Prix Robert Papin: Prince can become king in France

Two-year-old racing in France doesn’t really get going in earnest until Deauville next month but the Prix Robert Papin over five and a half furlongs at Maisons-Laffitte is the most important contest of its type so far this year across the Channel. British-trained youngsters have won three of the last four runnings, and the two colts in Sunday’s field of six will be bidding to continue that run of success for British stables.

Clive Cox won this in 2012 with Reckless Abandon who had previously won the Norfolk Stakes but his representative this time, Tis Marvellous (in the same colours as those which Reckless Abandon carried at the start of his career), has yet to be tried in pattern company. However, the manner in which he won his maiden at Windsor on his second outing earlier this month – making all and drawing clear to win impressively by eight lengths – suggests he’s well worth his place in a race of this type.  

He’ll have to improve a fair bit more, though, as it’s the latest Norfolk winner Prince of Lir who sets the standard in this field. Prince of Lir’s trainer Robert Cowell holds him in sufficient regard to have given him a Nunthorpe entry and he’s at single-figure odds in some ante-post lists for a potential clash with older sprinters at York. Six furlongs will suit Prince of Lir in time, however, so this extra half-furlong should be very much in his favour. He beat The Last Lion at Ascot who had also chased him home on his debut at Beverley, and the runner-up has since gone on to win a listed race at Sandown.

The two colts won’t necessarily have things all their own way in a race in which fillies have a good record – future 1000 Guineas winners Natagora and Special Duty are among the female Robert Papin winners this century. Vorda was the last filly to be successful in 2013, and her trainer Philippe Sogorb is represented on Sunday by Cosachope who has won three of her four starts. Her latest success came in the Prix du Bois at Deauville in which she showed improved form to turn the tables on three fillies who’d finished in front of her in a listed contest the time before.

Al Johrah won her first two starts in May, in the second of them beating Fixette by a length and a half who went on to run Cosachope to a neck at Deauville. That earned Al Johrah a crack at the Queen Mary, and while she beat fifteen of her rivals fairly comprehensively at Ascot, she stood absolutely no chance with the Royal meeting’s most spectacular winner Lady Aurelia. Some of those further down the Queen Mary field have come out and won since, including last week’s Duchess of Cambridge winner Roly Poly, and Al Johrah, a half-sister to the Craven Stakes winner Stormy Antarctic, looks sure to progress further.

This looks a stiff task for the other French filly in the line-up, Morigane Forlonge, who won a minor event over this course and distance in May but has been beaten in her other four outings. The other member of the field is the American-bred but German-trained filly Hargeisa who certainly has claims after winning both her starts. She overcame greenness to make a comfortable winning debut at Baden-Baden and looked more clued up when beating some Italian colts in the Premio Primi Passi at Milan last month. She wouldn’t be the first Robert Papin winner to have won that Group 3 beforehand.

Recommendation:

Back Prince of Lir in the Prix Robert Papin

Timeform weight-adjusted ratings

119p Prince of Lir

117p Hargeisa

116p Cosachope

115p Al Johrah

108p Tis Marvellous