Deauville: Midtown should enjoy soft going in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat

Midtown went 2 for 2 as a 2-year-old while racing seven furlongs on racecourses with plenty of cut in the ground. Sunday at Deauville, he makes his first start at age 3 racing seven furlongs over a racecourse with plenty of cut in the ground.

The Deauville course on Friday was termed “very soft” and if it stays that way for the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat, Midtown probably won’t mind. A Dubawi colt trained by Andre Fabre for Godolphin, Midtown won his career debut at Saint-Cloud last Nov. 3 by nine lengths and came back 15 days later to easily annex the listed Prix Herod at Chantilly.

Second by two lengths in the latter start was Best Lightning, who has placed in a pair of recent group races in France and Germany and is part of the field for the Prix Jean Prat, restricted to 3-year-olds.

Fabre also runs Erasmo for Godolphin, which also has Naval Crown journeying from England for trainer Charlie Appleby. Naval Crown rates a strong chance himself coming off a second-place finish behind talented stablemate Creative Force in the seven-furlong Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot. Connections think enough of Creative Force to try him in the Group 1 July Cup against older horses Saturday at Newmarket.

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Aidan O’Brien runs Battleground and Wembley, both talented 2-year-olds who so far have shown little development at age 3. The same might hold true for the Joseph O’Brien-trained Night of Thunder, who brimmed with potential in 2020 but turned in flat runs trying the 2000 Guineas to start his season and again last month in the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Ascot.

Colosseo was an 80-1 shot in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, the French 2000 Guineas, but beat everyone in that one-turn mile save St. Mark’s Basilica, who since has won the Prix du Jockey Club and beaten older horses last weekend in the Eclipse Stake sat Sandown. The Pouliches was run over a very soft track and Colosseo might prove Sunday to have been more than a one-race wonder.

Snow Lantern shines in Falmouth

Snow Lantern’s late swoop on Mother Earth landed her a first Group 1 tally when she won the Falmouth Stakes on Friday at Newmarket.

Ryan Moore had given Mother Earth, the English 1000 Guineas winner, a sweet trip tracking pacesetting favorite Alcohol Free through much of the straight course mile, but as Mother Earth overtook the leader and went for home, Snow Lantern and jockey Sean Levey found space to stretch out. Snow Lantern produced a gear Mother Earth couldn’t find and came out a half-length to the good.

Alcohol Free finished third, beaten a neck by Snow Lantern, as 3-year-old fillies, who got nine pounds from the older fillies and mares, swept the top three placings. In fourth came 5-year-old Lady Bowthorpe, who suffered a difficult trip and with better luck, despite giving so much weight, likely would’ve finished with the top two.

Richard Hannon trains Snow Lantern, a daughter of Frankel and Sky Lantern, who had a terrible trip and finished eighth as the favorite in the 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Santa Anita. Hannon said Snow Lantern has several options for a next start but suggested the one-mile Sussex at Goodwood, where she’d face males as well as older horses, could be next.

* Subjectivist, the blossoming 4-year-old staying horse who easily won the Gold Cup last month at Royal Ascot, injured a foreleg and won’t race again until the summer of 2022, trainer Mark Johnston reported this week.