The winter meeting continues in the best possible way to Jushua Tree. Before his big end-of-year objective, on December 22 (the Prix Ténor de Baune, a group I whose winner will obtain a qualifying ticket for the Prix d’Amérique), Jean-Michel Bazire’s champion makes the Prize his own Doynel de Saint-Quentin (Gr. II). But not without fears. Facing only five opponents, in a race led by I Like Footballthe son of Bold Eagle has long been seen in fourth position. After having created the wagon of two 1,000 meters from the goal, and having approached the level of the leader at the entrance to the straight line, the double winner of group I surely took the advantage, but had to repel the assaults of Justin Bold et Jack Tonic in the last meters. “It’s a race that went quite wellanalyzes Jean-Michel Bazire. I went out when there were fewer trains, to kindly get closer. I thought it would be easy to win in the last turn. But in the last hundred meters, his legs were heavy.” Note that the protégé of the Olmenhof Stable was once again shod, without artifice, and let us specify that he was presented for the first time without a volley start rein.
“I had a bit of faith in it for the win”
Author of a semi-return in the Prix Marcel Laurent (9th), Justin Bold gave a very good push to come and take the first runner-up… not far from the winner. “Repeat a length and a half on Jushua Treeit’s cool! I had a little faith in it for the win halfway through the straightcontinues Pierre-Yves Verva. I had good feelings. The aim of the game was to see him finish in a good way. And the horse showed a different face today.” The best last 500 meters are achieved by Jack Tonic (1’09”6 according to tracking data), who was only able to express himself late. “He could, with the passage, have been closer todayconfirms Théo Duvaldestin. He ended up with “gas”. This bodes well.” This event was also the scene of the return to Paris of Joviality. For this return – she had not been seen in competition since July – the daughter of Chapter Seven takes fifth place. “It was only a preparation race and I am satisfied with itexplains Sabine Kagebrant, her trainer and CEO of Stall Courant AB. She hadn’t raced in a long time and I hadn’t sharpened her in training for this race. She needed this release. This summer we had a lot of health problems at the stable. It was a bad period, but now it’s behind us.” Third in the last Prix d’Amérique (Gr. I), she will try again to qualify for the beautiful one. “For the rest, we will decide in the coming days. We will choose between the Prix Ténor de Baune (Gr. I) and the Prix de Bourgogne (Gr. II).”
