Monday's G2 Prix du Muguet at Saint-Cloud, the traditional race of the country's Fête du Muguet, features the return of one of last year's leading fillies in Usherette (Ire) (Shamardal). This day last year, Godolphin's homebred was winning the G3 Dahlia S. over nine furlongs on Newmarket's Rowley Mile course prior to annexing the G2 Duke of Cambridge S. at Royal Ascot in June, but the wheels fell off when she was sixth of seven in the G1 Falmouth S. at Newmarket's July meeting and she was absent for the rest of the season. “Usherette clearly has the class to win a race like this, but she is making her seasonal debut and will probably need this race more than some of the others,” trainer Andre Fabre explained. “She has done well.”
Also from the Fabre stable is the impressive G3 Prix Edmond Blanc scorer Jimmy Two Times (Fr) (Kendargent {Fr}), who was purchased by Godolphin after that tour de force over this course and distance on Apr. 2. “Jimmy Two Times is coming into this in great form, having won his prep race in pleasing style,” Fabre added. “Any forecast rain will be a bonus for him.”
Fourth in the G1 Sun Chariot S. at Newmarket at the start of October, the G3 Prix Quincey scorer Siyoushake (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) signed off with a win in the G3 Prix Perth over this track and trip late in that month, when the re-opposing Kourkan (Fr) (American Post {GB}) was third. She commands respect from the Freddy Head stable so adept with older fillies and mares, while Al Shaqab Racing's Karar (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) also enters the reckoning on his runner-up finish in the G1 Prix de la Foret over seven furlongs at Chantilly in October.
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