by Desmond Stoneham
The year’s first two French classics were raced at sun-drenched Longchamp on Sunday, and Falco delivered a 22-to-1 shocker in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (Fr-G1) (French Two Thousand Guineas) while the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (Fr-G1) (French One Thousand Guineas) for fillies was dominated by odds-on Zarkava.
Olivier Peslier had an outstanding afternoon, riding Falco to victory for the Wertheimer brothers and finishing second aboard Goldikova in the filly race.
Falco, a Pivotal colt, went smartly into stride and settled behind the leaders until Peslier decided to move closer to the tiring pacemakers Lucifer Sam and One Great Cat early in the straight. Falco immediately took the initiative, built up a lead of several lengths, and won by three lengths.
Falco covered the 1,600 meters (7.95 furlongs) in 1:35.60 on turf rated as good.
Rio de La Plata, a Rahy colt owned by Godolphin and trained by Saeed bin Suroor, held off a late bid from River Proud to finish second. Racing manager Simon Crisford said he was pleased with Rio de La Plata’s performance, but no decision has been made for his next start.
It was a first classic win for Spanish-born Carlos Laffon-Parais, who is Criquette Head-Maarek's son-in-law.
"He is a colt who needs plenty of work, and he has certainly been improving all the time,” Laffon-Parais said. “We're not sure he will stay further than a mile, so we might miss the Prix du Jockey-Club (Fr-G1) (French Derby) and go instead for the St James's Palace Stakes (Eng-G1) at Royal Ascot [on June 20]."
Although Zarkava gave several of her connections some anxious moments, she did not ever worry jockey Christophe Soumillon during the Pouliches.
The Zamindar filly, bet down to 3-to-10, raced in ninth place early before moving up to be seventh in the straight. A path then opened, she dominated the final furlong to win by two lengths from Goldikova. Halfway to Heaven was another 1 1/2 lengths farther back in third.
Bred and owned by the Aga Khan and trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre, Zarkava is now unbeaten in four races, and she has also never been put under any serious pressure. In the Pouliches, she established a stakes record of 1:35.20.
The Aga Khan greeted the filly in the winner's enclosure.
"I was a little worried as she was quite a long way behind early on, but we have been preparing her to go further so the next logical step is for Zarkava to run in the Prix de Diane [Hermes (Fr-G1) (French Oaks) on June 10]."
Goldikova proved unable to quicken like the winner. She did peck a little bit coming out of the stalls but her connections did not consider the incident to be an excuse. Halfway to Heaven stayed on to finish third, and she has a future target of the Irish Oaks (Ire-G1) on July 15.
Desmond Stoneham is a France-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent
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