SOUMILLON DOUBLES UP AT LONGCHAMP
By PA Sport Staff
(Sporting Life)
Andre Fabre's Shirocco maintained his unbeaten record for the season with a narrow victory over stablemate Hurricane Run in the Prix Foy at Longchamp.
With Fabre saddling three of the five runners, the race was run at a sedate pace for the first mile before Christophe Soumillon took up the running on last year's Breeders' Cup Turf hero from the pacemaker Near Honor.
Kieren Fallon loomed up on Hurricane Run with a furlong to run, but Shirocco pulled out more for Soumillon and held off the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe hero for his third win of the season.
The six-year-old mare Pride was not beaten far in third, with all the principals being ridden conservatively with the Arc back in Paris on October 1 in mind.
Hurricane Run was beaten a neck, with Pride the same distance back in third. Despite the defeat, Fallon refused to be downbeat and believes it may well be a different result come Arc day.
"I would have been happy if we'd won, but I knew he would struggle as he doesn't like small fields," he said.
"But he showed in the King George that when it comes to big races he raises his game."
Fabre said of the runner-up: "He was a bit fitter than last year as he had run in the summer. However, the ground will be different in three weeks and that could change things.
"For Shirocco, the Breeders' Cup Classic is a strong possibility."
Baron Von Ullmann, owner of the winner, said: "The plan always was the race on October 1 (Arc), we hatched it after the Breeders' Cup Turf, but you need good health and luck to fulfil a dream.
"He will retire at the end of the season and Soumillon will ride him in the Arc and the Breeders' Cup."
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