidan O’Brien who has won this race twice since 2020 including with Twain last year.

Given that his leading candidate Puerto Rico has made his own running in both the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster and the Jean-Luc Lagardere at the Arc meeting and seen off all challengers, it’s hard to know why some of his obviously inferior other runners are making the journey but at least they gave the race a decent betting shape before the withdrawal of dual German Group winner Gostam.

Puerto Rico is clearly the most likely winner – he had not only the re-opposing Cape Orator back in third when winning the Champagne, a race in which the subsequent Dewhurst winner Gewan was fourth, but then showed improvement on even that season-leading form when following up from home-trained duo Nighttime and Rayif in the Lagardere when another of the runners who re-opposes him here, Campacite, was fourth.

Puerto Rico was dominant without doubt, and seems sure to stay this trip, but both his own stable-companion New Zealand as well as Cape Orator are interesting in this different scenario.

New Zealand, a son of Frankel, was having is first run for three months when fourth racing away from the action in the Autumn Stakes and has good prospects of hitting the frame, while Cape Orator has been quietly progressive this season when building up plenty of experience and finally gets a chance to race beyond seven furlongs.

The steady pace controlled by the speedier Puerto Rico wouldn’t have suited him in the Champagne but he kept on strongly after getting tapped for toe and overcame a wide draw when winning at Longchamp on Arc weekend. His trainer Ralph Beckett won this in 2021 with Angel Bleu and he might be a bit overpriced at 6/1.

So many good-quality staying juveniles does Aidan O’Brien have in training – witness his Futurity 1-2-3 at Doncaster – that he also runs four in the 2000m Criterium de Saint-Cloud Criterium.

As in the Criterium International, he looks to have the most likely winner too in the shape of Pierre Bonnard who is proven at this distance having won the Zetland Stakes at Newmarket last time from his stablemate Endorsement who is also in the line-up here.

On the face of it Pierre Bonnard ought to confirm that form as he was value for more then his winning margin that day having moved into contention stylishly and finished well on top with what looked running left, but it’s worth remembering that race took place under vastly different conditions – fast ground – to those he is likely to encounter here and for all the evidence available so far is slim, Endorsement of the pair has shown slightly better form on a soft surface having won a maiden at Tipperary.

Another race that is seemingly a pointer to this is the Prix du Conde, not least because it was run over this course and distance earlier this month, albeit under faster conditions. The first three from that race – Waybreaker, Czajkowski and Proof – all take their chance again but it didn’t escape my notice that the runners in the Conde were in a heap for much of the way and whether the form is as good as it seemed when the race was won by subsequent Derby runner-up Lazy Griff in 2024 I’m not sure.

Eyrefield winner Christmas Day and runner-up A Boy Named Susie also clash again and given the winner did very well to run down the runner-up that day at a trip that looked a bare minimum for him – nine furlongs – he really ought to confirm form which might have been given a boost by fourth-placed Piazza San Marco in the earlier Criterium International.

Andrew Balding’s Taste Of Glory and Joseph O’Brien’s Shosholoza both have much more on their plate than when winning at Brighton and Tipperary respectively, while Isaac Newton didn’t look up to this level when a fading fifth behind Cape Orator last time and Zambezi’s listed form in France looks a level below what will be good enough.

Easily the most interesting runner in the final Group 1 contest of the afternoon, the Prix Royal-Oak, is Arrow Eagle who was last seen finishing sixth in the Arc.

His proximity was perhaps the only doubt about the absolute merit of the form given he’d finished only sixth before that in one of the trials, the Prix Foy, but that was his first run for three months and in that earlier start he’d beaten the now 120-rated Sibayan fair and square in the Grand Prix de Chantilly.

That said, whether he wants 3100m having looked this season like a 2400m performer with an abundance of pace is another matter.

Sevenna’s Knight also surpassed himself in the Arc in 2024 but that is increasingly looking like a career highlight as he’s lost all his seven races since back over trips that until then looked much more suitable and could only manage a modest third last time out in Listed company.

Double Major has won this race for the last two seasons and has often looked the best stayer in France by some way on occasions but though he’s not hit the heights he did last year he still comes here on the back of wins in two of Frances’s strongest staying races, the Prix Kergolay and the Prix Gladiateur.

