Top choices have questions in Prix Jacques Le Marois

Everyone has something to prove Sunday at Deauville Racecourse in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois.

Triple Time in his last start scored a 33-1 upset in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, easily his best race in a seven-start career. Marhaba Ya Sanafi, winner of the French 2000 Guineas and third in the French Derby, faces older horses for the first time. And is Inspiral this year at age 4 the same horse she was at 2 and 3?

The Marois, a straight-course mile, is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series, offering the winner automatic fees-paid entry into the Breeders’ Cup Mile and travel expenses to Santa Anita. The last Marois winner to win the BC Mile was Goldikova in 2009.

Inspiral can become the second straight horse to win consecutive renewals of the Marois; Palace Pier captured the 2020 and 2021 editions before Inspiral won last year by a neck over Light Infantry, who is among the 11 entered Sunday.

Inspiral runs back 11 days after finishing last of five in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood. It’s an open question whether Inspiral has come back to her very best this season, but she’s better than her Sussex performance. The Goodwood course was officially listed as soft for the race but was more radically laboring than that. Inspiral made a run at the eventual winner, top 3-year-old Paddington, but couldn’t cope with the ground and faded through the final furlong. The Deauville course as of Friday also was rated soft, and Inspiral has done her best work on firmer footing.

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It was Inspiral that Triple Time beat in the Queen Anne, coming back in the late stages of that straight-course mile after Inspiral had taken the lead from him. Triple Time, a 4-year-old Frankel colt trained by Kevin Ryan, ran poorly in his 2022 finale, finishing seventh in the Prix Daniel Wildenstein last October, but had won three straight races before that. He could still be progressive, though the Queen Anne was run over a good course.

Marhaba Ya Sanafi was a game winner of the French Guineas on May 14 and finished a creditable third going 1 5/16 miles in the French Derby, a distance likely farther than his best. Marhaba Ya Sanafi comes into the Marois a fresh horse cutting back to his best trip on ground he’ll handle while getting three pounds from the older fillies and mares and six from the older males.

Big Rock beat Marhaba Ya Sanafi by 3 1/2 lengths finishing second after setting the pace in the French Derby, but a four-race winning streak into that start came in races at nine furlongs and farther, and Big Rock might not be quick enough to win a Group 1 over one mile.

Post time for the Marois is 10:26 a.m. Eastern and you can catch all the action at DRFBets.com.

◗ Sunday’s other European Group 1 is the Grosser Preis Von Berlin over 1 1/2 miles at Hoppegarten. This race was won last year by Rebel’s Romance, who went on to capture the Breeders’ Cup Turf. The 2021 winner, Alpinista, won the 2022 Arc, and the 2020 winner, Torquator Tasso, won the 2021 Arc. The French 4-year-old Simca Mill heads a seven-horse field and could have Arc aspirations of his own, while New London tries to follow in Rebel’s Romance’s footsteps for Godolphin, trainer Charlie Appleby, and jockey James Doyle.

◗ Little Big Bear, champion 2-year-old in Europe last year, was retired earlier this week after fracturing a bone in his leg.

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