French Prix Jean Prat Preview: Godolphin run to Thunder on

Sheikh Mohammed has owned seven Prix Jean Prat winners, four of whom raced in his own maroon and white silks, and he will have a close eye on racing at Chantilly at the weekend as Thunder Snow bids to provide him with an eighth win in the 1m Group 1. A son of the tough and durable Australian sprinter Helmet, Thunder Snow book-ended his two-year-old season with a debut success at Leicester in May and an impressive Criterium International win at Saint-Cloud in late-October. He had previously looked exposed in four pattern races, including when fourth in the Dewhurst earlier that month, but was impressive in the Criterium, storming clear to beat fellow British raider South Seas by five lengths, providing his trainer Saeed bin Suroor with a first Group 1 winner of the year in the process.

Thunder Snow continued where he left off, after a three month absence, when showing his class with a wide-margin success in the UAE 2000 Guineas at Meydan in February, and he followed up – albeit by a much lesser distance – when beating the Japanese-trained Epicharis by a short-head in the UAE Derby six weeks later. Those wins came over 1m and 9.5f respectively, and he was again stepped up in trip for his next assignment in the Kentucky Derby, though he essentially took no part as he inexplicably started bucking and kicking almost as soon as he left the stalls, making him unrideable and giving jockey Christophe Soumillion no option but to pull him up. He proved that was all wrong, however, when chasing home Churchill in the Irish 2000 Guineas at the Curragh, before improving again when a length and a quarter third to Barney Roy (Churchill a below-par fourth) in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot last month. He again recorded a good timefigure there, in first-time cheekpieces, and with that form setting the standard, he deserves his place at the head of both the betting and Timeform weight-adjusted ratings.

The presence of Turf Laurel means that Thunder Snow will again need to beat a horse trained by a Japanese handler if he is to gain a second Group 1 victory on French soil. In truth, however, that shouldn’t really be a problem, as the Satoshi Kobayashi-trained Turf Laurel has been found wanting at a lower level in France, and she would need to improve significantly on her one and a half-length fifth to Senga in the Prix de Diane to trouble the Godolphin runner. Similar comments apply to the other supplemented runner Lightupthenight. Trained by Francis-Henri Graffard, Lightupthenight is a half-sister to Oaks d'Italia winner Night of Magic, from the family of Deutsches Derby winner Nutan, however to date she has only won a maiden at Chantilly and a minor event at Maisons-Laffitte. She was a good third in a listed race there last time, but that form leaves her with an awful lot to find. The third filly, Gold Luck, is a half-sister to Goldikova, however she is still very much in her sibling’s rather large shadow. The Freddie Head-trained filly won the Prix Vanteaux at Chantilly in April, and, after failing to improve when fifth in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary, was a length second to La Sardane in the Prix de Sandringham last month. She needs to improve, though it should be noted that Goldikova herself didn’t bloom until the autumn of her three-year-old season.

A bigger danger could be the Andre Fabre-trained Trais Fluors. He’s the first foal out of a 1m winner and has looked at home over that trip, winning all three starts over the distance since landing a 7.5f maiden at Maisons-Laffitte on his debut last October. His latest success came in the Group 3 Prix Paul de Moussac Longines over C&D, where he readily maintained his unbeaten record, stepped up into pattern company for the first time. He is likely to continue to progress and his trainer knows exactly what sort of horse is needed to land this Group 1 prize; along with François Mathet and François Boutin, Fabre is the winning-most trainer in the race with five wins to his name. In a link that brings us back to the start, his first two Prix Jean Prat winners – Local Talent (1989) and Kitwood (1992) - were successful in the maroon and white silks of Sheikh Mohammed.