Prix du Jockey Club: Aviator to fly home

It’s Derby day in France too this weekend with a field of seventeen due to line up for the Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly on Sunday. Like Epsom, Chantilly has had plenty of rain in the past week and the going is predicted to be soft on Sunday.

The various trials for the Prix du Jockey Club might seem the obvious place to start but in recent years they’ve been surprisingly unhelpful in revealing the French Derby winner. Only two of the last ten Prix du Jockey Club winners, Lawman and Saonois, had contested (and won) one of the group-race trials. The trials this year have been characterised by small and uncompetitive fields. The colt who’s undoubtedly made the best impression in winning one, though, is Mekhtaal who turned the Prix Hocquart at Deauville into a very one-sided contest, making the running and drawing away to win unchallenged by six lengths. That was just his third start having made a winning debut (on soft ground) in March and there should be more to come from this son of Sea The Stars, though he’s much less likely to have things his own way in this bigger field from a wide draw.

Jean-Claude Rouget also saddles another trial winner, Almanzor, who also made the running when winning the four-runner Prix de Guiche at Chantilly last month. He won easing down from one of Andre Fabre’s entries Floodlight on that occasion, but looks his stable’s second string here. The other main trial winner in the field is the Freddie Head-trained Raseed who made it three out of four when winning the Prix Noailles over the Jockey Club course and distance in April but there looks little substance to that form with the placed horses well beaten in lesser company since.

A much better pointer to the Prix du Jockey Club in recent seasons has been the Poule d’Essai des Poulains. The 2010 winner Lope de Vega followed up at Chantilly while Le Havre, Intello and New Bay were all placed in the French Guineas before winning the Jockey Club. This year’s Poulains form is represented by Dicton and Zarak who finished third and fifth respectively at Deauville. They’re chalk and cheese in terms of background, but ex-claimer Dicton justified the decision to supplement him for the Poulains in which he was unlucky not to finish second. It’s interesting that connections have rolled the dice again by supplementing him once more rather than take up his St James’s Palace entry where he would have had to take on the impressive Poulains winner The Gurkha again.

While it’s clearly been a surprise to Dicton’s connections that he’s proved up to contesting classics, nothing less would have been expected of the superbly bred Zarak, the first foal of unbeaten Arc winner Zarkava to reach the racecourse. He started favourite for the Poulains, more on his flashy pedigree than what he’d actually achieved in winning his first two starts, and he acquitted himself well in the circumstances. He’ll be suited by this step up in trip, but he’s again likely to be sent off at a shorter price than he deserves to on form.

Aidan O’Brien, still seeking his first Prix du Jockey Club, bids to win his second French classic of the year with Black Sea and Bravery, but any Ballydoyle colt with pretensions to winning a Derby is likely to have been sent to Epsom instead this weekend. Bravery looks the pick of the two (Ryan Moore rides) after his fourth in the Irish 2000 Guineas last time despite starting the outsider of his stable’s four runners at the Curragh.

This looks a stiff task for the Richard Hannon-trained Ventura Storm after finishing only sixth behind Mekhtaal at Deauville but the three other British-trained entries all look major players. Foundation is bound to be popular for John Gosden and Frankie Dettori, though his third place in the Dante at York last time came on much firmer ground than his laboured effort in testing going on his reappearance in the Craven which is something of a worry given likely conditions on Sunday.

Soft ground will be no problem at all for Robin of Navan who has done most of his racing in France for Lambourn trainer Harry Dunlop. He beat leading Epsom hope Cloth of Stars for the second start running in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud last autumn and shaped as though needing the run when going down to that improved rival on his reappearance in last month’s Prix Greffulhe at Saint-Cloud. With conditions in his favour and a kind draw, Robin of Navan seems sure to make a bold bid from the front or close to the pace.

However, the selection goes to the Roger Charlton-trained Imperial Aviator who has earned a supplementary entry after winning both his starts this year. This is admittedly a big step up in class, but there’s no more progressive colt in the line-up and his form very much entitles him to be taking on better company. He was impressive when winning Newbury’s London Gold Cup last time, a handicap his stable has won in the past with Al Kazeem and Time Test who both went on to much better things. Prior to that, Imperial Aviator had won a maiden at Leicester from Ulysses whose own impressive win at the same Newbury meeting booked him a place in the Derby for which he’s now one of the favourites. 

Recommendation:

Back Imperial Aviator in the Prix du Jockey Club