Place Du Carrousel was in impressive form yesterday.
Doha, Qatar: The Qatar-sponsored Qatar Arc Trials Day took place at ParisLongchamp yesterday. Ambassador of Qatar to France H E Sheikh Ali bin Jassim Al Thani was present at ParisLongchamp and presented the trophies to the winners of the Qatar Cup - Prix Dragon (Gr 1 PA) landed by Al Shaqab Racing’s Ghadah and the Gr1 Qatar Prix Vermeille won by Coolmore’s Warm Heart.
H E Sheikh Ali also crowned the winners of the Gr2 Qatar Prix Foy, which was taken by the Al Shaqab Racing & Ballylinch Stud-owned Place Du Carrousel and the Gr2 Qatar Prix Niel, which was won by the Liberty Racing 2021-owned Fantastic Moon.
Ghadah back to winning ways
The Gr.1 (PA) Qatar Cup – Prix Dragon saw the Al Shaqab owned homebred Ghadah (Azadi) get back to winning ways following her excellent second in the Gr.1 UAE Presidents Cup at Doncaster last month.
With Mickael Barzalona in the saddle, Ghadah was held up fifth of the six runners through the early stages of the contest, which was dictated by the eventual runner-up Sahab (AF Albahar), owned by Mohammed bin Fahad Al Attiyah and trained by Mrs Jean Francois Bernard and was ridden on the occasion by Maxime Guyon.
Although still with five lengths to find on the leader on the turn for home, Ghadah travelled best of all under a motionless Barzalona and was switched wide to challenge. Once rolling, Ghadah closed with an impressive turn of foot and went clear inside the final 100m to score by just over a length.
Ambassador of Qatar to France H E Sheikh Ali bin Jassim Al Thani with the connection Al Shaqab Racing’s Ghadah, winner of Qatar Cup at ParisLongchamp yesterday .
The YAS Horse Racing Management owned and Xavier Thomas-Demeaulte trained Elaf ELAF (Rabbah de Carrere( finished third under jockey Anthony Crastus.
Speaking after the race, the winning jockey said: “She accelerated really well when I asked for an effort and was tough. I pulled her out wide because I’ve seen in other races that she can hang, so I wanted to keep everything smooth. The was a lovely covering of grass out there and we got into a nice action. She’s very talented.”
Place Du Carrousel shines
Winner of last season’s Gr.1 Prix de l’Opera, the superb four-year-old Place Du Carrousel (Lope De Vega) returned to the scene of her biggest triumph to land an ‘Arc Trial’, the Gr.2 Qatar Prix Foy, where she encountered the 2400m for the first time.
Trained by Andre Fabre and with her regular partner Mickael Barzalona in the saddle, Place Du Carrosel made it a double on the card for her joint-owner Al Shaqab Racing, who share the filly with her part-breeder Ballylinch Stud.
Also yesterday, a proven stayer despite her relatively short career, the well-bred daughter of the Galileo, Warm Heart landed her second consecutive victory at the highest level by winning the Qatar Peix Vermeille at ParisLongchamp.
Fantastic Moon wins Gr2 Qatar Prix Niel
Fantastic Moon (Sea The Moon), the top German 3-y-old, as evidenced by his victory in the Deutsches Derby, left his rivals for dead in the final stages of theFantastic Moon. He beat French-trained favourite Feed the Flame by two and a half lengths, whereas Bravais, another French-trained colt, was third.
Baumgarten, the Liberty Racing 2022 representative, the owner of Fantastic Moon, said : “We made the right decision not to run him last time at Baden-Baden because the ground was over watered. He needs good ground, as he shows in the morning. He’s a great horse. Both the trainer and the jockey have done a great job.”
Fantastic Moon is trained by Sarah Stienberg and was ridden to victory by Rene Piechulek.
Fang from pillar to post in the Qatar Prix du Pin
The Jean-Claude Rouget’s trained Fang (Goken) absolutely loves the ParisLongchamp 1,400m meters track, nicknamed the “slide”. This was his fourth race on it, for three successes. Fang had actually won the Qatar Prix du Pin last year and defended and kept his crown this year.
Meanwhile, contested at a ferocious pace up the centre of the course at ParisLongchamp, with the clock stopping at 54.83 seconds, the Gr.3 Qatar Prix Du Petit Couvert saw seven seasoned sprinters clash with last year’s runner-up Coeur De Pierre (Zanzibari) landing the spoils in a head-bobbing finish.
Taking the opening race on Qatar Trials day at ParisLongchamp, Coeur De Pierre was trained by Mauricio Delcher Sanchez and was given a power-packed ride by jockey Tony Piccone.
