Karakontie returns in Jacques Le Marois

Karakontie makes his first start since an impressive upset win in the 2014 Breeders’ Cup Mile last fall at Santa Anita when he starts Sunday at Deauville in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois.

The Marois is a Breeders’ Cup Challenge Win and You’re In race, the winner earning an expenses-paid berth in the Breeders’ Cup Mile, which Karakontie might well have as an autumn goal once again.

Now 4, Karakontie, a Niarchos family homebred trained in France by Jonathan Pease, is late to make his 2015 debut, his preparations having been held up by a foot problem this spring. The Niarchos family’s racing manager, Alan Cooper, has said Karakontie is training forwardly, but the colt obviously could be rusty following such a long break. The wet going at Deauville, where the ground as of Friday was termed “very soft,” should not trouble a horse who has proven effective over various course conditions. Karakontie raced once over the straight course at Deauville, finishing second in a seven-furlong maiden race.

Karakontie, though, is nowhere near the Marois’s antepost favorite, that position occupied by the Andre Fabre-trained, Godolphin-owned Territories. A 3-year-old getting weight from his elders, Territories’s participation Sunday has been uncertain because of the wet turf, but on Friday, Fabre termed him a likely runner. One of France’s top 2-year-olds last year, Territories sharply won the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat in his most recent start and two races ago was a fine second to the top European 3-year-old miler Gleneagles in the English 2000 Guineas.

The Fabre-trained mare Esoterique, a Group 1 course and distance winner last summer, also has come in for pre-race betting support and probably would not be troubled by course conditions.

Godolphin has a second candidate in Toormore, the England-based Richard Hannon Jr. trainee who has the class to factor with one of his better runs.

Post time for the Marois is scheduled for 10:10 a.m. Eastern.