PERSIAN KING lived up to his hot favourite’s billing to give André Fabre a seventh triumph in France’s version of the 2000 Guineas, Longchamp’s Poule d’Essai des Poulains.
Fabre elected not to send the Kingman colt, who had beaten 2000 Guineas hero Grecia Magna in the Autumn Stakes at Newmarket last season, to the Rowley Mile on May 4.
And the move paid off as Persian King, sent off the 2-5 hotpot by local punters, breezed to victory under jockey Pierre-Charles Boudot.
“I'm delighted, said Fabre. “He's a good horse and he acts on any ground. He's got a lovely temperament, too.
“The Jockey Club [at Chantilly on July 2] is the plan. It looks like he would stay another quarter of a mile.”
