ANOTHER French raider landed a Group One contest at Royal Ascot yesterday with Byword’s win in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
Following Goldikova’s ninth Group One win on the opening day in the Queen Anne Stakes, the Andre Fabre-trained four-year-old came home under young French riding star Maxime Guyon to give owner Prince Khalid Abdullah in a 1-2 with Twice Over a fast-finishing second half a length behind.
Goldikova’s trainer Freddie Head nominated the Prix Jacques le Marios as a likely target for his star mare. And while Byword has been quoted as low as 8-1 with Stan James for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Fabre is looking at dropping back in distance for the Deauville Group One – and another crack at Goldikova – rather than up to the 1m4f at Longchamp in the autumn.
Byword had been second to Goldikova last time and confirmed that promise by justifying 5-2 favouritism to become the third French-trained winner at the Prince Of Wales’s in the past four years. Fabre took the race with Manduro in 2008 ending a long wait for a French-trained winner. And yesterday the 21-times French champion said: “Things go in cycles. It is like rugby – we win the Six Nations and then get slammed by South Africa. Royal Ascot is the best in the world. The races are run at a good pace which they aren’t always in France.”
He added: “I knew he had the ability to win and I was impressed by the ride as I was fearful he could get boxed in.
“He has matured. He wasn’t trained much at three because he had a virus and now he is really coming to himself. You could call him a revelation as his form as a three-year-old was not at that level, but we have always thought he is a really good horse.”
Fabre has won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe seven times, but on Byword’s chances of lining up at Longchamp in October, he said:
“He is a horse that can go for the big mile races, he won’t go further than 10 furlongs. Maybe something like the Prix Jacques le Marois next. I am not sure he can stay further and although the Arc is a long way off it has to be a doubt. He needs good ground, too, and is unlikely to get that in Paris in October.”
The 21-year-old jockey Guyon was having his first race in England, and added his Royal Ascot win to his first Classic victories in the French 2,000 Guineas and the French Derby.
The jockey said: “I’m absolutely delighted to have been given the opportunity to ride here by Mr Fabre, I never thought it would happen.
“I was apprehensive as I never ridden here but I was not very nervous. I did walk the track and watch a few videos as I had not been here before and it is different to other tracks.”
Fabre added of Guyon: “He has nerves and he is young, which I always like. He rides all the horses at home and knows what they want and he doesn’t use his whip a lot, which I like.
“I like talent and he has everything. He walked the course, watched videos and I called him three times but he is laid back and rode an ideal race.”
Runner-up Twice Over was fourth last year and Cecil said: “He got blocked in and couldn’t get out, and then he was too far back. He ran a super race but it wasn’t enough. “It was such a mess of a race that he was taken too far back. I hope we’ll go to the Champion Stakes, but that’s up to the Prince.
