Persian King chased the speed and emerged victorious in Sunday’s Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp (1600m).
With Circus Maximus rousted out of the barriers to lead at a solid tempo, only Pierre-Charles Boudot elected to race close to the speed with the remaining four runners content to sit several lengths away.
Into the final straight and with Circus Maximus lugging away from the rail under pressure, Boudot was able to come through along the inside and Persian King accelerated into the lead, the only horse to make any headway was Pinatubo and while he made up several lengths over the final 200m it was not enough and he fell one length short at the finish. (pic: France Galop/Scoop Dyga)
Circus Maximus battled on for third, with Siskin fourth, the winner’s stablemate Victor Ludorum fifth and Romanised a long last.
Andre Fabre was winning the race for the seventh time and told the Racing Post he thought the best horse had won.
“I don’t think it was because of strategy – the best horse on the day won.” Fabre said.
“It was obviously a very good race with almost the best of both generations so what can you say?
You can consider him the best European miler, matched alongside the Marois winner. He’s the same class as Palace Pier.
Fabre hinted he could even step the four-year-old son of Kingman up in trip.
“He had some issues which meant I couldn’t train him properly until now,” Fabre said. “But now he is really fit and he showed how good he really is.
“I always thought that he could go a bit further so he is entered in the Champion Stakes and he is entered in the Arc.”
Pinatubo’s jockey James Doyle was frustrated afterwards.
“It’s annoying when the front two get a break on you like that but we were mindful of the mile and we wanted to ride him patiently,” Doyle said.
“I followed Siskin and he elected to give the front two a bit of a gap and he’s a horse that, when you do pull him into space, he lights up, so we just had to sit and suffer.
“He’s made up a lot of ground and the mile is definitely no problem.”