G1 Emirates Poule d'Essai des Poulains

There was a surprise in store in Sunday's G1 Emirates Poule d'Essai des Poulains as Jaber Abdullah's Marhaba Ya Sanafi (Ire) (Muhaarar {GB}--Danega {GB}, by Galileo {Ire}) edged out Isaac Shelby (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) to provide his owner-breeder and trainer Andreas Schutz with a red-letter day at ParisLongchamp. Sitting handy in fourth early under Mickael Barzalona, the relative of Galileo's luminary Soldier Of Fortune (Ire) who was second to American Flag (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) in the course-and-distance G3 Prix de Fontainebleau last month surrendered first run to...

by Brian Sheerin & Heather Anderson This colts' Classic appears to be Isaac Shelby (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire})'s to lose, after his G3 Greenham S. romp at Newbury. The Wathnan Racing runner is set to lock horns with the Coolmore partners' G3 2000 Guineas Trial S. winner Hans Andersen (GB) (Frankel {GB}) among others, and, with only 10 runners, the draw is of minimal concern in Paris.   BREIZH SKY (FR), Pedro The Great--Anna Danse (Fr) (Anabaa) 'TDN Rising Star' Owner: Alain Jathiere, Louis Baudron Et Al Breeder: Haras...

Given how powerful Ballydoyle has become since the late 1990s, it is perhaps surprising that Aidan O'Brien has pulled off the English-French-Irish 2000 Guineas treble only once with the duo Rock of Gibraltar (Ire) and Landseer (GB) sharing the spoils between them in 2002. No other stable has made inroads into this unique annexation of the three major colts' mile Classics, but 20 years later Charlie Appleby stands on the brink after Coroebus (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) provided him with a breakthrough first Newmarket Classic at the end of last month....

After all the worry and uncertainty of the past few weeks, the first of the European Classics to be staged in the time of COVID-19 provided a reassuring outcome as Godolphin's TDN Rising Star Victor Ludorum (GB) (Shamardal) made class tell over the straight mile at Deauville. As it was before the huge disruption wrought by the virus, so it remains at least in this sphere with the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner confirming the form of the Arc card's juvenile highlight to regain the winning thread in Monday's G1...

Constant, blazing sunshine will welcome back Europe's Group 1 Classics at Deauville on Monday while Berlin-Hoppegarten join in with the first of their own domestic Classics on a day that will be relished by all the racing community. While the G1 Emirates Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Pouliches are an all-French affair in 2020 and the former is missing the country's leading juvenile of 2019 in Earthlight (Ire) (Shamardal), there are two Group 1 winners engaged to add gravitas to a renewal forever to be marked with an asterisk. Both...