Mogul still out of form

AIDAN O’Brien’s decision to supplement Mogul into the OSAF Prix de Reux, a one-mile, four-furlong and 110-yard Group 3 event, never looked like paying off as he was beaten by almost four lengths into sixth.

The lack of a strong pace here may have played into the hands of Jean-Claude Rouget’s speedy Le Havre gelding Glycon, who bounced back to form to beat the German Derby second, Alter Adler, who surely didn’t go quick enough in front, by two lengths.

The winner had been given a late nomination to the Melbourne Cup.

CAMPANELLE may have lost all chance at the start in the big race, but her trainer, Wesley Ward’s, long transatlantic journey was at least made partially worthwhile 24 hours earlier when Twilight Gleaming got the better of a prolonged duel with British raider Delmona in the €60,000 Listed Prix de la Vallee d’Auge.

An Irish-bred daughter of National Defense, she now has the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint as her main target.

And Hollie Doyle, out of luck when Glen Shiel was 10th in the Maurice de Gheest, gained compensation 35 minutes later when Mo Celita made every yard in the €55,000 Prix Club Hipico Santiago Prix Moonlight Cloud to give Yorkshire handler Adrian Nicholls his maiden listed victory.

WHILE Jerome Reynier rides the crest of a wave, last year’s blue-eyed boy of French racing, Francis Graffard, suffered a dreadful blow when it was announced that his 2020 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe second, In Swoop, has been retired owing to a tendon issue.

And it was a double whammy for In Swoop’s German owner-breeders, the Ullmann family, as news also emerged that Mare Australis, their Andre Fabre-trained Prix Ganay winner, is out for the rest of the season because of an ankle injury.