French 1000 Guineas: Fabre's filly to star

Andre Fabre: Trainer of Esoterique.

The Poule d'Essai des Pouliches Guineas takes place at Longchamp on Sunday. Timeform's John Ingles analyses the field...

A maximum field of twenty lines up for the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, the emphasis more on quantity than quality in an open-looking renewal. The four British-trained runners all have a bit to find with the best of the French fillies but Zurigha looks the pick of that quartet judged on her impressive win in a minor event at Kempton last time. Zurigha had Cocktail Queen (David Elsworth) back in fourth, though the draw hasn't been kind to the Richard Hannon filly. The other pair from Britain will need to improve on defeats in Guineas trials at home, Melbourne Memories (Clive Cox) finishing a good third in the Fred Darling and Waterway Run (Ralph Beckett) a below-form fifth in the Nell Gwyn.

Mikel Delzangles will be seeking to put a disappointing run from What A Name in the 1000 Guineas behind him with Flotilla his main hope in the French equivalent. A reproduction of her Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf win at Santa Anita in the autumn (with Waterway Run and subsequent Guineas winner Sky Lantern down the field) would be good enough here, though she does have an absence since then to overcome against race-fit rivals.

Flotilla didn't get the best of runs when fourth in the Prix Marcel Boussac prior to the Breeders' Cup, but has prospects of turning the tables on the placed horses from the top French contest for two-year-old fillies, Topaze Blanche and Alterite. The latter easily won a listed race at Saint-Cloud on her reappearance, while Topaze Blanche shaped nicely under a considerate ride on her return when a close third in the Prix de la Grotte at Longchamp, giving the impression she'd be capable of being more of a threat another day to both Kenhope and Tasaday who take her on again here.

Trained by Andre Fabre for Godolphin, Tasaday lost her unbeaten record in the Grotte after a two-year-old campaign that ended with a beating of Cocktail Queen and Meri Shika in the Prix des Reservoirs at Deauville. 

The Marcel Boussac winner Silasol, absent here, was beaten on her reappearance in the Prix Vanteaux by Esoterique who has now won both her starts this spring. Esoterique has been supplemented for this by Andre Fabre and is one of the few in the line-up on an upward curve, her draw looking a bonus too. She went with zest in the nine-furlong Vanteaux, and the drop back in trip is unlikely to inconvenience her.

Ex-Irish filly Spinacre ran well on her debut for Pascal Bary when a close third behind What A Name in the Prix Imprudence and will be as effective back at a mile, but she's another who will have to overcome a wide draw in this big field. Morning Frost and Baie d'Honneur line up in good form after winning listed races last time out at Chantilly and Toulouse respectively but both will need to show a fair bit more improvement to be involved here.

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