Haydock grabs the limelight on Saturday afternoon as a thrilling cast of speedsters assembles for the 2024 edition of the Sprint Cup. However, that six-furlong event isn’t the only European Group 1 on offer over the weekend.
Sunday sees the top-class spotlight shine on the Paris track of Longchamp for one of the classiest one-mile events of the season. First run in 1957, the Prix du Moulin offers just shy of £400,000 in total prize money and invariably attracts a stellar cast – Miesque, Kingmambo, Rock Of Gibraltar, Goldikova, and Baeed all feature on the roll of honour.
As is the case with all of their Group 1 events, the French trainers rarely lie down without a fight in this event and are responsible for four of the seven-runner field in 2024. However, the home team have come up short against the British and Irish raiders four times in the past seven years, and if the betting market is any guide, they may struggle to hold on to the prize this year.
Varian and Appleby Stars Head the Betting
With six French Group 1 prizes residing in the trophy cabinet at his Newmarket yard, Roger Varian is no stranger to top-level success on the other side of The Channel. He has yet to claim this particular contest but has his best chance yet with the four-year-old Charyn.
Long held in high regard by connections, Charyn endured a frustrating time in 2023 – often running well but failing to get his head in front in seven outings. Fast forward to 2024, and whatever Varian has done with the colt over the winter appears to have worked the oracle. Bagging a first Group win in two years when landing the bet365 Mile, he proved that to be no fluke when breaking his Group 1 duck with a runaway success in the Queen Anne Stakes. Impressive as that display was, his next was even better, as he travelled to Deauville to slam a quality field by three lengths.
That effort almost reduced his trainer to tears – no doubt coming as a welcome tonic in a season which has witnessed Varian lose the support of two of his most powerful owners. In the form of his life, Charyn is a general 5/4 chance to add a little gloss to his stellar campaign.
If Charyn disappoints, our Gallic cousins still have 2,000 Guineas champ Notable Speech to worry about. A little surprisingly, Charlie Appleby is also seeking a first win in this event, but he has rarely sent one so talented as this son of Dubawi.
Unraced at two, Notable Speech rapidly made up for lost time at three – rattling off a four-timer, culminating in that thrilling verdict over Rosallion at Newmarket. A blowout in the St James’s Palace Stakes was hard to fathom following that performance, but the colt rectified matters when quickening up decisively to land the Sussex Stakes at the Qatar Goodwood Festival. He’s yet to race on anything softer than good ground, but if transferring that acceleration to the slow Deauville turf, he rates a major threat to all at a general price of 9/4.
Don’t Forget About Aidan
It wouldn’t be a major French Group 1 without a challenger from the Ballydoyle yard of Aidan O’Brien, and the Coolmore operation duly sends Henry Longfellow in pursuit of this year’s prize.
Sharing a sire with Notable Speech, this son of the brilliant Classic winner Minding finished three and a quarter lengths adrift of his Godolphin rival in the Sussex Stakes but finished ahead of him when going down by just a neck to Rosallion in the St James’s Palace Stakes. He will likely need a career best to take this but has won on soft ground and hails from a yard which has claimed this twice in the past. At around 5/1, he may attract some support in the lead-up to what promises to be a cracking contest.
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