The Mandarin’s Sunday Selections for 25th August 2024

The Mandarin’s Sunday Selections from Deauville & Naas

Deauville

Barriere Prix Quincey (Group 3) 1.33
Make Me King
The first of the Pattern races on Deauville’s Sunday card can go to British raider Make Me King. Hamad Al Jehani’s Dark Angel grey was last seen sixth in a blanket finish in the Moet & Chandon International Stakes at Ascot, where just 2 lengths split the first six home. Make Me King had to carry top weight in that Handicap, but now meets all but one of his rivals here on level terms. Christopher Head’s Topgear rates the main danger after chasing home Tribalist and Marhaba Ya Sanafi in the Prix Edmond Blanc at Saint-Cloud in April, so it’s taken on trust that this Wootton Bassett colt is ready to fire, while Yann Barberot’s Fast Raaj can also feature. Make Me King to make a worthwhile trip over to Deauville with a win here.

Lucien Barriere Grand Prix de Deauville (Group 2) 2.50
Arrest (nap)
Andre Fabre’s Sacred Spirit found William Haggas’s British raider Klondike too hot to handle in the Prix de Reux three weeks ago, and might suffer a similar fate here behind Arrest. John & Thady Gosdens’ Frankel colt has entries in the Irish St Leger and the Long Distance Cup on Ascot’s Champions Day in the diary, so this looks a good prep run for those two important Autumn contests. Arrest couldn’t stay with Giavellotto in the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes at Newmarket last month, but should be winning this, with Sacred Spirit to keep him honest.

Barriere Prix de Meautry (Group 3) 3.25
James’s Delight (nb)
Another Pattern prize headed back across the Channel when Clive Cox’s James’s Delight takes this Group 3 contest. An impressive winner here over course and distance last month at Listed level, this Invincible Army gelding is on a hat-trick and a fifth win of this season, if he can hold off the challenge of Karl Burke’s Spycatcher, who ran into sixth in the Prix de Ris-Oranjis here on the same card as James’s Delight’s Listed win. With just a length and a half separating the first six in a blanket finish in that Group 3, Spycatcher rates the main threat, while Coeur De Pierre and Prix Maurice de Gheest third, Beauvatier, line up for the home team. James’s Delight to bring up the hat-trick for Clive Cox.

Naas

Tally-Ho Stud Irish EBF Ballyogan Stakes (Group 3) (Fillies & Mares) 3.07
Night Eyes
This Group 3 can go to David O’Meara’s Night Eyes, who won a Listed race here over course and distance last time out. That made it three wins from the last four starts in what has been a productive season for this Night Of Thunder filly, and with an entry for the Sprint Stakes on Ascot’s Champions Day is one going the right way. She’ll have to see off the attentions of fellow British raider Pink Crystal, making the trip over from William Haggas’s Somerville Lodge yard, and Patrick Foley’s Over The Blues, runner-up to Night Eyes here last time out. Night Eyes to continue with a fine run of form, and one to follow.

The Mandarin