11 May. FR. Poule d'Essai des Poulains. G1. Longchamp. 1.600 mts. Turf. 400.000 €
1.- FALCO (O.Peslier)
2.- RIO DE LA PLATA (L.Dettori)
3.- RIVER PROUD (T.Quinn)
Falco ran out a comfortable winner of the French 2000 Guineas at Longchamp.
Trained by Carlos Laffon-Parias and ridden by Olivier Peslier, the 20-1 chance avoided any traffic problems and swept to the front with a powerful run just over two furlongs from home.
Despite tiring towards the finish, he still had clear daylight between himself and the chasing pack at the line.
With 19 runners, the one-mile Group One feature always threatened to be a rough race and so it proved, with the field strung out like washing entering the home straight.
But Peslier, sat just off the early pace and on the outside of the field, always had Falco out of trouble and asked his mount to take command with over a quarter of a mile to run.
The response was impressive and ultimately proved decisive as the Frankie Dettori-ridden Rio De La Plata (5-1) stayed on for second without ever threatening to reel in the easy winner.
Third place went to River Proud, who belied his price tag of 25-1 and looked unlucky not to finish closer.
After encountering trouble in the starting stalls, he had to come from a long way back in the straight and was finishing best of all at the line.
The layers were relatively impressed with the effort of Rio De La Plata and reacted by cutting Saeed Bin Suroor’s charge for the Vodafone Derby.
He is now 16-1 from 25s with VC Bet for the Epsom Classic, while William Hill are slightly shorter at 14s from 16-1.
Simon Crisford, racing manager for Godolphin, was thrilled with the performance of runner-up Rio De La Plata.
Crisford said: “He’s run very well and we are very pleased, but we’ll just see what happens from here.
“We’ll go home and make some plans.
“He’s entered in everything from a mile to a mile and a half, including the Derby, and all options are open.”
After getting upset in stall 14, River Proud was taken out and transferred to the widest stall on offer before the starter let them go.
Cole said: “They moved him from stall 14 to stall 20 so he was on the wide outside.
“He’s never been good in the stalls and has had to come from almost last position entering the straight.
“If you look at the speed he showed and imagine if he’d done that from fourth or fifth position, who knows what would have happened?
“You have to behave in the stalls and he hasn’t, which has probably cost him the French 2000 Guineas.
“We’ve never had this sort of encouragement from him and he made up half a furlong very easily.”
Peslier was delighted with the way the race panned out for Falco. The winning jockey said: “My horse was always going well. He likes a good gallop and they went a good gallop throughout.
“He has a nice action and for a horse like him, it is better to be in a good position.
“Moving into the straight I went up on the outside and there was a horse coming with me.
“But I knew my horse was very strong and full of running, so when the other horse went I made my move early.”