PARISLONGCHAMP

SUNDAY

2.55 EMIRATES POULE D’ESSAI DES POULAINS (GROUP 1) (3YO COLTS) of €600,000. 1M.

CAN Aidan O’Brien continue his domination of the major early European classics at ParisLongchamp tomorrow? If so he will have to beat Persian King, the only horse to have lowered the colours of the Ballydoyle maestro’s 2000 Guineas hero, Magna Grecia.

Now sporting the Godolphin silks but bred and still part owned by the Wildenstein family, Persian King could barely have been more impressive when returning from winter quarters with a trail-blazing five length score in the big trial race over this course and distance, the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau.

Not for the first time, the giant son of Kingman raced freely that day but the run will have taken the freshness out of him and he has proved in the past that he can take a lead. The one possible chink in his armour is the ground, which may dry out a little before Sunday but will be on the soft side at the very least and could even be properly testing.

Trainer Andre Fabre has always insisted that Persian King needs a sound surface to be at his best. So, given that he proved his effectiveness at Newmarket when denying Magna Grecia in last year’s Autumn Stakes, it is a little surprising that his peerless handler has opted to stay at home and be at the mercy of the weather gods, rather than go back to England were soft ground Guineas are virtually unheard of.

O’Brien’s best chance of a fifth victory in this race rests with Never No More. He has won both his 2019 starts, most recently downing Madhmoon, subsequently fourth at Newmarket, by half a length in a Leopardstown listed affair.

He is at least proven on (though reportedly far from dependent on) soft ground, but will be facing by far his stiffest task to date.

O’Brien’s other candidate is Van Beethoven, out of the first three in five starts since winning a sub-standard Group 2 Railway Stakes at the Curragh last June.

Trained by Aidan’s son, Joseph O’Brien, No Needs Never is the third and final Irish challenger. Like Never No More, from the first crop of No Nay Never, he put up a good fight against older horses when runner-up on his reappearance in the Group 3 Gladness Stakes.

The one horse to have already tasted victory over Persian King is Anodor, who trumped him by two lengths on their respective debuts last August. He followed up in Group 3 company a month later, though his subsequent one-length third in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere has to be viewed as something of a disappointment.

His lack of a recent outing also counts against him, alongside the modest form of his trainer, Freddy Head. So the one to take advantage should Persian King fail to reproduce his best could be the representative of the Carlos Laffon-Parias yard, Shaman.

He was behind Anodor when fifth in the Lagardere but has won three out of three since then and the form of his triumph last month in a seven-runner Group 3 Prix La Force has been franked by stakes race victories from the third, fifth and seventh.

SELECTION: PERSIAN KING NEXT BEST: Shaman