Sunday, Chantilly, France
GRAND PRIX DE CHANTILLY-G2, €130,000, Chantilly, 6-3, 4yo/up, 1 1/2mT, 2:35.80, gd/sf.
1--@AIKEN (GB), 123, c, 4, by Selkirk
        1st Dam: Las Flores (Ire) (SP-Eng & G1SP-Ity), by Sadler's Wells
        2nd Dam: Producer, by Nashua
        3rd Dam: Marion (Fr), by Tantieme (Fr)
O/B-George Strawbridge; T-John Gosden; J-William Buick; €74,100. Lifetime Record: 7-6-0-0, €125,951. *1/2 to Spanish Spur (GB) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), SW-US, $198,957; Sleeping Indian (GB) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), MGSW-Eng, $454,242; Full to Felicity (Ire), GSW-Eng & GSP-Fr & Ire, $108,542. Werk Nick Rating: A. Click for eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2--Maxios (GB), 123, c, 4, Monsun (Ger)--Moonlight's Box, by Nureyev. O/B-Niarchos Family; T-Jonathan Pease; €28,600.
3--Dunaden (Fr), 130, h, 6, Nicobar (GB)--La Marlia (Fr), by Kaldounevees (Fr). (€1,500 wnlg '06 ARQDEC). O-Pearl Bloodstock Ltd; B-Comte Edouard Decazes; T-Mikel Delzangles; €13,650.
Margins: 3/4, 2HF, 3/4. Odds: 2.60, 4.10, 1.00.
Also Ran: Dance Moves (GB), Allied Powers (Ire).
Click for the Racing Post chart or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. Equidia race replay.
   Like Friday's impressive Epsom handicap scorer Gatewood (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), Aiken is a George Strawbridge homebred treated as a work-in-progress by John Gosden and has been given all the time he needs to mature into the smart performer he is bred to be. Racing three times in the space of a month last summer, the bay exhibited signs of greenness in races at Chester, Sandown and Ascot, but still managed to score on each occasion and resumed winning ways after a nine-month absence in Epsom's Great Metropolitan H. on testing ground Apr. 25. Upped to this class due to the manner of his subsequent 10-length success in Ascot's Listed Buckhounds S. also on a heavy surface last time May 12, Aiken continued his upward progression with an all-the-way success in this prestigious contest. Sent to the lead from the outset by William Buick, who had earlier carried out front-running tactics to perfection on Laught Out Loud (GB) (Clodovil {Ire}) in the G2 Prix de Sandringham, he dug in when joined and briefly headed by TDN Rising Star" Maxios a furlong out to re-assert in the final 100 yards, with the 9-10 favorite and last year's G1 Melbourne Cup and G1 Hong Kong Vase winner Dunaden running an encouraging third under his seven-pound penalty. "He is a good, solid, improving horse," Gosden commented. "This was a jump up in class and he came out and won very nicely, but we were lucky with the heavy rain over Chantilly last night, as he is not a horse to run on firm ground. He will run in either the [June 24] G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud or G2 Hardwicke S. [at Royal Ascot June 23]."