Chilean, who finished sixth behind the 2,000 Guineas favourite Saxon Warrior in last season’s Racing Post Trophy, will head to the Dante Stakes at York next month after starting his campaign as a three-year-old with victory in the Group Three Prix La Force at a rebuilt – and renamed – ParisLongchamp racecourse on Sunday.
His comfortable one-and-a-quarter length success under Oisin Murphy paid a compliment to Saxon Warrior, but also suggested that Martyn Meade’s colt had improved further over the winter after progressing from a maiden to his first Group One start in less than three months as a juvenile.
Meade, who moved his 60-horse string from Newmarket to the historic Manton estate in Wiltshire this year, may now use the Dante to determine whether Chilean deserves a start in a Classic.
“However well you think they are at home, and however much you think they’re sparkling, you never really know until they hit the track,” Meade said. “He won in the style of a very good horse, in my view, and hopefully he’s an exciting horse for the rest of the season. I was just delighted to see him travel the way he did and battle so well at the end.
Kempton
2.00 Lungarno Palace 2.30 Notre Ami 3.05 Roll The Dough 3.35 Station Master 4.10 Longtown 4.45 Versifier 5.20 Ramore Will 5.50 Uncle Percy
Wincanton
2.10 Athreeothree 2.40 The Last But One 3.15 Daytime Ahead 3.45 Kalarika 4.20 Adrien Du Pont 4.55 Black Narcissus 5.25 Unwin Vc
Ludlow
2.20 Shalakar 2.50 Sonneofpresenting (nb) 3.25 I’m A Game Changer 3.55 Colin’s Brother 4.30 Diva Du Maquis 5.05 Bay Sly 5.35 Oh Michelle
Wolverhampton
5.15 Black Truffle 5.45 Beshaayir 6.15 Doctor Sardonicus 6.45 Outrath 7.15 Emigrated (nap) 7.45 Western Way 8.15 The King’s Steed 8.45 Gone With The Wind
“We’ve been thinking about the Dante and the [Group One] Prix du Jockey Club [in June] and I think he’s earned his place in one of those better races now. I think realistically the Dante is the next possible race.”
Chilean initiated a Group-race double for British stables as racing returned to the Bois de Boulogne for the first time since October 2015, following a €140m (£122m) redevelopment of France’s most famous track. The two imposing grandstands that had dominated the course since the 1960s have been replaced by a single facility designed by the leading architect Dominique Perrault, which is a bold and expensive statement of intent by France Galop, the sport’s ruling body, at a time when betting turnover in France has appeared to be in long-term decline.
Ralph Beckett’s Air Pilot took the card’s feature race, the Group Two Prix d’Harcourt, under a confident ride by Christophe Soumillon, while Barkaa was an easy winner of the Prix Vanteaux for three-year-old fillies, a trial for the Prix de Diane (French Oaks).
Mendelssohn, the 18-lengths winner of the UAE Derby last month, remains the 5-1 favourite for the Kentucky Derby on 5 May after several key trials for the Run For The Roses in the United States over the weekend. However, Justify, from the Bob Baffert stable, has been cut to 6-1 (from 12-1) after an impressive win in the Santa Anita Derby, while Good Magic, last season’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner, is a 12-1 chance after winning the Blue Grass Stakes at Keeneland on Saturday.
