Ribchester back to winning ways to set up QEII challenge

Godolphin's Ribchester gained a fourth Group 1 victory in the Prix du Moulin, although he had to survive a stewards’ inquiry after hanging left towards runner-up Taareef in the closing stages.

As the betting had suggested, it was Jean-Claude Rouget’s colt who proved to be the biggest danger to Richard Fahey’s four-year-old, and he put up a career best effort to reach Ribchester’s hind-quarters in the drive to the line under Christophe Soumillon, with Massaat further away in third.

Three-parts of a length separated the first two at the line, after James Doyle had to give Ribchester a couple of reminders having hit the front a furlong and a half out.

“He doesn’t do much in front and gets a little wayward, but he’s fine,” said Fahey. “I think he coped with the ground today, and although he's won three times on it he's much better on quick ground.

“The original plan was not to run here and give him a break until the QEII, but he was so well it seemed a shame not to.

"He’s so tough as he’s been on the go since Dubai in March, and I’m very lucky to have him. We'll think about going to the Breeders’ Cup Mile with him too, but it’s only two weeks after Ascot and I will have to talk to connections first."

Taareef returned to his best for an absent Rouget after a below-par effort when pulling hard and overheating in the preliminaries before the Prix Jacques le Marois last month.

The four-year-old could reoppose Ribchester in the QEII next month and Soumillon said: “He was nicely settled in behind Ribchester and I came through halfway up the home straight to win, but we couldn’t get to him.

“The winner is a champion and a fantastic horse, although Taareef still put up a very good performance in finishing second.”

Impressive Hungerford Stakes winner and dual Group 1 runner-up Massaat finished a further three and a half lengths behind the first two, having tracked the leaders in the early stages.

Trainer Owen Burrows said: “There are no real excuses. Jim [Crowley] said he wished they had gone a bit quicker but it didn’t make a difference between winning and losing.

“The Foret is three weeks today and then there’s the QEII, but he’s had two races already and it’s a question about whether I want to bang two more together after being off for a year before the Hungerford.

"I’ll have a chat with the team and see what we come up with, but my gut feeling is to go straight to the QEII.”

Robin Of Navan was dropping back to a mile having not run over that distance since he was a two-year-old, and was sent straight to the front by Cristian Demuro.

Trainer Harry Dunlop reflected: “We’re thrilled. I thought for a moment Ribchester might just be under pressure. He stayed on well after the two front ones went by. We’ll look at the Dollar on Arc weekend.”

The David Simcock trained Lightning Spear, who had been supplemented for the race, failed to make his presence felt, although he was slightly hampered a furlong out before finishing sixth of the seven runners.

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