Lemaire has Japanese filly for homecoming in Jacques Le Marois
?q=100)
The jockey Christophe Lemaire’s return to France comes on a filly who has yet to race anywhere in Europe.
Ascoli Piceno, a high-level Japan-based sprinter-miler, traveled to Australia last September, finishing a subpar 12th, and went to Saudi Arabia in February, winning the 1351 Turf Sprint, so named because of its distance in meters. Sunday, she starts in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville Racecourse in France, Lemaire’s home country and riding base before he became a full-time Japanese jockey in 2015.
The Japan-based filly joins 10 other entrants in Sunday’s renewal of the Marois, a straight-course mile with Breeders’ Cup Mile implications. Lemaire believes Ascoli Piceno gives him an excellent chance to win his first Marois, especially over the kind of good-to-firm ground she prefers and that she got in Saudi Arabia. Ascoli Piceno last raced on May 24, beating 16 in the Group 1 Victoria Mile over a Tokyo course listed as good-to-firm but playing softer than that, according to Lemaire.
Rosallion heads the competition and is overdue for a 2025 victory. Injured and taken out of training following his victory in the Group 1 St. James’s Palace Stakes in June 2024, Rosallion returned from an 11-month layoff finishing third three months ago in the Group 1 Lockinge at Newbury, a race he needed to shake off rust. He was meant to win the Queen Anne at Royal Ascot but got touched off by a nose, and a belated rally after a somewhat passive ride left Rosallion a neck short of upset front-running hero Qirat in the Sussex Stakes last month at Goodwood.
Trained in England by Richard Hannon Jr., Rosallion traveled to France in fall 2023 and captured the Group 1 Jean-Luc Lagardere. He gives only three pounds to Ascoli Piceno and, unlike the filly, brings a wealth of straight-course experience to the Marois.
Docklands won the Queen Anne at 14-1 and in 17 other starts has failed to produce a performance at that level. Dancing Gemini, after an early season run culminating in a Lockinge second, checked in a tame eighth in the Queen Anne and makes his first start since. Notable Speech, since his good third in the Breeders’ Cup Mile last fall, has turned in three modest runs, a cutback to a sprint last out yielding no improvement.
That leaves a couple France-based homebreds of the late Aga Khan as potential upset winners, with 4-year-old Zabiari more plausible than 3-year-old Ridari. Zabiari has made nine starts but only his last three for trainer Francis-Henri Graffard. None came in races of any great merit, but Zabiari won all of them in progressively impressive fashion and would not require an impossible leap to contend with the likes of the Rosallion and Ascoli Piceno.
:: Want to learn more about handicapping and wagering? Check out DRF's Handicapping 101 and Wagering 101 pages.