Clairefontaine, Friday, 5 August: The pits open nine times on this race day at Clairefontaine, where the first race goes off at 1.40pm. The seventh race of the day is the Prix Fromagerie Graindorge at 5.10pm, which sees four-year-olds and older run off, has the highest purse of 27,000 euros and runs over 2,400 metres.
A duel between Castle and Fenelon is in the offing. Castle, trained by Christophe Ferland, was second in the Grand Prix at the Riviera meeting in Cagnes-sur-mer. Maxim Guyon was in the saddle and will now ride him again. Castle made one more start in April (seventh at list level), but the break since then is not to be overlooked. Fenelon, a protégé of trainer Nicolas Clement, won a race each at Longchamp and Lyon in May. Afterwards, however, he was shown his limits in the Grand Prix de Chantilly (Group II). Stéphane Pasquier is in the saddle. In terms of class, these two horses should decide the race between them. Castle seems to have the emotional advantage. The fresh winner from Longchamp is Measure of Time (Mickael Barzalona). If the colt can find an undisturbed race at the top, he looks to be the big challenger to the two favourites. For Bel Aristo (Cristian Demuro), the road might be a little further, but he can still play a prominent role. Or Gris (Christophe Soumillon), a winner in Longchamp in May, and Laos (Yoann Barille), who just won a race but now faces his most difficult task yet, are also candidates for a place in the front pack.
