France: Way To Paris suited by course conditions in Grand Prix de Chantilly

Way To Paris in a typical year would be racing Sunday not far north of Paris in the Grand Prix de Chantilly, but Chantilly was among the racecourses French authorities shut down a second time because of coronavirus, and this year’s Grand Prix de Chantilly will be run at Deauville.

For Way To Paris, though, the location of the racecourse probably is much less significant than the condition of the course and the distance of the race. Sunday’s contest at about 1 9/16 miles on a course listed as soft on Saturday fits the bill.

Way To Paris likes cut in the ground and generally needs at least 1 1/2 miles to show his best, which made his second-place finish to Shaman in the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt, a 1 1/4-mile race May 11 at Longchamp, seem especially encouraging.

Way To Paris is one of only five entrants in the Group 2 Grand Prix de Chantilly, which is carded as race 6 on a 10-race card co-featuring the Group 2 Prix du Gros-Chene over a straight five furlongs. The card starts at 8 a.m. Eastern with the Grand Prix de Chantilly set for 11 a.m.

Way To Paris was one of three horses, along with French King and Ziyad, getting the majority of antepost wagering support as of Saturday.

Five-year-old French King won his first four starts of 2019, including the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin, before finishing ninth in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. In his only 2020 start on Feb. 22, he won The Amir Trophy at Doha in Qatar for the second year in a row, easily beating runner-up Standard Deviation, an American horse. French King, however, needs the Deauville course to dry since all his best form has come on good ground,

Ziyad has kept strong company the last two seasons and finished third, beaten less than a length, in the Grade 1 Canadian International last season. He can cope with a variety of course conditions and in his only start this season was a comfortable winner over the Polytrack at Chantilly.

The Prix du Gros-Chene, somewhat remarkably, includes the first seven finishers from the Group 3 Prix de Saint-Georges, a five-furlong straight-course race contested over very soft turf on May 11 at Longchamp. Batwan proved a half-length best in that start, enjoys give in the ground, and has run well in all three of his starts since being cut back in distance to short sprints like Sunday’s.