Deauville Sunday

THE final weekend of the month-long Deauville August jamboree is always something of a come-down, and its feature event, the €130,000 Group 2 Lucien Barriere Grand Prix de Deauville, has not been won by a genuinely top class horse since Cirrus des Aigles a dozen years ago.

That trend looks set to continue with this year’s seven-runner renewal of a mile, four furlongs and 110 yards affair. Andre Fabre’s Junko did hint that he might make it at the highest level when narrowly beaten in a couple of Group 2 contests – the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano and the Prix Dollar – around a year ago, but though a recent easy course and distance Group 3 win suggested that he was in good heart, his three previous outings all saw him come up some way short in Group 1 company.

Preference is for the progressive Adrien Fouassier-trained Zarak colt, Haya Zark, who has been given time to recover from a below par display in the Group 2 Grand Prix de Chantilly almost three months ago and should relish the current soft ground given that he registered two pattern successes when there was plenty of give underfoot in the spring.

The two overseas challengers are Jack Darcy, who looks a little outclassed even if his trainer Paul Cole (now half of a partnership with son Ollie) won this race five times in a 12-year period before the turn of the century, and the German hope Assistent, who has triumphed twice at this level in his homeland this term but was will need to come up with a career best under a 2lb penalty if he is to make it three Group 2 wins.

Foreign success is more likely in the Group 3 Barriere Prix de Meautry over six furlongs where half of a six-runner line-up hails from Britain. Jane Chapple-Hyam’s Millstream is taken to follow up his easy course and distance listed victory of three weeks ago although the Charlie Hills-trained course specialist Garrus, who won this in 2021, could be dangerous provided he is fully fit after a two-month lay-off.

A week on from enjoying their Group 1 breakthrough win here with Vandeek, Simon and Ed Crisford saddle Poker Face in a 10-runner Group 3 Barriere Prix Quincey over a straight mile.

After his trainer Francis Graffard bounced back to form last Saturday with a big race double, the selection is the mud-loving old timer The Revenant, who is likely to have been perked up by a four-month break.