Chantilly Sunday

3.05pm Qatar Prix du Jockey Club (Group 1) 1m 2f 110y

The Qatar Prix du Jockey Club has some outstanding names on its recent roll of honour, St Mark’s Basilica and Sottsass to name just two, but it seems unlikely that this year’s renewal will be adding lustre to that list.

Just 11 colts go to post, the smallest field since 2003 when this race was still run over a mile and a half. If there is to be another outright superstar among them it is surely the solitary supplementary entry, Feed The Flame, who was not seen on a racecourse until April and is yet to contest a stakes race.

However, his trainer, Pascal Bary has long had the midas touch when it comes to this particular race, saddling the winner on no less than six occasions, and he is not a man to suggest that his geese are swans.

So, for him to intimate to owner Jean-Louis Bouchard, someone he has won three Jockey Clubs for in the past, that a twice-raced colt has the raw talent to be worthy of his place in a classic field, it is worth paying attention.

Positive vibes

Christophe Soumillon must clearly have been given some positive vibes by Feed The Flame during their two ParisLongchamp victories together, as he was quick to choose to ride the son of Kingman rather than maintain an association with American Flag which saw them land the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau and then finish strongly after a slow start to take fourth place behind his Fontainebleau victim, Marhaba Ya Sanafi, in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches.

One further pointer to Feed The Fame’s chance is that First Minister, the horse he beat on his most recent start, went on to land the Group 3 Prix Hocquart on his next outing.

With such a small field and the likelihood that Big Rock will again take up pace-setting duties and go a decent gallop, this renewal should not have too many hard luck stories despite Chantilly’s relatively short home straight.

Big Rock would throw the training manual out of the window if he completes a five-timer and follows up consecutive Group 3 triumphs by scoring at the highest level.

He represents the Christopher Head-Yeguada Centurion trainer-owner-breeder combination that is riding the crest of a wave at the moment owing to the exploits of Blue Rose Cen.

Yet, unlike that female stablemate, his preparation for this classic has defied convention. He has raced once in every calendar month, right through the winter, since he finished second on his debut in November, and needed a drop to all-weather handicap company in February to break his maiden and begin his winning spree.

Paddington’s success at the Curragh last weekend showed that a handicap graduate can rocket up the grades to land a classic, but surely it will prove a step too far for a winter failure to be successful in such vaunted company now that the sun has started to shine?

Creditable performance

The only Irish challenger is Aidan O’Brien’s Japanese-bred colt Continuous, who put up a highly creditable performance to dead-heat for third in the Group 2 Dante Stakes at York on his reappearance, leaving John and Thady Gosden’s race-fit Epictetus (who is the only other overseas runner here) three-quarters of a length in his wake.

We will find out much more about the strength of the Dante form in Saturday’s Epsom Derby, and Continuous holds decent each-way claims.

While trainer Andre Fabre has just the Prix de Guiche disappointment Flight Leader running for him, his great domestic rival, Jean-Claude Rouget, has three bullets to fire as he bids to win this race for the fifth time in eight years.

Pick of the Rouget trio is, according to the betting, the unbeaten listed race winner Ace Impact, but I have a sneaking suspicion that a return to better ground will see Rajapour come back to form and fare best of the triumvirate.

In the belief that the Poulains form is less than vintage and that Big Rock lacks the class to be a true Group 1 horse, I take Feed The Flame to give Bary a first top level victory for five years at the expense of Continuous.

SELECTION: FEED THE FLAME

Next Best: Continuous

In the Chantilly card’s three Group 2 events, Simca Mille should handle the return to 1m 4f readily enough to take a weak Grand Prix de Chantilly; Kelina, my each-way selection when she finished fourth in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, can overturn the form with the third, Sauterne, and also see off the Ger Lyons-trained Zarinsk in the mile Prix de Sandringham; and Chaldean’s Showcasing half-sister Get Ahead can prove herself a sprint star of the future by landing the five-furlong Prix du Gros-Chene for British handler Clive Cox.

Further British success may be supplied by both the in-form Karl Burke stable, responsible for Pillow Talk and Dorothy Lawrence in a pair of listed races, and Ralph Beckett, who saddles Trust The Stars against O’Brien’s Boogie Woogie in the Group 3 1m 4f Prix de Royaumont.