Grand Entrance

With her 5-year-old campaign having kicked off more favorably than her 2014 equivalent, Treve (Fr) (Motivator {GB}) bids to keep the momentum rolling on Sunday as she tackles the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. Impressive when successful by 4 1/2 lengths in the 10 1/2-furlong G2 Prix Corrida on her comeback here May 29, Al Shaqab Racing’s standard-bearer continues her inexorable march towards an unprecedented third win in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in October. Trainer Criquette Head-Maarek is confident that she can show her true colors here. “She’s fine, she is in great form and I think she has improved quite a lot since her last race,” she commented. “She has been going very well at home. I think this race is the normal progression for her and she looks good physically. The ground might be a little firm, but normally they water the track well at Saint-Cloud and I don’t think we can have any excuses.” 

Greeting her in this affair are two of France’s higher-profile characters in Dolniya (Fr) (Azamour {Ire}) and Flintshire (GB) (Dansili {GB}), who have been interlocked in battle on three occasions so far this term with the former ahead each time. First and second, respectively, in a Mar. 3 Chantilly conditions event and the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan Mar. 28, they were second and third in the G1 Coronation Cup at Epsom June 6 and it is hard to see how Flintshire can reverse form here. His Highness The Aga Khan’s Dolniya was the subject of an upbeat bulletin from racing manager Georges Rimaud, who said, “She is in good form, everything is well, but there is the favorite in the race and she will be hard to beat. It’s a good race and we’ve got to give it a go.” 

If Flintshire fails to fire for Andre Fabre, it could be that the yard’s May 31 G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly winner Manatee (GB) (Monsun {Ger}) steps up to the plate as a still unexposed type. Prior to that latest career-best, Godolphin’s 4-year-old had finished fourth under a seven-pound penalty in Longchamp’s G3 Prix d’Hedouville over this trip May 6 and faces that race’s winner Meleagros (Ire) (King’s Best) on level terms here.