Chantilly: New Bay, Mondialiste head talented lineup for Prix d’Ispahan

Nine group or graded stakes winners, including New Bay, the winner of the Group 1 French Derby in 2015 and Mondialiste, the winner of the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile last September, comprise the field for Tuesday’s $280,000 Prix d’Ispahan at Chantilly Racecourse in France.

The Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan is run at 1 1/8 miles on turf and is the second Group 1 race of the year for older horses in France. Dariyan and Silverware, who are part of the Prix d’Ispahan field, were first and second in the Group 1 Prix Ganay at Saint-Cloud on May 1.

New Bay, owned by Juddmonte Farms and trained by Andre Fabre, has not raced this year. The 4-year-old was third behind Golden Horn in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris last October. The Prix d’Ispahan is typically run at Longchamp, but the track’s grandstand is undergoing a renovation scheduled to be completed by September 2017.

The Prix d’Ispahan drew runners from four countries. A Shin Hikari, based in Japan, won the Group 1 Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin in Hong Kong last December. Wild Chief was a Group 2 stakes winner in Germany last year. My Dream Boat won the Group 3 Gordon Richards Stakes at Sandown Park, near London, last month.

Mondialiste, a 6-year-old who races for a partnership and trainer David O’Meara, has not raced this year. Mondialiste was second to Tepin in the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland last October and later 12th in the Group 1 Hong Kong Mile last December.

The field includes two other prominent French runners – Vadamos, who won the Group 2 Prix du Muguet at Saint-Cloud on May 1; and Erupt, who won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp last July and was later fifth in the Arc.