ParisLongchamp Sunday

2.45 St Mark’s Basilica Coolmore Prix Saint Alary (Group 1) (3yo Fillies) 1m 2f

One of the strongest renewals I can remember of this often low-key Group 1 prize, with representation from both Britain and Ireland among a seven-runner line-up.

Yet to win anything more than a maiden but placed in pattern company on each of her last four starts, Ralph Beckett’s Prosperous Voyage will prove hard to beat following her neck-and-neck second place to Cachet in the 1000 Guineas at Newmarket, when the rest of the field were a length and three-quarters and more in arrears.

Beckett’s decision to miss the Irish equivalent, and therefore avoid the awesome Homeless Songs, now looks to have been an inspired one.

Her pedigree screams stamina rather than speed, so this step up to a mile and two furlongs should be ideal.

The other British challenger is Charlie Appleby’s Wild Beauty, already both a top level winner (in Canada last season) and proven to have trained on (thanks to a Group 3 score at Newbury last month).

But she has twice finished behind Prosperous Voyage, in the Fillies’ Mile last October and, conceding a deficit of nine lengths, in the Guineas.

Irish-trained

Irish hopes rest with Joseph O’Brien’s Above The Curve, last-time-out runner-up in the Cheshire Oaks to her previous Leopardstown maiden victim, Thoughts Of June.

Beautifully bred (by American Pharoah out of a half-sister to Giant’s Causeway), she should appreciate this return to a more conventional track having not looked entirely comfortable around Chester’s tight turns.

Although Jean-Claude Rouget has an interesting candidate in Sippinsoda, unbeaten in three starts in the provinces, the home team is led by the Ballylinch Stud-bred and part-owned Place Du Carrousel, trained by Andre Fabre and successful in the Group 3 Prix Cleopatre a month ago.

SELECTION: PROSPEROUS VOYAGE Next Best: Above The Curve

3.25 Prix D’Ispahan (Group 1) (4yo+) 1m 1f 55y

Arriving here on the back of a narrow Group 2 victory against her own sex at Newmarket four weeks ago, Ed Walker’s Lope De Vega mare Dreamloper is the only overseas contender to take on five domestically-trained opponents.

The Group 1 Prix Ganay, won by State Of Rest here earlier this month over an extra furlong, is the obvious stepping stone to this extended nine-furlong contest and its form should be franked with the runner-up, Pretty Tiger, taken to again get the better of the third home, Sealiway.

Pretty Tiger was slightly inconvenienced when looking for a run early in the straight in the Prix Ganay (hence connections lodged an objection to the placings), so his performance there can be slightly upgraded while the feeling persists that last year’s Champion Stakes winner Sealiway needs more cut in the ground to perform at his very best.

The opposite can be said of Dilawar, who should get the sound surface he prefers, and this Aga Khan home-bred is the dark horse of the race.

Having taken over the training of the Dubawi colt when Alain de Royer-Dupre retired over the winter, Francis Graffard was thrilled with Dilawar’s reappearance second in the Group 2 Prix du Muguet, insisting he was badly in need of the race.

The field is completed by Wally, who is not in the same kind of form as when a close fourth in this 12 months ago, and Dawn Intello, who has 15 lengths to make up on Pretty Tiger from when they last met, in March.

SELECTION: PRETTY TIGER

Next Best: Dilawar