It’s hard to keep up with the Listed Prix de Ranelagh, every year it seems to keep moving. We are used to it taking place at Chantilly and being farmed by the British raiders but this year it is back at Longchamp.
Progressive three-year-olds do well with the 3lb allowance. This has been won by useful performers such as Cape Peron, My Dream Boat and Chil The Kite before.
Breizh Eagle looks the right favourite at 7/4. He was a Poulains 3rd that got a bit unlucky with soft ground in the spring and summer. The going appears to be on the softer side of good today and he might just get away with it.
Now We Know is owned by the boss of the Hong Kong Jockey Club and is another that prefers a faster surface. He is on the shortlist at 8-1 but he trainer has doubts about him handling the downhill section of this mile course on the Grande Piste and the draw in one can be a bogey.
German raider Best Lightning is top-rated but winless from six starts this year. He drops in grade here and only two months ago he was sent off sub 20-1 for the Group One Prix Jean Prat. His 2000 German Guineas 2nd to Mythico looks better after that one ran well on Arc weekend and his most recent run, third at Dresden, was franked when Rubaiyat won a Group contest in Rome. His turn of foot in the Guineas was quite something.
Connections will have had plenty of races to pick from and this looks a weak renewal of what is normally a warm Listed. It’s mad that Jeri, a handicap winner, is now shorter in the market than Best Lightning.
Best Lightning is taken to record a win here at generous odds of 10-1.
3.25pm Longchamp – 1pt win Best Lightning @ 10-1 (Betfair Sportsbook and Paddy Power, or 9-1 generally)
