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| Royal Ascot News 2013 |
Style Reigns in French 2000 Guineas
13/05/13
The Group 1 Poule d’Essai de Poulains – the French 2000 Guineas – went the way of the impressive Nicholas Clement-trained Style Vendome who may now be destined for a trip to Royal Ascot next month for the St James’s Palace Stakes on the opening day of the showcase five-day fixture.
In what proved to be a rough race for the feature Longchamp contest, Style Vendome (59/10) was squeezed out in the early stages of the mile event before recovering his composure to race in mid-division under Thierry Thulliez.
Switched outside entering the final quarter mile, the son of Anabaa found a fine change of gear and ran on strongly inside the final 100 yards to get the better of 39/1 shot, Dastarhon, by a neck, with the unlucky-in-running Intello flying at the finish to come home just a head further back in third, a head in front of Aidan O’Brien’s Gale Force Ten, who also acquitted himself well.
Richard Hannon’s pair of Olympic Glory and Havana Gold enjoyed differing fortunes, the former running a fine race to be a close-up fifth, while Olympic Glory – sent off the 4/1 favourite with Betfair.com – could never get competitive from a wide draw and eventually trailed home in 11th position.
Style Vendome was winning his fifth successive outing having scored twice last term – including in listed company – before winning another listed contest at Chantilly in March, then following up in the Group 3 Prix Djebel at Maison Lafitte last month.
According to racing pundit, Gordon Elliot, Clement has expressed a definite interest in a bid for the St James’s Palace Stakes with his rapidly improving colt, whose tactical speed could well see him go very close indeed to giving France a victory in the feature contest.
Clement has also suggested that a run in the mile-and-a-quarter French Derby is also being considered for his new stable star.
