Prix d'Ispahan: Usherette can put rivals in their places

The long-term plan was for Europe’s champion three-year-old of last year Almanzor to make his reappearance in the Prix d’Ispahan before contesting the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot but his name doesn’t appear in a select field of six for Sunday’s nine-furlong contest.

However, we do have the two colts who finished placed behind Almanzor in last year’s Prix du Jockey Club and Zarak, runner-up in that contest, will be a popular choice to gain what has so far proved an elusive Group 1 success. Zarak’s only win since has come in a Group 3 contest in Dubai in February but he went close again back up in grade when an arguably unlucky second in the Prix Ganay at Saint-Cloud at the beginning of the month.

Zarak was this column’s selection on that occasion but little went right for him, with Christophe Soumillon finding himself shuffled back to last with just over a furlong to run before finishing strongly to go down by just a short neck to Cloth of Stars. At some point during the closing stages Soumillon lost his whip as well, having to improvise instead with the palm of his hand. The Ganay is over another furlong and a half and Zarak, the first offspring of the Aga Khan’s unbeaten Arc winner Zarkava to reach the racecourse, shaped as though worth a try over further himself so he looks worth taking on over this shorter trip.

Dicton was third in last year’s Prix du Jockey Club, completing a rags-to-riches rise after winning a couple of claimers as a two-year-old. His best bit of form came later last summer when fifth to Ribchester in the Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville, but he’s been below that level since and it’s asking a lot of him to bounce back from a defeat in Hong Kong barely a month ago.

Almanzor had been something of an unknown quantity until the Prix du Jockey Club and it was his stable-companion Mekhtaal who was sent off favourite for the ‘French Derby’ after a six-length win from the front in the Prix Hocquart at Deauville. Mekhtaal couldn’t repeat those tactics from a wide draw in a bigger field at Chantilly, but he’s since proved himself better than he was able to show there and returned with an improved effort last month to run Cloth of Stars to a neck in the Prix d’Harcourt at Saint-Cloud. The winner improved again in the Ganay, so Mekhtaal has a bit more to find with Zarak than that piece of form suggests. On the other hand, Mekhtaal might be suited by dropping back to a distance short of ten furlongs for the first time.

British challenger Robin of Navan is another who races prominently and he too contested last year’s Prix du Jockey Club in which he faded to finish down the field. A Group 1 winner at two in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud, he failed to win at three but was runner-up on four occasions, including back in Group 1 company in the Premio Roma on his final start. He ran as though just needing the race when fourth in the Prix d’Harcourt but would need a career-best to get his head in front here.

The same comments apply to Kourkan who steps up to Group 1 company for the first time. Raced mainly at a mile, he won a listed race at Saint-Cloud on his reappearance in March and gave a good account when going down by half a length to Jimmy Two Times in the Prix du Muguet over the same course and distance last time.

Kourkan finished just in front of Usherette in the Muguet, but that was the Godolphin mare’s first run since disappointing in the Falmouth Stakes at Newmarket last July. In the circumstances, Usherette shaped well under a considerate ride from Mickael Barzalona to snatch third right on the line. The winner of six of just nine starts for Andre Fabre, Usherette has had likely excuses for her two defeats in Group 1 company to date, but she looks to have unfinished business at the top level given the sort of form she was in this time last year when landing a couple of Group 2 prizes in Britain. She won the Dahlia Stakes over this trip at the Guineas meeting and followed up in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Sure to have benefited from her recent return to action, a repeat of the form that gained Usherette that comfortable Royal Ascot success gives her a good chance of coming out on top over Zarak at this trip.

Recommendation:

Back Usherette in the Prix d’Ispahan at Chantilly.