French Classic victory for Persian King

Persian King was the impressive winner of the first French Classic, the G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains, despite the heavy ground at Longchamp on Sunday, 12 May.

The Kingman colt, trained by Andre Fabre and ridden by Pierre-Charles Boudot, was smartly away from stall two and settled in fifth of the 10 runners on the inner with a good pace up front. He improved to fourth on entering the straight and was kept on the inside, benefitting from the cutaway to make further progress and challenge for the lead.

Persian King went to the front with just over a furlong remaining of the mile Classic and gained a clear advantage before the margin was whittled away a bit in the closing stages. The winning distance over Shaman was a length and his time came to 1m 38.98s, which was fast in the circumstances.

Andre Fabre is confident that Persian King will stay the extra distance of the next French Classic for colts, the Prix du Jockey Club (G1, 1m 2f 110y, the French Derby, Sunday, 2 June, Chantilly.

The trainer commented: “The ground did not help Persian King as he has such a beautiful action.

“But he showed courage and consistency, and is a game horse.

“He is all the big races ahead, but the Jockey Club is very tempting. It looks like he will stay another quarter of a mile.”

Persian King has now won five of his six races, meeting defeat only on his career debut last year when runner-up in a maiden.