France: Skaletti gets up in Prix d’Ispahan's final strides

Skaletti was up by the skin of his teeth in the Prix d’Ispahan on Sunday at Longchamp to notch the first Group 1 win of his rags-to-riches career.

Running over ground firmer than he prefers and having lost a shoe in the early stages of this 1 1/8-mile fixture, Skaletti also raced from last in a race run at a moderate tempo in which the front-runners never came back. He looked defeated a furlong out, but found his best stride in the dying stages to get up by a head over Tilsit under 54-year-old Gerald Mosse.

Mosse told The Racing Post that Skaletti felt “at sea” when the tempo quickened into the homestretch, but the acceleration eventually came and Skaletti is nothing if not game, the Ispahan marking his 15th win from 20 starts.

:: Join DRF Bets and play the races with a $250 First Deposit Bonus. Click to learn more.

Tilsit ran the best race of his career in defeat and could be headed for a matchup with Palace Pier in the Queen Anne Stakes on opening day at Royal Ascot.

My Oberon, who also got into the win photo, turned in an appealing performance of his own finishing third. The Revenant, who needs softer ground for his best, was scratched, likely because of the rapidly drying Longchamp course.

A Group 1 success means nothing for Skaletti as a stallion prospect since the 6-year-old is a gelding, but Skaletti has proven to be one of the better older horses in Europe since late 2019 and merited the distinction. By Kendargent out of Skallet, by Muhaymin, Skalleti is trained by Jerome Reynier, who trains out of a yard near Marseilles, far from the blue-blooded heart of French racing.

Reynier had quite the Sunday at Longchamp, winning two other races, including the Group 3 Prix du Palais-Royal with Marianfoot, owned, like Skaletti, by Jean-Claude Seroul.

Skaletti spent much of his early career racing on the all-weather winter circuit in France before proving himself much more than a provincial horse during the second part of 2019. He was second last fall in the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot, a race that Reynier said is the main goal of Skaletti’s 2021 campaign. The Ascot course in October typically has gone very soft, the way Skaletti prefers it. He’ll have an easy summer when the heat and sun bakes European courses, gearing up for more gelded glory in the autumn.