Report: France, Tuesday
Saint-Cloud
SAINTE AMARANTE put away a smart-looking set of rivals in a matter of a few strides to land the Listed Prix la Camargo, a race which frequently produces fillies with Classic potential.
Pierre-Charles Boudot was the last to challenge down the outside aboard the daughter of Le Havre and didn’t need to get too serious to score by three lengths from Pitamore.
“In January she won her maiden easily and I said there and then that the Camargo would be her next race,” said trainer Yves de Nicolay. “She has won her Listed [race] and we will decid together where she goes next. She has a very good character and we could step her up in trip without problem. We have a choice of either the Prix de la Grotte and then the Poule d’Essai, or else the Prix Vantaux over 1,800 metres and then the Prix de Diane.”
Cascading Stars failed to make much impression in the Camargo but Stan Moore still left Saint-Cloud a winner after French Encore and Liam Jones posted a convincing success in the two-year-old maiden over 4½f.
Moore said: “Five furlongs wouldn’t be a bother to him and he’s an out and out sprinter and I think the sire, Showcasing, is a fantastic sire and will go places. He still has a bit of growing to do and you never know, Royal Ascot here we come. We’ll play it by ear now and there is no mega-rush to run again because I think he has a bit of quality.”
The day’s other Listed race, the Prix Omnium II, fell to the blue and white silks of the Wertheimer Brothers.
However it was the second colours of Green Sweet and their former retained rider Olivier Peslier that took the prize, having run down the front-running Jolly Good Kitten.
With trainer Freddy Head already in Dubai to supervise the challenge of Solow, racing manager Pierre-Yves Bureau wouldn’t commit to a specific route to the first colts’ Classic, the Poule d’Essai des Poulains.
Bureau said: “I think this is his trip as he comes from a family with plenty of speed and he showed some of that today. We’ll talk to Freddy but he has won his Listed [race] and we’ll have to see whether he takes in an intermediate trial or goes straight to the Poulains.”
Umberto Rispoli was happy with Jolly Good Kitten, who he described as being “only 80 per cent fit.”
Grey Lion kept up the family tradition in making it two out of two in the conditions race over 1m2½f under Maxime Guyon.
A full brother to owner/breeder Dietrich von Boetticher’s Golden Lilac, Grey Lion holds entries in the Prix du Jockey Club and the Grand Prix de Paris.
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