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Preview: Vincennes on Saturday.
Vincennes hosts a key fixture ahead of Criteriums finals day in September. There are multiple Group qualifiers this Saturday including the G2 Critérium 3 ans - Q1 - Prix Reine du Corta (2175m for fillies), the G2 Critérium 3 ans - Q2 - Prix Abel Bassigny (2175m for colts) alongside two events for the colts and fillies Critérium 4 ans and the G2 Critérium 5 ans - Q1 - Prix Louis Jariel (2175m).
Vincennes returns with Group racing on Saturday and Qualifying events for the upcoming Critérium Champions Day on Sunday 18 September. This will be the first year the three, four and five-year olds Critérium's will be run at the same meeting.
On Saturday the qualifying heats will be run, and the programme is outstanding with six of the eight races at G2 or G3 level. The best colts and fillies (& mares) for each age category will be competing.
Looking at all three age category challenge heats, what is clear is the dominance of trainer Philippe Allaire who prepares the favourite, and in some cases the second favourite, in the colts' divisions. He is currently winning races at a 30% strike rate, well above his seasonal average.
The Three-year-old Critérium has previously been run in the second half of December and traditionally was the first Group One of the Winter Meeting. This year, the generation competing will be three months younger when the Critérium is run, and it will be interesting in future years if the same calibre of winner will emerge from the ranks. The century, horses such as Ready Cash, Timoko, Bold Eagle and Face Time Bourbon won the December edition.
To date there have been two G1 races held for this three-year-old generation, and both have been won by Just A Gigolo. His record reads thirteen starts for ten wins and after winning the Prix Albert Viel (G1) at Vincennes in June he resumed at Enghien defeating many of his re-opposing rivals. He sets the standard. The best filly is Jazzy Perrine, and her record is solid with six wins and six seconds from fourteen starts. She is a multiple G2 winner however is coming up against Just A Gigolo in G1 Championship races.
Until covid arrived, the four-year-old Critérium was held in May. Moved to the autumn in 2020, this year it appears the colts have their measure over the fillies. The two horses expected to dominate this are Izoard Vedaquais, winner of fifteen and second on his five other starts and Idao de Tillard. Italiano Vero cannot be left out either. Best of the fillies is Idylle Speed who is a previous G1 winner having defeated her colt rivals in the Critérium des trois ans last December.
Five-year-olds will have only one qualifying heat prior to their Critérium in one month and Saturday's race does look to be a strong prelude to the G1 contest. Hohneck is the horse to beat. He is race fit with a G2 win at La Capelle against older rivals. This was followed by a G2 success at Enghien defeating both older and international rivals and those contests were over 1609m while the race on Saturday is over the slightly longer 2175m where Hohneck is three starts for three wins, course, and distance. His rival could be Hooker Berry, a horse who has shown promise and now as a five-year-old might be reaching peak maturity. He also adopts a new shoeing combination.
The meeting also features a G3 mounted contest.
