Tropbeau

While Britain's flat turf season remains low-key compared to its immediate neighbours, with no black-type action at the sole meeting at Musselburgh on Saturday, France takes up the mantle with the G3 Prix Edmond Blanc the feature at Saint-Cloud. Staging an early comeback in the mile contest is Al Asayl France's The Revenant (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), who races under a six-pound penalty as a result of his exploits when winning the G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. on Ascot's Champions Day card. That came just a fortnight after the chestnut had...

By way of some twists and turns of fate, Monday's two mile French Classics will return to Deauville's straight track and Friday's declaration stage saw a total of 21 protagonists engaged across the G1 Emirates Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Pouliches. Of the nine set to line up in the Poulains, Andre Fabre has Godolphin's 'TDN Rising Star' Victor Ludorum (GB) (Shamardal), Corinna Baronin Von Ullmann's Alson (Ger) (Areion {Ger}) and Coolmore's Arapaho (Fr) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), with the former the expected outright favourite at this juncture. Only third...

Eleven runners remain in the potential line-up for the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains and 16 for the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, both of which are to be run on Monday at Deauville. With French racing remaining restricted to domestic runners until mid-June, all foreign-trained horses have been removed from the initial list of entries. A notable domestic defector among the colts is the G1 Prix Morny and G1 Middle Park S. winner Earthlight (Ire) (Shamardal), who was scratched from his intended comeback run in the G3 Prix de...

French racing will return behind closed doors on Monday after being off since Mar. 16 due to COVID-19 lockdown restrictions, and the initial three cards at ParisLongchamp, Toulouse and Compiegne have drawn a whopping 1,069 entries. ParisLongchamp, which received clearance on Monday to stage its meeting in the nation's capital, has drawn a total of 257 entries across 10 races. The card's feature races are the G2 Prix d'Harcourt and Group 3 Prix la Grotte, Prix de Fontainebleau and G3 Prix de Saint-Georges. Last year's G1 Prix du Jockey Club...

Charles Briere's Fairway Consignment seems to have sailed a smooth upward trajectory since its establishment four years ago, hitting one target after the next. This June, a significant milestone was achieved when Fairway pinhook graduate Arizona (Ire) (No Nay Never) took Royal Ascot's G2 Coventry S. Fairway Partners purchased the dark bay for 65,000gns at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale and sold him to MV Magnier for €260,000 at last year's Arqana August sale. From the second crop of No Nay Never, Arizona is out of the placed English Channel...