Cirrus Likely To Bypass Epsom

Evergreen galloper Cirrus des Aigles (Fr) (Even Top {Ire}), last of four in Sunday’s G1 Prix d’Ispahan at Longchamp after breaking a shoe during the running of the race, is likely to bypass a title defense of the G1 Coronation Cup at Epsom June 6 in favor of the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud June 28. 

“He seems fine this morning,” said trainer Corine Barande-Barbe. “We put new shoes on him and he is walking okay. I am disappointed, not in the horse but disappointed with the problem. Christophe [Soumillon] said he was flying down to the starting gate and he was very confident, but he said after half a furlong he didn’t feel right. I think it must have happened just after the start. Cirrus was very prudent and careful during the race and it is almost as though he didn’t run.” 

Barande-Barbe said ground concerns, and the fact Cirrus des Aigles pulled up lame after winning last year’s Coronation Cup, have tempted her to skip that contest. 

“I’m not keen on going back for the Coronation Cup,” she said. “Last year he had the accident there; he is a very clever horse and I don’t want to bother him. There is not much rain forecast either, so I don’t think he will go to Epsom, but it is up the owner. I think he will probably go for the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. It is a Group 1 in France he can run in and he has not won it before, so it would be nice to do it. Otherwise we have the [G1] Prince of Wales’s S. [at Royal Ascot June 17], but I think when the ground is quicker he is better going over the longer distance [mile and a half] at Saint-Cloud.”