The opening race on the card at Bordeaux this afternoon features a handful of juveniles looking to shed their maiden tags.
The market is headed by Anna Karenine, a €140,000 Toronado yearling from a family with early speed, trained by Didier Guillemin. At 9/4 she looks fairly priced against juveniles who already have the benefit of experience. Second in the market is Red Dei, trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, who has had five of his six 2yo runners finish in the money already this month. Rouget has said in his Paris Turf column that he has speed but will be given an introductory ride.
Conversely, I think that although Denver Chop is moderately-bred, he belied odds of 24-1 to finish a good fourth in what was the warmest juvenile race to be staged in France this season – the Prix du Premier Pas at Chantilly. Amy Murphy’s winner of that is earmarked for Royal Ascot and more recently we saw the second, Gauss, win at Lyon-Parilly this week, with the Chantilly seventh, Sodapop, running a blinder in fourth in the same race from a poor draw when tipped each-way on this site at 33-1 by Nathaniel!
Denver Chop showed plenty of speed and he could have finished closely had he not tracked Andre Fabre’s Belbek into the final two furlongs. Hard to blame the jockey for that decision as Belbek was sent off 7/4 fav!
These five furlongs are around a right-handed bend at Bordeaux with an uphill finish (the photo above gives a hint but is still deceptive) and so stall one is brilliant for Denver Chop and I fancy he will go far under Adeline Mérou, who can claim 3lbs. Fan Club Rules, now trained in Ireland, made all in 2019 from the same berth.
3.07pm Bordeaux – 1pt win Denver Chop @ 5-1 (most firms, 11/2 with Coral, Ladbrokes and Sport Nation)
