ParisLongchamp

Smaga lands another Group 1 with Incarville

Saxon Warrior Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary (Group 1)

WITH the jumps season now more or less complete before resuming in the autumn, on Monday it was back to flat racing with a high-class bank holiday card at ParisLongchamp.

The ‘experience pays’ motto that has been a running theme over recent weeks was again borne out as 54-year-old jockey Gérald Mossé landed two of the feature races and the septuagenarian, David Smaga, landed his first Group 1 prize for 17 years of a training career that dates back almost four decades.

The ground was very soft and the Group 1 Saxon Warrior Prix Saint-Alary looked very open beforehand, Pari-Mutuel punters sending off none of its 11 three-year-old fillies at shorter than 9/2.

A perfectly-timed challenge saw Smaga’s Wootton Bassett filly, Incarville, come from a long way back to pip the front-running Cirona by a head with the unlucky-in-running Sibila Spain little more than half a length back in fourth. Christophe Soumillon was on board the winner.

The principals are set to be asked to do it all again in the Prix de Diane on June 20th.

GÉRALD Mossé’s biggest victory came in the Group 2 Prix Hocquart for three-year-olds over 11 furlongs as Bubble Gift, a Mikel Delzangles-trained Nathaniel half-brother to the 2011 Prix du Jockey-Club second, Bubble Gift, beat Gregolimo by a neck

The one-mile, four-furlong Grand Prix de Paris, on July 14th, is next on the winner’s agenda.

The day’s other Group 2, the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier over just over one mile, seven furlongs, looked sub-standard beforehand but may have thrown up a very decent winner.

Up until late last month, when he finished fifth in a provincial listed race, Skazino, trained in Marseille by Cedric Rossi, had looked like a solid enough performer, with a listed win to his name but defeats in all eight other tries at that level, so clearly short of pattern class.

Then came the revelation of his wide margin victory in the Group 3 Prix de Barbeville when stepped up to beyond a mile and a half for the first time, and he proved that to be no fluke in the Vigier with a two-length success, albeit the runner-up, Valia, was shouldering a penalty and in need of the outing on her first start since October.

Mare’s progeny

The result continued a remarkable recent run for the progeny of the mare Skallet, herself group-placed but bought out of a claimer by breeder Guy Pariente. She has had four foals to date, all by the same sire, Kendargent, and Skazino is the third.

His older brothers are Skalleti, winner of a Group 2 and a Group 3 over a mile and a quarter already this season, and Skalleto, who enjoyed the biggest win of his career when landing a valuable handicap at ParisLongchamp on May 16th and may yet prove himself in stakes company.

So we await the debut of their two-year-old brother, Skalli, with great anticipation.

Saint-Cloud rematch

WEDNESDAY at Saint-Cloud witnessed a rematch between the first two from the Prix Allez France, Ebaiyra and Raabihah, in the €130,000 Prix Corrida, a one-mile, two-furlong 110 yards Group 2 contest for older fillies and mares.

Punters made Raabihah favourite to take her revenge but Ebaiyra again came out on top, by a convincing length and a half.

Alain de Royer-Dupré, who insists that this daughter of Distorted Humor has improved sharply from three to four, will retire from training at the end of the season.

Ebaiyra looks good enough to give him a few more days in the sun, initially in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud on July 4th.

Superstar

Raabihah was again ill-suited by having to make her own running but it is impossible to get away from the conclusion that this Sea The Stars filly, beaten favourite for the Prix Vermeille before finishing fifth in the Arc last autumn, is unlikely to ever become the superstar that her trainer, Jean-Claude Rouget, once believed that she would.