Prix d’Harcourt's strong field tops card at France's Chantilly

Sunday’s card at Chantilly in France is 2017's first significant day of flat racing on the European turf. The card includes four Group races headlined by the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt for older horses over 1 1/4 miles, a race that drew a fairly deep, competitive field.

The Harcourt is in the second of a two-year move to Chantilly while Longchamp, its traditional home, undergoes extensive renovations. For eight straight years, between 2005 and 2012, a 4-year-old won the race, but since that season three 5-year-olds and 7-year-old Al Kazeem have found the winner’s circle.

There are five 4-year-olds of some note in this year’s edition: Cloth of Stars, Robin of Navan, Raseed, Mekhtaal, and Maniaco.

Cloth of Stars, a four-time stakes winner trained by Andre Fabre for Godolphin, already has raced this season, winning the Group 3 Prix Exbury over this distance at Saint Cloud on March 19. Cloth of Stars split the field in the 2016 Epsom Derby and finished third of eight in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris in July, his final start at 3. But perhaps of more significant note was all the good work he has done on early-season French courses, winning twice last year to go with this March victory this season. Ten furlongs appears to be his trip, and he should be just fine on the good-to-soft going forecast for Sunday.

Robin of Navan beat Cloth of Stars at 2 but failed to progress substantially last year at 3, going winless in a campaign that included a late-season trip to Italy.

Raseed’s 3-year-old campaign ended July 17 when he finished fourth in the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam, a race won by Heshem, who two weeks ago finished second in the Group 1, $6 million Dubai Turf. Raseed was a Group 3 winner last spring before finishing ninth in the French Derby, and like fellow 4-year-olds Mekhtaal and Maniaco, he appears to be a horse perhaps meant for better things later in his career.

Already it is a little later in the career of One Foot in Heaven, a 5-year-old who last was seen finishing third of 14 behind Satono Crown and Highland Reel in the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase on Dec. 11. It was a distant third, however, with One Foot in Heaven nearly seven lengths behind Highland Reel, and One Foot in Heaven’s best trip probably is 1 1/2 miles rather than 1 1/4.

The undercard stakes are the Group 3 Prix Vanteux for 3-year-old fillies over about nine furlongs; the Group 3 Prix la Force for 3-year-old colts and geldings at the same distance; and the Group 3 Prix Sigy, a six-furlong sprint for 3-year-olds. Those three stakes are populated mainly by lightly raced horses that were not especially near the top of their class last year at 2.

The first of the Group races, the Vanteux, goes at 9:45 a.m. Eastern. Post time for the Prix d’Harcourt is 11:10 Eastern.