Barande-Barbe confident as Garlingari bids to emulate Cirrus

Grand Prix de Vichy (Group 3) | 1m2f | 3yo+

The mighty Cirrus Des Aigles was successful in this race in 2011 – an extremely rare Group contest in France to be run away from the Paris-Deauville area – before going on to land the inaugural Ascot running of the Champion Stakes later the same season.

Stablemate Garlingari may never quite scale the same heights but he has proved an enormous boost for the small stable of Corine Barande-Barbe, who also bred the son of Linngari and in whose colours he runs.

Having rounded off a highly successful campaign in 2016 with a trip to Hong Kong in December, Garlingari was given plenty of time to recover and ran a race full of promise when pushing Robin Of Navan to a very fast time in La Coupe at Chantilly last month.

"It's his second run back after a long absence but he's in very good form in the mornings and very happy in himself," said Barande-Barbe. "He's improved for the run and we're going there confident."

The current going is described as good to soft but there could be storms in the area, although the timing is difficult to predict.

"He ran very well on good ground at Chantilly but, if it rains, he won't mind, while some others might," said Barande-Barbe.

Among those hoping the showers stay away will be Francois Rohaut, who saddles the Listed winners Qurbaan and Best Fouad.

"It’s the right trip of both of them, with Qurbaan having seen out 1,900 metres [1m1½f] very well last time," said Rohaut. "I hope the threatened rain doesn’t arrive, but apart from that everything looks good and they have both been working well. Garlingari is obviously the main obstacle but I expect them both to run well."

As well as Qurbaan, Hamdan Al Maktoum is also represented by the Freddy Head-trained Raseed, who is yet to recover his good three-year-old form in two starts this campaign.