Prix Maurice de Gheest (Group 1)

WHAT is the compartment of your brain marked ‘racing’ concentrating on in late January? Like most Irish people, you are probably already starting to fast forward to Cheltenham in eight weeks’ time and trying to work out which Mullins superstar will run where or the identity of the ‘plot horse’ for one of the handicaps.

However, flat racing fans should perhaps instead be keeping their eyes on far-flung Cagnes-sur-Mer, near Nice on the French Riviera.

In 2023 that horse was the subsequent Arc hero, Ace Impact; this year the Mediterranean coastal venue witnessed the initial racecourse appearance of an unheralded Territories gelding named Lazzat.

The Jerome Reynier trainee has since gone on to five further triumphs, culminating last Sunday in a dominant victory in Prix Maurice de Gheest.

Ridden, as usual, by the little-known Italian native, Antonio Orani, Lazzat breezed past the front-running Irish challenger, Matilda Picotte, with just under a quarter mile of this six and a half furlong event remaining, before storming clear to lift the Group 1 prize by three lengths and three-quarters of a length from Exxtra and Beauvatier in a clean sweep for the home side.

The next three places all went to British raiders, led by Flora Of Bermuda and the favourite, Mill Stream, with Matilda Picotte dropping away to finish seventh, beaten a total of five and a half lengths.

Top sprinter

Owned by the Kazakhstan-born Nurlan Bizakov and bred at his Normandy base of Sumbe (formerly the Haras de Montfort et Preaux and the Haras de Mezeray), Lazzat might normally be expected to now concentrate on clinching the title of Europe’s top sprinter, which a revised rating of 118 suggests he is currently in pole position to achieve.

Yet, as a gelding, there is no pressure to stay at home and solidify his stallion credentials.

Instead, with the French public currently infatuated by their athletes’ quest for gold, both Reynier and Bizakov were quick to inform that Lazzat’s unconventional end-of-season target would be his own tilt at that precious metal, in the shape of a race called the Golden Eagle, run on the first weekend in November over seven and a half furlongs at Rosehill Racecourse in Sydney, Australia, and worth no less than 10 million aussie dollars.

With the winner’s likely absence, Exxtra and Beuvatier may take up the mantle as the top local contenders for the seven-furlong Prix de la Foret on Arc Day in early October, while Flora Of Bermuda and Mill Stream are also set for a rematch in the Haydock Sprint Cup.

ON a perfect day for Bizakov, another Sumbe homebred, the Christopher Head-trained Le Havre colt Ramadan, put two lesser efforts when stepped up to Group 1 company behind him when dropping back to a mile to land his second Group 3 of the campaign, the Prix Daphnis. The Prix du Moulin could now be on his agenda, though he too could be off on his travels in the autumn.

Another possible contender for sprint championship honours emerged from the five-furlong Listed Prix du Cercle as Bradsell, trained in Britain by Archie Watson and racing for the first time in almost 11 months, registered a comfortable length and three-quarters victory.

His rider, Hollie Doyle, said afterwards: “He’s had a good blow, so I’m sure that he’ll improve for the run”, and Bradsell may be pointed at the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes, a race in which he finished third last year.

On a card showcasing sprinters, there was a second British success when No Half Measures, from the Richard Hughes stable, landed the six-furlong Listed Prix Moonlight Cloud.

This three-year-old Cable Bay filly could return to France in a couple of months’ time to contest the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye.