André Fabre wins Prix Du Jockey Club
When André Fabre aligned himself to the Godolphin yard there were those who wondered whether one of Europe’s master trainers had decided to take a form of semi-retirement.
In the early days of Sheikh Mohammed’s peacock-blue revolution there had been rumours that any attempts by the owner to transfer star horses from Fabre’s Chantilly yard to Newmarket had been rebuffed.
Then in 2008 Fabre signed up as part of the Godolphin team when the sheikh bought his yard. Fabre set about developing a juvenile academy for Godolphin and this spring some of the most promising fruits of his labours, including Rewilding and Simon De Montfort were duly dispatched to Mahmood Al Zarooni’s new yard. However, the Frenchman, whose likening to Napoleon is a reference as much to his strategic planning as it is to his stature, still has other owners who are more than happy to retain his services full-time.
One of those is Dietrich von Boetticher and his colt, Lope De Vega, emerged as the latest star performer with an impressive victory in the Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly. The draw had not been kind and Lope De Vega was allocated stall 20 of the 22 runners, but Maxime Guyon, himself one of the rising stars of the French weighing room, deftly tracked across from his unpromising to take second place behind Vivre Libre.
Guyon knew that the colt possessed telling speed, after his victory in the Poule D’Essai Des Poulains last month, and gambled that his stamina would last the extended 10 furlongs. He committed before the home straight and won by three lengths from Planteur, with Pain Perdu third.
Ryan Moore’s hopes of a third Classic victory of the weekend, following on from his Oaks and Derby double, came to nothing when Ice Blue – third early in the home straight - could finish only seventh and Aidan O’Brien went back to Ballydoyle empty-handed when Viscount Nelson finished fifth and Cape Blanco, the colt who beat Moore’s Derby winner Workforce in last month’s Dante Stakes, trailed in 10th.
Cape Blanco perhaps did not have the run of the race, in the same way that Jan Vermeer’s chances in the Derby were compromised by the loss of two shoes, but the yard that was supposed to house a treasure trove of three-year-old talent is looking somewhat devalued after events of this weekend.
Lope De Vega was only a second Jockey Club winner for Fabre, in what has otherwise been a stellar career, but was also recompense for Von Boetticher, whose Hurricane Run was beaten a neck by Shamardal five years ago. The ironic twist is that Shamardal is the sire of Lope De Vega.
Fabre’s previous Jockey Club winner, Peintre Celebre in 1997, went on to win the Prix De L’Arc De Triomphe but the trainer has doubts about pushing the boundaries of Lope De Vega’s stamina and could yet drop him back to a mile for the Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville in August.
Sheikh Mohammed’s maroon-and-white colours are rarely seen in Britain but were in the winner’s enclosure after Lady's Purse won the Group Two Prix de Royaumont. The filly was completing a hat-trick for trainer Alex Pantall after being beaten on her only start in 2009 when trained by Saeed bin Suroor. Perhaps, like Fabre, Pantall may be receiving the phone call when the Sheikh opens his next transfer window.
Michael Bell (pictured) reached a career milestone when he saddled his 1000th winner with the victory of Allied Powers in the Group Two Grand Prix de Chantilly.
Bell may return to France with Allied Powers for the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud or the Hardwicke at Royal Ascot.
Tags: