Like the Tattersalls Gold Cup, Sunday's G1 Churchill Coolmore Prix d'Ispahan at ParisLongchamp has a slightly hollow feel and needs an illuminating feature if it is to stand up to past renewals. That may be provided by SARL Darpat's Recoletos (Fr) (Whipper), who is unexposed at this kind of trip and looked at home when taking Saint-Cloud's G2 Prix du Muguet over a mile at the start of the month. While this rise in trip, shedding of a three-pound penalty and the fact that he has now had a run may help Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum's Taareef (Kitten's Joy) make up his 4 3/4-length deficit with the winner from that contest, there is a feeling that Recoletos is a high-class colt finally finding his niche. Denied by just a length when third in the 10 1/2-furlong G1 Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly in June, he may be ideally suited by this intermediate distance.
Taareef is capable of strong form on his best days and finished second to Ribchester (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}) in the G1 Prix du Moulin at Chantilly in September before winning the G2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein back there by the end of the month. This is far as he has gone since August 2016 and intriguingly like Recoletos has yet to run at this venue which has been closed for the majority of his career. Also running at ParisLongchamp for the first time is Haras de Saint Pair's Trais Fluors (GB) (Dansili {GB}) and he comes into it on his second in Chantilly's G1 Prix Jean Prat in July, but it is hard to argue that he is top-class after a latest 13th in the Mar. 31 G1 Dubai Turf.
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