Dubai Honour may be one of those horses whose familiarity breeds contempt among some punters and the more jaded among the racing media, but he produced a performance June 30 in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud hallmarked with quality here to see off Feed The Flame and add a first European group 1 to the two he collected in Australia last year.
Tom Marquand was certainly taken with the turn of foot his old sparring partner showed to take a rapidly diminishing gap early in the straight, after Ioritz Mendizabal began to wind things up on Point Lonsdale rounding the home turn.
“He’s a fast horse,” said Marquand. “In Australia when he won his group 1s, Ryan (Moore) ‘box-seated’ him on fast ground, when I was off injured, and he was electric (clearing) away from them. He was the same in the Queen Elizabeth, and although that was on a slower ground, to say he’s a slow mile-and-a-quarter horse would be doing him a big disservice.
“Now he’s older he races a little bit differently and a mile and a half just seems to give him that chance to go electric on them.”
Having come from a long way back to be third to Hong Kong Vase winner Junko in the Grand Prix de Chantilly (G2) three weeks earlier— the fourth-placed Goliath has since run second in the Hardwicke—Marquand was confident in Dubai Honour’s ability at his new trip.
“I know markets are nothing to go by, but when I saw his price, I couldn’t really believe it,” said Marquand. “If he’d have changed leads and got balanced a little bit quicker at Chantilly he’d have really gone and given the front two a race. And he might have just needed the run as well — it was hard work trying to quicken up on that sticky ground.
“Coming here today and knowing he’d won a Group 1 in Australia on good ground—which is good to firm for us—I was hopeful he’d be able to and win rather than just run a good race.”
Representing husband William, Maureen Haggas was full of praise for the attitude shown by Mohamed Obaida’s 6-year-old.
“He is just one of those horses we all want,” said Haggas. “We’d love ten of them but they’re hard to come by. He’s just so good in his mind and just a really lovely horse. He’ll get on a plane and go somewhere and he just takes it all in his stride, he’s just really laid-back. You’ve got to chase the money with these horses.”
Alexis Pouchin rode Feed The Flame further forward than has often been the case, seemingly determined not to get caught out of his ground against Anglo-Irish opposition.
Trainer Pascal Bary said: “Today he’s been beaten by a horse drawn in stall one, but that’s racing. They didn’t go any great pace and he found himself without any cover, but he accelerated well and ran a very good race.”
Point Lonsdale did well to hold favorite Iresine and Zarir for third. Trainer Jean-Pierre Gauvin had feared both a wide draw and the drying ground beforehand and felt those factors prevented Iresine from being able to get closer to the front two.
An autumn campaign and a potential trip to Ascot for the QIPCO Champion Stakes (G1) looks the most likely plan for the dual group 1 winner, though Gauvin is keeping the door just about ajar for the King George.
