Soumillon voices Longchamp track fears a week ahead of French Guineas

France Galop have been forced to issue a strongly worded statement defending their preparation of the Longchamp track, after several leading professionals criticised the racing surface on Sunday.

The course reopened on April 8 at the end of a two and a half year redevelopment at the cost of €141m, and will host the first two French Classics of the season, the Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Pouliches, next Sunday.

The alarm was raised by Christophe Soumillon after winning the Listed Prix de la Seine aboard the Aga Khan's Shahnaza.

"The filly is very good but the ground is terrible," Soumillon told racing channel Equidia. "The track is full of divots and although the penetrometer reading is 3.0 [good] you have the feeling you're riding on 6.0 [very heavy]. To run a super filly like this on ground which is full of holes is not great."

Soumillon gave up two rides later in the day after explaining to the stewards that he did not have confidence in the state of the ground.

Shahnaza's trainer, Alain de Royer-Dupre, was in agreement with his jockey and withdrew stablemate Dolianova from the Listed Prix Maurice Zilber later in the afternoon.

Speaking after Shahnaza's victory, Royer-Dupre said: "We'll have to see which route we take towards the Prix de Diane, I don't know yet. It depends if the course remains as it is today, in which case I wouldn't take the risk of running her in the Saint-Alary and she could go straight to the Diane."

Stern defence

In the statement, France Galop pointed to the recent extremes of weather and dismissed claims that there was insufficient work put into the track between meetings.

After several of the earlier meetings took place on extremes of heavy ground, last Sunday's Prix Ganay meeting was run on good ground, before heavy rain once again intervened at the start of last week.

"Remember that the going was good to firm [2.9 on the penetrometer] is unusual, as has been the weather at the start of the season, which has featured heavy rain and variation between very low and high temperatures. The ground has firmed up very quickly."

The statement went on to explain: "The most delicate area of the course, at the bottom of the hill, where the Moyenne and Grande Pistes join up, is also the most shaded and is close to a pond. Drainage work was carried out during the closure which enabled that section of the track to cope with the heavy rain at the start of the spring. A further piece of compaction work will be carried out in due course."

France Galop also pointed out that many of the meetings had been run with the rail out in order to preserve fresh ground for the Classics next Sunday.

"The track was rolled last Tuesday and will be again after the scheduled watering of 15 millimetres on Monday morning, so that the course will be in perfect condition with the rail at its minimum next Sunday. The divots are always refilled by ParisLongchamp's dedicated grounds staff."

Have you tried our free app yet? It gives you all our unrivalled information, cards and latest results directly to your mobile device so you'll never miss a winner again! Get the app here