Jerome Reynier has the Queen Anne in his sights for stable star Facteur Cheval (Ire) (Ribchester {Ire}) with the Marseille-based trainer bidding to bag a breakthrough Royal Ascot winner later this summer.
Facteur Cheval played his part in some memorable Group 1 races last season before securing his own big day in the sun when landing the Dubai Turf on his seasonal debut at Meydan.
That win came off the back of placed efforts in the QEII, Prix du Moulin, Sussex S. and Prix d'Ispahan, with Reynier hoping that his five-year-old has now come of age after his Meydan triumph.
“He is aiming for the Queen Anne on the Tuesday and he came back in very good shape from Dubai. We're very happy with him,” Reynier said.
“Now he's going to try to win a second time in a row after having not won for a long while. We don't have any questions about good ground because he won on it in Dubai and he's done the straight course at Ascot for the Queen Elizabeth so everything seems to be in good shape for him.”
Joining him on the journey will be Darlinghurst (Ire), a three-year-old Dark Angel (Ire) colt who has not put a foot wrong in four starts this year.
Winning a pair of Cagnes-Sur-Mer contests early in the season, the bay then stepped up to Listed level to win the Prix Maurice Caillault at Chantilly in March and then returned to the same track to take the Group 3 Prix de Guiche in May.
He now holds an entry for the St James's Palace S. on the same day as his stablemate's Queen Anne bid.
“That's the plan with him, he's in very good shape. He is unbeaten this year in four starts, he won his maiden, his conditions race, his Listed race and his Group 3,” said Reynier.
“Everything is in good order, the more he goes, the better he is. Last time out in the Prix de Guiche he won in very good fashion. He's a son of Dark Angel and the dam is a Group 3 winner over five furlongs, so aiming for the French Derby over 300 metres more wouldn't have been a good idea.
“He looks like a miler physically. It's a stiff mile at Royal Ascot and it will be a great race to look forward to.”
The third horse set to make the trip over from France is Zarakem (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}), who will aim to put defeat in the Prix Ganay behind him to return to the form he was in when he got the better of Horizon Dore (Fr) (Dabirsim {Fr}) to land the Prix d'Harcourt in April.
“We just have to forget about his last run in the Ganay where everything just went wrong,” Reynier said. “He won well on his reappearance in the Prix d'Harcourt and he has some pretty solid form beating Horizon Dore, who just got beaten in the Prix d'Ispahan.”
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