Postponed team eye crack at Breeders’ Cup
Roger Varian’s top-class middle-distance performer is ante-post favourite at around 4-1 for the mile-and-a-half Group One at Chantilly on October 2 after his victory in the Juddmonte International at York over an extended 10 furlongs last week.
“He’s a great horse and I’m so pleased how he’s come out of the race,” Varian told At The Races.
“You’re never quite sure when you run him back off a setback. You want that first run back to bring him forward and not send him backwards again.
“It’s certainly brought him forward. He’s come out of the race bouncing. He looks tighter and fresher for the run. I couldn’t be more pleased with how he looks since the Juddmonte.
“It was important to achieve that Group One win over 10 furlongs. Whether he needs to go over 10 furlongs again, possibly not. He’ll step back up to a mile and a half for a crack at the Arc next time.
“I think we’ll go straight to the Arc.
“If he comes through the Arc unscathed, we’d consider a crack at the Breeders’ Cup Turf and I should think that would be it for the year, but we’ve got a big one to focus on right now.”
La Cressonniere added further lustre to her Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe profile with a no-nonsense victory in the Prix de la Nonette at Deauville.
This season’s French Guineas and Oaks heroine, trained by the all-conquering Jean-Claude Rouget, stretched her unbeaten record to six races after she readily accounted for stablemate Jemayel in the Group Two over a mile and a quarter.
La Cressonniere was not overly extended in the hands of Cristian Demuro as the partnership glided into the clear once another Rouget inmate, Ouezy, had done her job as a pacemaker.
Rouget’s fourth representative, Lakalas, finished third.
With the David Simcock-trained Chinoiseries a late non-runner, British interests revolved around Nezwaah, from the Roger Varian yard, but the daughter of Dubawi was never a factor in the five-runner affair.
La Cressonniere was universally chopped in price to around the 8-1 mark for the Arc.
Connections of the daughter of Le Havre confirmed she would now head direct to Chantilly for Europe’s premier middle-distance race on October 2.
Sylvain Vidal, racing manager for her joint-owner Gerard Augustin-Normand, said: “We’re very happy with her - she did the job.
“The jockey told me it was very, very easy and was just like a canter in the morning.
“She did something special and Jean-Claude was very happy with her.
“She will not have had a hard race as it was very easy for her, and she will now be going straight to the Arc.”
