ParisLongchamp stages the G1 Prix Royal-Oak on Sunday, with the fillies and mares very much at centre stage. Fresh from a career-best success in the 2 1/2-mile G1 Prix du Cadran here on Oct. 3, Princess Zoe (Ger) (Jukebox Jury {Ire}) is partnered by Seamie Heffernan with regular rider Joey Sheridan suspended due to a whip ban handed out by these stewards on Arc Saturday. On the same day, The Aga Khan’s Valia (Fr) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) took the G2 Prix Chaudenay in the manner of a filly going places and she is bound to have been prepared meticulously by Alain de Royer-Dupre.
If there is a colt capable of making an impact it is Subjectivist (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}), who showed how much he appreciates testing ground and a staying trip when scoring by 15 lengths in Goodwood’s G3 March S. on Aug. 29.
Trainer Tony Mullins said of Princess Zoe, “Hopefully it’s not too quick a return. We wouldn’t be here if we saw any evidence that it was, but you’re not really going to know until the last 200 metres on Sunday–that will be the acid test. Everything has gone according to plan and we don’t see any problems at the moment. We think we’re in as good a form as we were the last day, if not better.”
“We see the Aga Khan filly and Mark Johnston’s horse as the two dangers,” he added. “I think more the Aga Khan filly, who is a possible improver. She’ll have to improve again, I think, but it’s very possible that she will.” Charlie Johnston said of Subjectivist, “If you had asked me a month ago where he was going to go, I would have said the Long Distance Cup at Ascot last weekend–that was Plan A, but then when Stradivarius turned up and Aidan declared everything he did, it looked a deeper field than we expected it to be so at the last minute we decided to give it a swerve and go for the Royal-Oak. Looking at it, I think it’s the right decision. The trip is a little bit of an unknown–you are always a little bit hesitant with him, because of his run style and how he likes to get on with things. Princess Zoe needed every yard of the two and a half miles last time and I would like to think over this trip we might have too much class for her. Our horse will handle the conditions and goes there with a good chance.”
In the 11-furlong G2 Prix du Conseil de Paris, Gestut Schlenderhan’s 3-year-old colt Mare Australis (Ire) (Australia {GB}) is running for the first time since making hard work of winning the Listed Prix de l’Avre over 12 furlongs at Chantilly on June 14. He faces the vastly-more experienced Nagano Gold (GB) (Sixties Icon {GB}) who will be hard to beat if able to reproduce the form of either his second in the June 28 G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud or his third placing behind Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the G2 Prix Foy at this venue on Sept. 13.
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