Thesecretadversary adds Prix Jean Prat to Ascot gains

Thesecretadversary and Seamie Heffernan win for trainer Fozzy Stack and owners Cayton Park Stud and Mrs John Magnier from Take Charge Star. Pic:

Royal Ascot hero Thesecretadversary scooped top honours in Deauville with a brilliant front-running success in the Prix Jean Prat.

Fozzy Stack’s Jersey Stakes scorer had previously fallen short when tackling Group One events, hitting trouble in running at Woodbine last year and also not showing his true colours in both the Newmarket and Curragh editions of the 2000 Guineas.

However, with his tail-up and confidence high following victory over seven furlongs at the Royal meeting, he excelled once again at that distance under Christophe Soumillon who was deputising for usual pilot, the suspended Seamie Heffernan.

Thesecretadversary was still full of running at the line as Aidan O’Brien’s running-on True Love finished strongly to make it an Irish-trained one-two. Christopher Head’s Nighttime was best of the home team in third.

Stack said: “Christophe Soumillon gave him a superb ride. We were a little concerned about the pace of the race. He told me, ‘I think we’ll have to go on because nobody else seems willing to do it.’ I replied, ‘Go ahead’. Everything worked out perfectly. He had pulled too hard in the English Guineas, and in the Irish equivalent he never got a clear run.

“We have always believed he was a good horse. When he then won the Jersey Stakes over seven furlongs at Ascot, Seamie Heffernan, who rode him that day, said he would be even better over six furlongs. Christophe Soumillon said exactly the same thing today.

“He holds entries in the City of York Stakes, a Group One at York, as well as the Sprint Cup at Haydock. I will now discuss the options with the owners to see what they would like to do. Both partners (Rupert and Magnier families) are involved in the stallion business, so I will partly be guided by their long-term objectives.” 

The victory continues a fine run for Stack who also sent out exciting juvenile Nola Soul to win at Royal Ascot and Stack added: “If you said to me a month ago I would have had two Royal Ascot winners and then a Group One at Deauville I would have said ‘stop it’, it’s amazing.”