Perhaps the race that will have most bearing on this is the Prix du Cadran which took place on Arc weekend and saw Caballo De Mar beat Coltrane with Queenstown back in third and Sunway fourth.

Both the Cadran and the German St Leger which Caballo De Mar won before that were steadily-run contests, but his stamina isn’t in any doubt and he comes here fresher than Queenstown whose Cadran effort was his second race in six days, quite a gruelling campaign for a stayer.

Sunway hasn’t ever really convinced as an out-and-out stayer so this ‘intermediate’ trip will probably suit him better while sole three-year-old Espoir Avenir will have to do much better than he did in the Prix Chaudenay last time.

Rest of the action

The first of the non-Group One races is the Group Three Prix Belle De Nuit over 2800m restricted to fillies and mares who this year haven’t won a Group Two.

Topping Timeform’s ratings is La Isla Mujeres who was reportedly being considered for the Prix Royal Oak after her win in the 15-runner Oyster Stakes at Galway in September but has been rerouted here instead, presumably because it’s considered an easier opportunity. Like many Galway results where it’s a big advantage to be drawn on the inside rail and race close up, as she was and did before winning by nearly four lengths, I’d be loath to think she’s quite as good as she looked until she’s confirmed it.

British interests are represented by Allonsy (Ralph Beckett) and Uluru (David Menuisier). Allonsy bagged her second listed win of the season at Chester last time and has been a model of consistency this year, while Uluru has also scored in similar company but for Joseph O’Brien back at Limerick in June, since when she’s run a couple of modest races.

Arc winning trainer Francis Graffard runs Calamandra and this daughter of New Bay is still looking for her first win outside maiden company but she’s been knocking on the door in listed races and ran well at this trip last time when third behind Zakharova at Longchamp.

However, second in that race was a favourite of mine, AGILE, and hopefully this is the race this season in which she finally gets off the mark. Being held up a bit too far off the pace has been her downfall more than once but she’s long looked as though a Group tHREE over 2800m has her name on it (she would have beaten the re-opposing Bibbiena comfortably back in May with a more judicious ride) and this looks the ideal opportunity.

Mention mud in the autumn at Saint-Cloud and two names come quickly to mind – SPARKS FLY and Alcantor.

There’s no Alcantor this year, but Sparks Fly runs in the Prix Perth, a race Alcantor won last year, and she bids for her third course win at the trip.

She’s not hit her 2024 heights yet this season but I thought she shaped very well for a long way in a deep Matron Stakes last time on ground much faster than she is most effective on, a race which was her first for over three months too, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she has been targeted at this race for some time.

Fellow female Exxtra, who was fourth in last year’s Prix de la Foret and sixth in this year’s renewal form a poor position, is the biggest danger on form but has stamina to prove having yet to run beyond 1400m.

Vertbois, who won a well-contested listed race here in the spring in bad ground, comes here on the back of an excellent third in the Prix Quincey at Deauville, a race in which Cicero’s Gift was second, and looks the best of the males.

Anyone who followed this column on Arc day – and it wasn’t my best day, admittedly – will surely have been as dismayed as I was by the ride given GRAND STARS in the Prix de l’Opera.

Sure she had an outside stall, but she was dropped so far off the pace by Maxime Guyon that she had very little hope turning for home of landing the place part of my each-way bet yet alone the win part yet almost managed to do so.

That effort wasn’t a surprise – she had had excuses on several of her previous runs this year when she’d come up against the likes of Quisisana among her own sex – and so long as that race hasn’t left any side effects she should win this with a bit to spare having won a listed race here in heavy ground last autumn by four lengths with the third horse a further three-and-a-half lengths behind.

Mickael Barzalona, who is on board here, had her close up when second to Goliath earlier this season in La Coupe, and this represents a drop in class. Most of her opponents are much of a muchness on their day, Ralph Beckett’s Skellet and Henry de Bromhead’s Higher Leaves, perhaps the best of them on form but not possessing still the scope for improvement evident in Ashariba who was game when winning a handicap at Glorious Goodwood and then won a listed race here last time.

French racing Sunday tips: Graeme North best bets

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