Already successful four times at Longchamp, including in the Prix d’Ispahan
over an extended nine furlongs May 26, Maxios
showed abundant speed dropped back to a mile to register an emphatic success in
Sunday’s Group 1 Prix du Moulin. Racing ahead of the main group early behind the
isolated rabbit Sage Melody, the Niarchos Family’s homebred had extended his advantage over his chief rivals
by the time he passed the pacemaker inside the final quarter-mile. Kept rolling to
the line by Stephane Pasquier, the 3-1 second choice had a five-length margin to
spare over the labored 9-10 favorite Olympic Glory there.
“He has never
been as good as he is now, and to have him at the top of his game at five is a tribute to
his trainer and all his staff,” the owner-breeders’ Racing Manager Alan Cooper commented.
There was a spell when Maxios looked unlikely to justify his high regard
following his first black-type success in the Prix Thomas Bryon at
Saint-Cloud in October 2010, but the half-brother to Bago was pieced back together by Jonathan Pease and
started to show more last summer. Successful in the La Coupe de Maisons-Laffitte
around this time in 2012, he signed off after a sixth in the Prix Dollar here and returned to this circuit to annex
the Prix d’Harcourt over 10 furlongs April 7 and run second
to Pastorius in the Prix Ganay three weeks later.
Back to winning ways in the Prix d’Ispahan, he was sent to Royal Ascot for the Prince of Wales’s S., but was unable to land a blow on fast
ground and finished sixth in that June 19 feature prior to a well-earned holiday. Pasquier was keen to use
his inherent staying power as a weapon against his reluctant rivals, who sat far off the pace carved out by
Sage Melody for her stable companion Flotilla. Steered around that runner passing the quarter-pole,
the dark bay was still full of run and kept up the relentless gallop as Frankie Dettori managed to drag
Olympic Glory into second having never looked happy on the favorite at any stage.
“We decided to shorten him up to a
mile, mostly on the advice of his jockey but also due to the impression he gave when appearing not to stay the
10
furlongs of the Ganay and Prince of Wales’s,” the winning trainer explained. “He is better ridden from the
front end like that, and the soft ground helped a lot.”
Connections have a range of options open to the five-year-old
now.
“He could run in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (at Ascot October 19), or head to the Breeders’ Cup or even run in
the Cox Plate (at Moonee Valley October 26),” Cooper said. “He has an invitation to that and we have to
tell the racing authorities whether he is going or not very soon, so we will discuss it and see.”
Dettori reported that Olympic Glory was unable to handle the turns, as he had
when flopping in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains over this track and trip May 12.
Also at Longchamp, Mirza and Dibajj dead-heated for the win in the Group 3
Prix du Petit Couvert, an about five-furlong course-and-distance prep for the
Prix de l’Abbaye on Arc Day.
Mirza, whose only black-type success came in Cork’s
Midsummer Sprint over this trip in June 2012, had finished seventh in the Garrowby over six at York
last Sunday, while the former Christophe Ferland trainee Dibajj had shaped with more immediate promise when
a close third in the Prix de Meautry over six furlongs at Deauville August 25.
Racing almost side by side
in mid-division through the early strides, the duo were given the hurry up at the quarter-pole and steadily reeled
in Catcall in the shadow of the post to share the spoils in a four-way photo.
Dibajj’s trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre
said, “She has been improving with every run since joining me and it was much too soft last time. Today, the ground
was better for her and all being well, she will run in the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp.”
Mirza’s
owner-breeder Chris Mills also has the Abbaye in mind and told PA Sport, “We were confident coming here, as her dam
Millyant won this race twice. Hopefully we’ll be back here in three weeks now.”
At the opposite end of the distance spectrum, Domeside defeated Les Beaufs in
the Group 3 Prix Gladiateur for stayers, an about 1 15/16-mile stepping stone to
the Prix du Cadran.
Taking the unorthodox step of running in a March 31
Saint-Cloud claimer, Domeside stepped up from a win there to hit the board in the Prix de Barbeville over this
course and distance April 28, and was last seen taking the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier from Les Beaufs over track and trip
once more May 26. He raced in mid-division and still moved well as the field straightened for home. Asked for
his full effort with two furlongs to race, Domeside took advantage of a kind split to hit the front at the eighth-pole and enjoyed the luxury of easing down close home to confirm his superiority over the runner-up.
“The ground is
the key to him, which is why we waited since the Vicomtesse Vigier, and
hopefully it will be like this (soft) in the Prix du Cadran,” trainer Mauricio Delcher-Sanchez commented. “He was given a
beautiful ride and has not had a hard race.”
Les Beaufs’ conditioner Valerie Seignoux said of the runner-up, “We
deliberately didn’t send him to the lead today, as we knew there were other front runners and there was no point
giving him a hard race with his targets being the Cadran and the Prix Royal-Oak
(at Longchamp October 27).”
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