Global Weekly Review: France calls Masar for juvenile career finale

There is no single path to three-year-old stardom, so the targeting of certain juvenile races before the end of the season is no guarantee of securing the right credentials for next year's Classics.

Following a highly-successful weekend for Godolphin internationally, trainer Charlie Appleby nominated the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Chantilly or the G2 Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket for the impressive G3 Solario Stakes winner Masar.

"He has come out of Saturday's race at Sandown very well, and we now have to consider the options available to him," Appleby said.

"We will look more closely at factors such as ground and the strength of the respective races before committing. But he is well, and I am keen to run him again," he said.

It is interesting to note that only one horse in the past three decades won the Lagardere and went on to Classic triumph the following season -- Rock Of Gibraltar (2001), who landed the 2,000 Guineas.

During the same period, two colts landed the Royal Lodge and carried on to win the next year's 2,000 Guineas -- Mr Baileys (1993) and Frankel (2010).

Benny The Dip took the 1996 version of the Royal Lodge (then run at Ascot) as prelude to narrowly winning the following year's Derby at Epsom.

Solario winners have done pretty well. Alhaarth (1995) went on to win the G1 Dewhurst, Raven's Pass (2007) took the following year's G1 Breeders' Cup Classic, and the brilliant Kingman (2013) won the G1 Irish 2,000 Guineas.

Masar looked just the classy type suited to a trip to France to round off his two-year-old season as he galloped up the Esher hill. He has learned at lot in races at Goodwood, Ascot and Sandown.

Saeed bin Suroor took his usual place in the spotlight in Turkey when Leshlaa and Arabian Hope landed big prizes at Valiefendi on Saturday and he followed up with Secret Number winning the G2 International Bosphorus Cup on Sunday.

Saeed's Dream Castle was just touched off by Wonnemond in the G2 International Topkapi Trophy.