PRIX DU MOULIN DE

LONGCHAMP (GROUP 1)

RECOLETOS managed to keep the three-year-olds at bay in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp at ParisLongchamp on Sunday.

But it was close, and while one three-year-old filly, Wind Chimes, enhanced her reputation by finishing a head behind the favourite in second, another – the absent Irish superstar Alpha Centauri – also saw her standing boosted, as she had brushed Recoletos aside when they met in the Prix Jacques Le Marois.

As looked likely beforehand, there was plenty of pace on from the word go in this mile contest, Wootton matching strides with Recoletos’s pacemaker, Oriental, in front and Plumatic tracking the leaders.

Expert Eye missed the break, but this appeared to be intentional on the part of jockey Ryan Moore, who was thus able to get a good position on the inside rail in about eighth place.

Plumatic was kicked into the lead approaching the 200 metre pole only to be rapidly overhauled by Wind Chimes with Recoletos travelling smoothly on the outside.

Wind Chimes dug in gamely in front, but, as so often in his 30-year career, Olivier Peslier judged it to a ‘t’ aboard Recoletos to coax the son of Whipper past in the last strides.

Expert Eye finished best to take third, a length and a quarter adrift, having been a smidgeon short of room with a furlong and a half to run, while the Sussex Stakes hero, Lightning Spear, who in common with Expert Eye had been little more than a length behind the winner early in the home straight, never got into it but closed late for fifth, in front of Without Parole, beaten a total of two and a half lengths.

TOP MILERS

So where does Recoletos, now a dual Group 1 scorer, sit in the pantheon of Europe’s top milers? Very close to the top must be the answer, but some way above him is Alpha Centauri as she had a clear two-and-a-half-length advantage when they met, receiving a 10lb age and sex allowance.

Even before the race, Recoletos’s trainer Carlos Laffon-Parias was suggesting that the Moulin had attracted a strong field mainly because people were trying to avoid Alpha Centauri.

He was of a similar mind afterwards, saying: “It was a real Group 1 and we have beaten the best …. obviously apart from Alpha Centauri.

“At one point I thought he was going to win easily but Wind Chimes was getting 7lbs from him and she battled really hard. What Recoletos has done this year has been extraordinary and now he deserves a beautiful end to his career and a nice place at stud. He’s incredibly versatile, goes on any ground and has won big races at a mile, a mile and one and a mile and a quarter.

“The Queen Elizabeth II Stakes is an option for him and after that there is the Breeders’ Cup. He could also run in Dubai next March.”

Excuses were thin on the ground from the vanquished, most of whom nominated the same Ascot and Churchill Downs showpieces for their charges.

Andre Fabre diverged a little, saying: “Both Wind Chimes and Plumatic ran very well and, while I had been thinking about the Prix de l’Opera for Wind Chimes, that step up in trip would worry me a little now so the Sun Chariot Stakes could be a target. Plumatic may head for the Prix Daniel Wildenstein and the Breeders’ Cup.”

“Expert Eye has run a solid race, even though he couldn’t find a gap at the perfect moment,” said Prince Khalid Abdullah’s manager, Teddy Grimthorpe. “He’s still progressing and getting back to the level he showed us as a two-year-old.”