French Racing Tips: Newmarket raiders fancied to plunder Guineas

Patrick Weaver
15 May 2022

There are two Classics this Sunday at Longchamp

Longchamp hosts the first two Classics of the year this Sunday

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Patrick Weaver picks out the best bets on today's Longchamp Classic card...

"Cachet tops the international ratings having won our 1,000 at Newmarket. She is the clear form pick as the sole Group 1 winner in the line-up."

It's Guineas Sunday at Longchamp and that means both the fillies' and the colts' Classics, one following the other early on the first half of the card.

British and Irish yards are represented in the two Grade 1s and Newmarket-based runners are prominent in the betting for both races.

Varian's Boy fancied for colts' Classic

Charlie Appleby's Modern Games is favourite for the 2,000 (the Poule d'Essai des Poulains at 14:55). After a lacklustre debut at Haydock, he won four of his other five races, signing off with an impressive success in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Del Mar.

He is entitled to head the market on that win but, without a run since, 2.757/4 looks plenty short enough.

Adam Kirby is on the second in the betting, Claymore, trained by Jane Chapple-Hyam. He was runner-up to Native Trail in the Craven and with the winner then finishing second in the Guineas at Newmarket he has a clear each-way chance at 65/1.

My each-way tip is Bayside Boy, outsider of the three Newmarket runners.

He contested two Group 1s in October, failing to get a clear run in either. He was third to Native Trail in the Dewhurst and third to Luxembourg and Sissoko in the Vertem Futurity Trophy Stakes at Doncaster two weeks later.

His rider, David Egan, was the first to admit he should have finished second - if not won the latter race - and Roger Varian will be giving Olivier Peslier the leg up rather than his regular jockey.

Ryan Moore rides The Acropolis for Aidan O'Brien, a colt you couldn't fancy on form. He lacks a turn of foot and hasn't cut much ice in weak Group and Listed races since winning a maiden at Listowel last June.

If Coolmore is to have a placed runner it is more likely to be Ancient Rome. He closed last season with a third and a second to Ancient Bleu in Group 1s at Longchamp and Saint-Cloud.

On his only start this season, he was sixth to Welwal, in the Prix de Fontainebleau here, a length and a half behind the third Making Moovies and fourth Texas.

Texas is the value bet of that quartet at 6766/1, the others being in the 1110/1 to 1716/1 range.

Two others worth a glance are Lassaut and Tribalist. They were first and second in a Chantilly maiden at Chantilly in March. Lassaut again came out on top when they were the first two home in the Prix Machado on the Grande Course here.

The pair have yet to contest a Group race, so don't float my boat. I would rather back Bayside Boy and Ancient Rome each-way.

Cash in on Cachet

There are three Brits and one Irish runner in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches at 14:15.

The George Boughey-trained Cachet tops the international ratings having won our 1,000 at Newmarket two weeks ago. She is the clear form pick as the sole Group 1 winner in the line-up. The question is will this race come too soon?

Harry and Roger Charlton's Jumbly had Heat Of The Moment three lengths back when runner-up in a Guineas trial at Newbury to Wild Beauty, later well behind Cachet in the big one itself.

Ryan Moore's mount Toy may have only won a Cork maiden but she is out of one of Coolmore's most prolific mares. You'resothrilling's seven previous offspring were all winners and three have won Classics, including last year's French Oaks star Joan Of Arc.

Toy is near bottom-rated on form but Aidan O'Brien must think she will enhance her value by taking part, otherwise she would have had the weekend off and stayed at home.

The home challenge is led by the Group 3 trial winners, Mqse De Sevigne and Rosacea. The former didn't beat anything of note in the Prix Vanteaux but won impressively. Rosacea, in contrast, came from last to first to take the Prix de la Grotte from Daisy Maisy, Mangoustine and Acer Alley with Times Square seventh.

I favour Cachet whose odds of 3.259/4 are about right. Mqse De Sevigne has each-way appeal at 8.515/2.

Berneuil needs to be at his best to beat Suesa

Six of the eight that line up for the Group 3 Prix de Saint-Georges at 16:05 are much of a muchness - Josejosephine 4140/1 and the Czech challenger Ponntos 1918/1 being the two that come up short on form.

The sole English runner, Clarendon House, is a handicapper that gives his all. He might well have won his third in a row had he not lost two shoes when beaten a head at Goodwood last time.

The class horse, though, is Suesa 2.26/5 whose three Group wins in 2021 included the King George Qatar Stakes at Glorious Goodwood. She has since finished unplaced when favourite for the Nunthorpe and Prix de l'Abbaye but they were Group 1s and this is a Group 3.

Should Suesa not have trained on, last year's runner-up Berneuil is the likeliest winner. Sent off favourite, he led for much of the second half of the race and finished ahead of Sestilio Jet and Aire De Valse.

Berneuil is hard to win with but Christophe Soumillon took the Qatar Prix du Petit Couvert by three and a half lengths on him last autumn and the pair could make life difficult for Suesa.

Dettori's La Parisienne is up against it

Frankie Dettori's best chance of a winner on the card is probably La Parisienne, the 32/1 favourite for the Prix De La Seine at 12:58.

It's a race for three-year-old fillies that have yet to win a Group race, so it is no surprise that the only runner to have been placed in one - Know Thyself - is at short as 3.259/4

Soumillon's mount, a daughter of Galileo, runs in this rather than the Emirates Poule d'Essai des Pouliches so her owner and trainer will be hugely disappointed if she doesn't end La Parisienne's unbeaten record.

Jim Crowley is on Kennella, in the Prix Maurice Zilber at 16:37. She was third on this card last year - in the 1,000 Guineas no less - but has only won one of her 12 starts, a maiden at Deauville over 18 months.

Kennella looks a safe each-way bet at 65/1 but I prefer Hollie Doyle's mount Internationalangel. The five-year-old has won seven handicaps in the last 12 months - two on fast ground for Robert Stephens and five on the all-weather for Jane Chapple-Hyam.

Her close second to Highfield Princess at Newcastle in a valuable conditions' race at Newcastle on Good Friday was a career-best and Hollie gets on well with her.

Crowley on the other hand is riding Kennella for the first time, so she has an iffy look to her despite keeping better company than my fancy, Internationalangel 4.57/2.

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