Modern Games gets his distance in Prix Jean Prat at Deauville
A return to one mile could mean a return to winning for 2021 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf hero Modern Games.
Three-year-old Modern Games ran competitively finishing third of 15 in the 1 5/16-mile Prix du Jockey Club, France’s Derby. But he did not appear to relish his first race beyond one mile. Sunday, England-based trainer Charlie Appleby sends Modern Games back to France – and back to one mile – in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat. Ten others are entered in this 3-year-old-restricted contest at Deauville, which is no easy spot for Modern Games, a Godolphin homebred by Dubawi.
This field appears to be tougher than the one Modern Games conquered winning the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, the French 2000 Guineas, earlier this year. That one-mile race is contested around a turn at Longchamp, and Modern Games appeared to excel going around bends on the tight Del Mar course in the Breeders’ Cup, while Sunday’s race is run down a straightaway. Modern Games won the Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes going a straight mile at Newmarket last year and might well be fine without a turn. But Modern Games faces the Poulains second- and third-place finishers, Texas and Tribalist, the tough colt Lusail and a capable filly in Mangoustine.
:: Get ready for Saratoga and Del Mar with a Quarterly subscription to DRF Past Performances
Lusail is winless in three starts at age 3, but in his two runner-up finishes this season he was beaten by two of the better 3-year-olds in Europe. Coroebus, who nipped him by a head last month in the St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, won the 2000 Guineas and rates higher among Godolphin 3-year-old colts than Modern Games. In Lusail’s 2022 debut, he finished second in the six-furlong Greenham Stakes to Perfect Power, the top 3-year-old sprinter in Europe. In between those races, Lusail ran sixth in the 2000 Guineas.
The filly Mangoustine gets a three-pound weight break from the males in the race. Before finishing ninth in a rugged renewal of the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot, the France-based filly beat 14 foes to win the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, the French 1000 Guineas.
Texas was 113-1 when he got a front-running trip and held second behind Modern Games in the French 2000 Guineas. That either calls into question the strength of the race or suggests Texas, who makes his first start since the Guineas, was badly underrated.
* Prosperous Voyage turned back Inspiral, a 1-9 shot on the U.S. toteboard, and won the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes on Friday at Newmarket.
Co-trainer John Gosden had warned this week that the Falmouth might not come easily to Inspiral, who returned from an extended winter and spring break with a brilliant win June 17 in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes.
Prosperous Voyage had finished 10th in the Coronation, but under a patient front-running ride from Rob Hornby, she came back after being headed by the big favorite to win the Falmouth by 1 3/4 lengths. Sandrine, the other 3-year-old in the field of five, finished third as older horses Primo Bacio and Sibila Spain, giving nine pounds to the sophomores, brought up the rear in this straight mile. Trained by Ralph Beckett, Prosperous Voyage is by Zoffany out of Seatone, by Mizzen Mast.