Prix d’Ispahan (Group 1)

THE two biggest races at ParisLongchamp last Sunday, the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan and the Group 2 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier, may have been run over race distances that were, at a mile, a furlong and 55 yards and a mile, seven furlongs, 110yards, more than five furlongs different in length.

Yet they somehow still managed to produce winners that were subsequently mentioned as likely candidates for Europe’s flagship event, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, which is run over a mile and a half at the same venue in four months’ time.

The other connection between the two was the identity of the triumphant trainer, the 78-year-old maestro, Andre Fabre, who first landed the d’Ispahan in 1982 and registered his initial Vigier victory just two years later.

In truth, neither of the two winners, Mqse De Sevigne or Sevenna’s Knight, appeals much as a potential Arc hero, for the obvious reason that one appears to lack stamina and the other to lack speed, but Monsieur Fabre has proved me wrong before.

Wonderful knack

Mqse De Sevigne, an Irish-bred five-year-old daughter of Siyouni, has developed a wonderful knack for coming out on top in close finishes: this short-head defeat of Horizon Dore was her third top level success, none having come by more than a short-neck. Perhaps this is payback for a spell earlier in her career when she was runner-up in five out of six starts?

Luck was certainly on her side here. The runner-up, Horizon Dore, deserves his effort to be marked up given that he came from last in a steadily-run race and actually hit the front for briefly, while the Prix Ganay victor, Haya Zark, was forced by the lack of a strong early pace to make his own running and was rallying late on to finish just three-quarters of a length behind the first two.

No room

Even more unfortunate was Blue Rose Cen, who may only have finished fifth but never had room to properly stride out in the home straight and might have beaten them all on this first run for almost eight months granted a clear passage.

The winning rider was 24-year-old Alexis Pouchin, who had been aboard Haya Zark in the Ganay and, thanks also to his shock Poule d’Essai des Poulains win on Metropolitan, has won three of the four French Group 1 races contested so far in this season.

Pouchin’s post race comments suggested he thinks of Mqse De Sevigne as a miler, so, though she is a half-sister to triple mile and a half Group 1 winner Meandre, the Arc might prove a bridge too far.

SEVENNA’S Knight, an Irish-bred four-year-old Camelot colt owned by the Australians OTI Racing, beat the same two rivals – Shembala and Double Major – as he had done in the Group 3 Prix de Barbeville four weeks earlier.

This time the winning margin was greatly reduced, down to a length and three-quarters, and though the style of the victory was such that it is hard to envision Shembala turning the tables, enough question marks remain about the strength of the form to suggest that Sevenna’s Knight may be found wanting when dropping back to a mile and a half for his next assignment, in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

It is harder to see him winning Europe’s biggest race in October than it is for him to be successful in Australasia’s pinnacle, the Melbourne Cup, a month later.

The third pattern event on the ParisLongchamp card, the seven furlong Group 3 Prix du Palais-Royal, went to another of Pouchin’s mounts, the Carlos and Yann Lerner-trained Irish-bred Starspangledbanner filly Exxtra, who is now bound for the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest.

Donnacha O’Brien’s Yosemite Valley posted a solid effort here, beaten less than two lengths in dead-heating for third.