Mark Johnston will explore all options for Permian (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) after he suffered the narrowest of defeats in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris on Friday night. Only third in a Bath handicap on his seasonal debut in April, Permian was having his seventh start of the year and was bidding to open his account at the top level after chalking up Group 2 wins in the Dante S. and the King Edward VII S. William Buick's mount disputed matters through the early strides with Falcon Wings (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), but soon went on and was still answering every call deep inside the final furlong as Christophe Soumillon and Shakeel (Fr) (Dalakhani {Ire}) threw everything at him. As they flashed past the post, it looked like Johnston's charge might just have held on, but the verdict of the photo-finish told another story.
Johnston said, “I looked at the photo many times and it was clear-cut that the other horse won, but his ears are in front of the other one and William Buick's chest and head is in front of Soumillon's. He has been left in the [G1] King George [July 29], the [G1] Juddmonte [International on Aug. 23] and he is in the [GI] Secretariat S. [at Arlington Park Stateside on Aug. 12.] We will look at them all and make a decision near the time. The Secretariat was pointed out to me and it does look a very interesting race.”
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