Breeders' Cup Mile prospects fill Prix du Moulin field

Sunday’s Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp could, among other things, be a preview of the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

Three of the Moulin entrants – favored Pinatubo, Siskin, and Circus Maximus – are priced up on overseas antepost betting sites with the assumption that the BC Mile is realistically in play. Circus Maximus, a 4-year-old, finished fourth in the 2019 BC Mile at Santa Anita, and as an Aidan O’Brien-trained colt with international experience could easily make a return trip to the U.S. this fall. The connections of 3-year-olds Pinatubo and Siskin specifically have mentioned the BC Mile as a possible target for their charges.

Pinatubo is strongly favored over Siskin in early fixed-odds betting on the one-mile Moulin, but it’s a little hard to see why. Pinatubo has followed his standout 2-year-old season of 2019 with a far less dominant 3-year-old campaign. He took losses while performing admirably in the English 2000 Guineas and the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot before getting back in the win column July 12 in the 3-year-old restricted Prix Jean Prat, and Sunday’s start marks his first against the older set. Pinatubo, ridden by James Doyle for trainer Charlie Appleby and Godolphin, should be fine over going termed good-to-soft as of Friday.

Siskin already has met older horses, finishing a good third in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood last out following his brave and impressive victory in the Irish 2000 Guineas. The Khalid Abdullah homebred, trained by Ger Lyons, had started his career with five wins before defeat in the Sussex, where he might have been farther off Circus Maximus’s pace than ideal.

Circus Maximus, who concedes four pounds to the 3-year-olds, has put together a solid campaign in his own right, winning the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot, setting the pace and holding second in the Sussex, where victorious Mohaather might have run Europe’s best mile so far this year, and finishing third Aug. 16 in the Prix Jacques le Marois, which was run over heavy ground he surely didn’t love. Circus Maximus seeks his second straight win in the Moulin, having nipped Romanised in the 2019 renewal, which lacked the strength of this year’s race. Romanised is back for another try on Sunday, and the capable French 3-year-old Victor Ludorum rounds out a compact, talented field.

The Moulin goes off at 10:25 a.m. Eastern. You can watch and wager at DRFBets.com.