By Tom Frary
In an uncertain world, he is the solid one, Mr reliable, all class, no issues, no weaknesses. Nurlan Bizakov's pride and joy Charyn (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), who is so honest he even brought Roger Varian to tears at Deauville, is one of those perpetual group 1-winning stalwarts of the game that come along every so often. Sunday's G1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp offers his sternest test to date, with the G1 Queen Anne Stakes and G1 Prix Jacques le Marois hero opposed by two elite 3-year-old sons of Dubawi (Ire) in TDN Rising Stars Notable Speech (GB) and Henry Longfellow (Ire), but no doubt he will give his all once more and they will have to be as courageous as they are top-class to master him.
“The horse seems to be going from strength to strength and you have to look forward to competing in these exciting races and taking on some three-year-olds on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how we do,” Varian said. “This time last year it may have been hard to predict, but watching him winter and that performance in the spring, albeit in listed company at Doncaster at March, it just looked like he was starting to become the complete horse.”
“I guess that's what we would say he is, he looks the complete horse now,” he added. “He's very mature, he's very strong mentally and has a good, tough attitude. He's also very adaptable, he handles different ground and it all seems to come the same to him, whatever the going description. He's just proving to be a very good horse and they are hard to come by. He's one of them, so we're going to enjoy it.”
Testing ground means that both Godolphin's Notable Speech and Ballydoyle's Henry Longfellow are entering unknown territory here, although the latter was deadly on good-to-soft when outclassing his contemporaries in the G1 Vincent O'Brien National Stakes a year ago. Such ease underfoot is probably more of a concern to Charlie Appleby, given the lethal acceleration his stable star showed when dominating the G1 2,000 Guineas and G1 Sussex Stakes.
“Notable Speech is in great order. The obvious unknown will be the going–they had a lot of rain in Paris on Thursday, but hopefully we can have a couple of drying days while they will be racing on a fresh strip of ground,” he said. “Charyn looks to be our main opposition but it's a strong field, as is always the case in these top races. This will be the first time he has encountered this type of ground, but we are hopeful he can handle it. It's always a bit of a guessing game until you've actually raced on it.”
Interestingly, Henry Longfellow was the short-priced favourite at Goodwood with question marks over Notable Speech and that has flipped following his eclipse there. Hassled on the front end from the outset, the blueblood who had looked so classy when denied late by Rosallion (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) in the G1 St James's Palace Stakes that saw Notable Speech's flop faded out at the business end but Aidan O'Brien is happy to draw a line through that.
“We could not believe that happened,” the Ballydoyle maestro said. “It was our last thought–we couldn't see anyone beforehand to go with him on the front so it was mad, but that's just racing. We got it wrong. It just happened and he was there [in the speed duel] and couldn't get out of it. He had to keep going.”
Key to this may be the tempo that the Andre Fabre-trained stalwart Tribalist (GB) (Farhh {GB}) sets on the front end, with extra stamina for this mile potentially a prerequisite given the likely conditions. Also happy to bowl along is Bizakov's G3 Prix de Fontainebleau and G3 Prix Daphnis scorer Ramadan (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) and Patrick Sabban's G3 Prix Messidor winner Caramelito (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}), so this shouldn't be the customary tactical affair associated with French racing.
First Things First…
Elsewhere on the ParisLongchamp card, the G3 Prix la Rochette serves as a prep for next month's G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere with the Listed Prix Roland de Chambure-winning TDN Rising Star Tiego The First (Fr) (Blue Point {Ire}) tackling Al Shaqab Racing, Jean-Claude Seroul and Gerard Augustin-Normand's G3 Prix Francois Boutin runner-up Houquetot (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). Godolphin's unbeaten Listed Prix Nureyev winner Ombudsman (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) lines up in a fascinating renewal of the 10-furlong G3 Prix du Prince d'Orange, where Wathnan Racing's trio includes the G1 Prix du Jockey Club runner-up First Look (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and the unexposed and unbeaten Francis-Henri Graffard-trained Listed Prix Pelleas scorer Map Of Stars (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}).
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