Grand Prix De Chantilly Success For Manatee

Manatee gained the second Group Two victory of his career in the Grand Prix De Chantilly at Chantilly, France, on Sunday, May 31.

The four-year-old Monsun colt, who is trained by Andre Fabre, was settled in third of the five runners by jockey Mickael Barzalona in the early stages of the 12-furlong contest. He continued to occupy that position until the field approached the straight, when he briefly dropped back to fourth.

Two furlongs from home, he was asked for an effort and showed a good turn of foot to take up the running entering the final furlong. Inside the final furlong, he faced a strong late challenge from Prince Gibraltar, but kept on gamely to score by three-quarters of a length. The winning time was 2 minutes 29.64 seconds, with the going officially described as good to soft for the turf contest.

Lisa-Jane Graffard of Godolphin commented: "It was a very good performance from Manatee today. He is improving with each race and coming into his own as a four-year-old, as we expected him to do so.

"He was brave in the finish today and always had the measure of the runner-up. The rain today helped him.

"We are not in any hurry to make any future plans for him. The second half of the season will be built around an autumn campaign, with races over a mile and a half and further on the agenda for Manatee."