It's Prix Maurice de Gheest day at Deauville and Racing Post tipster Robbie Wilders has a fancy in the feature Group 1 and another in the supporting races.
2.55 Deauville
Rohaan @ 16/1
1pt win
3.30 Deauville
Suesa @ 1/1
1pt win
Rohaan can prove a diamond Gheester
Fourteen runners have stood their ground for the Prix Maurice de Gheest (2.55) and the race looks a cracker.
Naval Crown and Artorious bring July Cup form to the table, having finished second and third to Alcohol Free in the Newmarket Group 1 and the pair head the early betting.
Both are feared along with July Cup seventh Perfect Power, who is surely better than he showed at Newmarket.
Throw in the likes of impressive Hackwood Stakes winner Minzaal, progressive three-year-old Harry Three and John Quinn's talented mare Highfield Princess and this is a cracker of a race.
However, I will be ignoring all of these candidates to side with Rohaan, who is surely the value bet for David Evans.
This would represent a first top-level strike for the Monmouthshire trainer and the race should really suit Rohaan.
The Maurice de Gheest is a unique contest given its six-and-a-half-furlong trip and I like to keep sprinters onside with proven form on stiff courses over six. If there is an ease in the ground, like there will be at Deauville on Sunday, sprint form on testing conditions is also vital.
Rohaan ticks both boxes with successive victories off huge weights in the Wokingham at Royal Ascot - a course with one of the stiffest finishes in Britain, while he has already landed a Group 2 on heavy ground by virtue of his triumph in the Sandy Lanes at Haydock last season.
This test could really suit and with many in this field demonstrating a preference for faster conditions, the stars could be aligning for Rohaan. Evans also arrives in excellent form with a 37 per cent strike-rate over the past fortnight.
Stall one is slightly concerning and he will need luck in running but the last two winners of this have been drawn low, including Space Blues two years ago from that same box.
Suesa the play in Cercle
The Listed Prix du Cercle (3.30) appeals as a decent spot for Suesa to regain the winning thread.
The speedy daughter of Night Of Thunder first captured the imagination of British racing fans when slamming Dragon Symbol by three lengths in the King George Qatar Stakes at Glorious Goodwood a year ago, but she is winless since.
Suesa was sent off the favourite for the Nunthorpe and Prix de l'Abbaye off the back of that blistering effort but failed to hit the heights of her Goodwood romp.
She has taken a little while to get going this season but she bounced back to form somewhat when second in the Listed Prix Hampton at Chantilly in June on ground that would have been quick enough for her.
This slight ease in the ground will suit and while she has two lengths to find with the reopposing Berneuil, that horse is 7lb worse off this time and that should make Suesa tough to beat under Olivier Peslier.
Suesa is essentially a Group 2 horse running in a Listed contest without a penalty and the remaining contenders have too much to find on form.
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