Every so often a piece of form will really catch my eye. It usually occurs in the French Provinces, away from the cameras and the watching eyes of Paris and the G1 tracks. Although French Racing follows a very different pattern to that of the UK and Ireland, there is still a commonly held view that the best horses will only run at the best tracks. Whilst it is true to say that you are more likely to see a top class prospect running at Longchamp, Deauville or Auteuil, it does not mean that good horses don't run elsewhere. If you are a long term follower of this blog, you will know of my love for Spes Militurf and he was one of the first horses that fitted into this category. His early performances at Pompadour were off the charts in terms of the time figures produced and although the subject of this post has some way to go to reach those levels, I believe that I may have come across another above average line of form, this time at Saint-Malo.
Saint-Malo is a relatively small track in the North-West, but it has been known to produce an occasional exciting National Hunt prospect, perhaps most notably Willie Mullins Supreme Novices Hurdle and Arkle Chase winner Douvan, who made his hurdles debut there in 2014. Last month I highlighted the form of a 3-year-old hurdle run at Saint-Malo, the Prix General Macon de la Gicalis, won by Pepite Bleue (D Bressou). Although it looked to be an average race on paper, I was impressed with the way that the winner shaped and the time figure was one of the highest that I have recorded at the track, for all that the sample size is relatively small with so few hurdle races taking place at the track each year.
Avid followers of French Racing will no doubt have seen the performance of Pepite Bleue when she won with ease in a Class 2 event at Clairefontaine last Monday and so it was with some interest that I watched Thursday mornings Prix Baguenault de Puchesse. Clarte du Sourire (Arnaud Chaille-Chaille) had been 4th behind Pepite Bleue on her debut here last month and as you can see from my notes below, she didn't disappoint when landing yesterday's contest by an impressive 7-lengths. We can pick holes in the bare form and the runner-up probably threw away her chance by hanging left and running down her hurdles, but this race produced another good time figure and gave further substance to the form of the race in July. Tripeltin Debelair, runner-up to Pepite Bleue in July, was a late non-runner at Clairefontaine on Monday, so we will have to wait to test her form, but this form line looks to be extremely strong and worth taking note of, with the winner perhaps capable of making her mark at Auteuil in a few weeks time.
Here are my notes from yesterday's hurdle races at Saint-Malo;
Bon Souple 3,4
Winner | Time | Réduction Km | Final Circuit | Finish |
Clarte du Sourire | 228.30 | 71.34 | 103.80 | 18.16 |
Kenor de Mael | 285.86 | 73.29 | 105.20 | 19.15 |
PRIX BAGUENAULT DE PUCHESSE
Clarte du Sourire built on a pleasing debut here last month behind Pepite Bleue to land this with relative ease. She is still learning on the job and her head carriage was slightly awkward under pressure, but that wasn’t helped by the 2nd jumping erratically to her left and once in front, Clarte du Sourire pulled clear by 7-lengths.
Irina Has (Allaire) ran a better race than she had when 7th at Dieppe, but she hung badly to her left, running down the hurdles despite efforts from her jockey to correct this. She would clearly be better suited to a left-handed track.
Douce Amie (3rd) had been 5th on debut in the race won by Pepite Bleue and probably ran to a similar level here (beaten 10-lengths). She may well find easier assignments in the provinces in the coming weeks.
PRIX MAHE DE LA BOURDONNAIS
Kenor de Mael was winning at the 3rd attempt over hurdles (13th start overall). A combination of experience and a well positioned ride got the job done, but at the weights he probably ran to a mark of around 56-kilos at best. Received weight from both placed horses.
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