Friday's G2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte comes late in the season for the 2-year-old sprinters, but it offers the last chance for the category members to achieve something notable before the curtain comes down. It is a shame that the unbeaten G3 Firth of Clyde S. winner Delectation (GB) (Delegator {GB}) is a non-runner, but the representation from Britain remains typically strong as that country seeks a sixth renewal since 2005. Ibrahim Araci's Koropick (Ire) (Kodiac {Ire}) boasts the best form among them, having followed a second to The Last Lion (Ire) (Choisir {Aus}) in the G3 Sirenia S. over this trip on Kempton's Polytrack Sept. 3 with a fifth in the G1 Middle Park S. also at this distance three weeks later. Charlie Fellowes sends Moonlit Show (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) into action on the back of her win in the Listed Blenheim S. at this trip at Fairyhouse Sept. 27 and he said, “She's in good form and has definitely come on for it. I've just put a pair of cheekpieces on, though. I just felt in the last half a furlong she was idling and pricking her ears. There's good and bad points to that. It's good because it tells me she had a fair bit left in the locker, but it's bad because if anything is close enough to take advantage if she does it again, she'll be caught out.”
Pick of the French could be Sun Bloodstock's acquisition Sans Equivoque (Fr) (Stormy River {Fr}), who beat the subsequent G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere fifth King of Spades (Fr) (Foxwedge {Aus}) by a head in the G3 Prix Eclipse over this course and distance Sept. 21.
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