Tom’s looking in tip-top shape

THE Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud falls to a good horse more often than not but does not always have much strength in depth. Both those observations probably apply to this year’s contest, run last Sunday.

Way To Paris did well to come from behind in a tactical affair and remains on 118, but Nagano Gold (113) and Ziyad (108) were helped by the run of things in the smallest field since 2012, in which Old Persian failed to fire.

Persian King rallied gamely to win the Group 2 Prix du Muguet earlier on that card and gets a 115 sectionally adjusted rating, though the penalised Skalleti, who thrived on his racing in 2019, perhaps shaped best of all in third with a 116.

There were notable British wins at Longchamp earlier in the week from Telecaster in the Group 3 La Coupe, which he took by wide margins while recording a 116 figure, and from Space Blues (112) in the Group 3 Prix de la Porte Maillot, in which he had to battle harder to beat D’bai with a couple of ordinary types for this grade close up.

Ken Colt is one of the speediest horses around, and he led from start to finish in a listed race at Chantilly on Saturday to register a 112 performance over a distance that Google Earth suggests is a bit short of 1,000 metres. That both fast paces and steady paces can affect overall times, but the former more than the latter when excessive, was starkly illustrated in the US on Saturday night when Midnight Bisou (final time of 1m 48.99s) and Tom’s d’Etat (1m 47.30s) respectively won the Grade 2s, the Fleur de Lis Stakes and Stephen Foster Stakes at nine furlongs at Churchill Downs. Conventional time analysis has the latter about 15lb better than the former (they carried the same weight), but the leader in the Fleur de Lis was 10 lengths ahead of the leader in the Stephen Foster as early as the third furlong, and it resulted in a massive pace collapse in the former and a finishing speed for the last two furlongs of only about 91% (the Stephen Foster was close to 100%).

There is, in reality, probably little between the pair, with Tom’s d’Etat credited with 122 here and Midnight Bisou with 119, but the latter by no means hard pushed and having shown herself capable of 122 previously. Midnight Bisou would be likely to receive weight if they met.

Newspaperofrecord did not have to be at her absolute best to win the Grade 1 Just A Game Stakes on turf at Belmont Park on the same day, with Uni underperforming in third and the time unexceptional. I have her running to 115 here but she had been 119 previously.