Ascoli Piceno’s Jacques Le Marois Bid Lights Up The Weekend

[Wandering Eyes]

Ahead of next week's York Ebor Festival, a middling Saturday in Britain and Ireland precedes a serious Sunday in France, where the G1 The Aga Khan Studs Prix Jacques le Marois offers a grand spectacle of international flavour. Sponsored by Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard for many moons, Deauville's jewel of their August Meeting is now graced by another huge operation with great prestige to fit what has always been one of Europe's key events.

Fortunately this year we get to see how a top Japanese runner can fare against the Euros in a race other than the Arc and it is fair to say that after the wins of Ascoli Piceno (Daiwa Major) in Riyadh's 1351 Turf Sprint and Tokyo's G1 Victoria Mile we should be expectant. A granddaughter of Ballydoyle's Fillies' Mile heroine Listen, she is linked to the past star miler Henrythenavigator and has the raw material to add another worldwide top-level success to her country's growing haul.

It seems hard to believe that two of the season's most exciting prospects Rosallion (Blue Point) and Notable Speech (Dubawi) would be winless in six starts between them so far and that the latter would not even have made the frame in his three, so this is a key race for both. Notable Speech is becoming something of an enigma, while Rosallion keeps running his race but keeps getting run out of it in the big mile events. Could it be that this trip is a touch too far? What price would he have been for next week's newly-promoted City of York…

Also in the mix is Diego Velazquez (Frankel), first time in the Sangster silks and bidding to become the first winner of the great race in them, and fellow Ballydoyle representative The Lion In Winter (Sea The Stars) who still feels like a top-notcher even though his form this season doesn't back that up. The Aga Khan Studs would love to win it in their first year of sponsorship and the G3 Prix Bertrand du Breuil winner Zabiari (Wootton Bassett) is the most likely of their duo to make an impact in a year where the big mile races are enjoyingly unpredictable.

More Thunder Forecast?

   Saturday's action centres around Newbury's G2 Hungerford Stakes, where Saeed Suhail's Wokingham runner-up and Bunbury Cup winner More Thunder (Night Of Thunder) enters a new sphere but one for which he appears tailor-made. Other than him, progressive rivals in the seven-furlong feature are hard to spot and it is probably safe to say that William Haggas will be disappointed if he can't win one of the softest renewals in recent times.

Also at Newbury, Colin Keane has some eye-catching rides for Juddmonte, with the St Leger entry Pinhole (Frankel) in the G3 Highclere Thoroughbred Racing Geoffrey Freer Stakes and the unbeaten Skimmer (Kingman) in the closing 10-furlong handicap. Given that the latter is moving back down in trip and bypassing next week's Great Voltigeur, it can probably be taken as read that he won't be following the path of his Leger-winning half-brother Logician but he remains an exciting prospect nonetheless. In between, there is Pinhole's juvenile half-brother Slight Of Foot, another Kingman in the seven-furlong novice who is also a half to Quadrilateral and a full-brother to the smart Thesis.

At The Curragh on Saturday, Los Angeles (Camelot) remerges in the G3 Royal Whip, his first run back from a summer freshener and the initial movement of an orchestrated second Arc bid which could well come off in a year lacking a mile-and-a-half standout. Speaking of that race, Saturday's G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano at Deauville sees Godolphin's Prix du Jockey Club runner-up Cualificar (Lope De Vega) advertise his wares ahead of the autumn showpiece.

Aidan O'Brien has his usual irons in various fires throughout the weekend, with the unbeaten Daytona (Wootton Bassett) engaged in a fascinating renewal of Sunday's G3 The Aga Khan Studs Prix Francois Boutin. With setbacks to Albert Einstein and Gstaad and defeat for Italy at Newmarket, the relative of Sendawar wouldn't need to do much to be near the top of the stable's pecking order for the 2026 2,000 Guineas.

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