Leffard

Thursday, ParisLongchamp, France, post time: 19:33, PRIX AGA KHAN IV (PRIX D'ISPAHAN)-G1, €250,000, 4yo/up, 9 1/4fT Field: Daryz (Fr) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), Leffard (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}), Sosie (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), Divine Chrisnat (Fr) (Bow Creek {Ire}), Qilin Queen (Ire) (Pinatubo {Ire}). TDN Analysis: Daryz drops back from the Ganay in which he was so impressive as he tackles last year's winner Sosie. Both are top-class at a mile and a half and have the pace to make a mark over shorter, with Daryz possibly possessing a...

Sunday, ParisLongchamp, France, post time: 17:00, PRIX D'HARCOURT-G2, €119,000, 4yo/up, 10fT Field: Bay City Roller (Ire) (New Bay {GB}), Cualificar (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), First Look (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), Azimpour (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Leffard (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}), Best Secret (Fr) (Persian King {Ire}), Bright Picture (Fr) (Intello {Ger}), Oracle (Fr) (Too Darn Hot {GB}). TDN Analysis: Andre Fabre has a record 10 editions of this contest already in the books and saddles a squad of four in this year's renewal. Last term's G1 Prix du Jockey Club...

Winter Watch will have its time between now and the return of the Flat for real next March, but first let us bask in a snapshot of summer, celebrating our diamonds in the rough who graduated from all-weather unknowns to titans of the turf in the space of 12 months. Last winter's action might not have given us another Classic winner, à la Notable Speech, but once again the flourishing all-weather programme lived up to its reputation as a breeding ground for black-type performers of the future. At the very top...

Aidan O'Brien looks set to saddle Los Angeles (Camelot) and Minnie Hauk (Frankel) in Sunday's G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at ParisLongchamp, with the latter expected to be supplemented later this week to join the current cast of 17 contenders for Europe's richest race. Minnie Hauk has enjoyed a faultless campaign so far and will make her first trip to France following three consecutive Group 1 wins in the Oaks at Epsom, Irish Oaks at the Curragh and Yorkshire Oaks at York. Coral make her the 4/1 joint-favourite...

Lightning couldn't strike twice, could it? In a sense it already has. Gerard Augustin-Normand, who made his entrance to the world of Thoroughbred racing with Prix du Jockey Club winner Le Havre, recently celebrated victory in the Grand Prix de Paris with Le Havre's son Leffard. The colt had been born a month before the untimely demise of his sire at the age of just 16. That victory brought not just Leffard's posthumous tribute to Le Havre as his first Group 1-winning colt, but also the resurgence of the man...

The potential field for Sunday's G1 Cygames Grand Prix de Paris at ParisLongchamp has been boosted by a pair of supplementary entries, with Leffard (Le Havre) and Surabad (Bated Breath) now featuring among eight possible runners. The Jean-Claude Rouget-trained Leffard was last seen finishing down the field in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly, but he'd previously shown a smart level of form when filling the runner-up spot in the Listed Prix Suresnes at the same venue. One place behind him on that occasion was Henri-Francois Devin's New...