Valimi boosts his Classic credentials with Prix Machado victory

From week to week in the spring there can be subtle changes in the fortunes of three-year-olds, and on Thursday the fates turned in favour of those who had already blown away the winter cobwebs on the racecourse. 

Having made their seasonal debuts at Saint-Cloud three weeks ago, the two leading candidates in the Prix Machado were reopposing, and it was Valimi who took the bigger step forward, making all under Cristian Demuro to reverse the form with Halfway Line. 

Plenty of Jean-Claude Rouget's more eagerly awaited horses have run as if they will come on for the outing, and Valimi's success could also be seen as a positive for the Aga Khan's Rajapour, who was third in the Prix de Fontainebleau last Sunday.

Not that Valimi's previous form is anything to sniff at, having beaten Fontainebleau winner American Flag on his debut at Deauville last October. 

"We've got Rajapour as well as this colt and I imagine Princess Zahra and Jean-Claude Rouget will talk about whether one or both of them will run in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains," said Nemone Routh, racing office manager at Aga Khan Studs. "It's reassuring and I think he benefited from a good lesson at Saint-Cloud, where the riding orders were not to make the running as he did on his only other start.

"He came forward for that run and, having broken very smartly, he was very relaxed in front."

Quickstep and Alexis Pouchin after success in the Prix du LouvreCredit: Racing Post / Scott Burton

Before the fillies' race, the Prix du Louvre, it was hard to know how much Quickstep had benefited from her seasonal debut at Deauville two weeks ago, where a barging match with a rival effectively ended her chance. 

Mickael Barzalona was still serving a three-day suspension for his part in the scrimmaging, and Alexis Pouchin stepped in to steer Godolphin's daughter of Wootton Bassett to a neck success over the reappearing Kelina. 

It was a hugely likeable performance from both the winner and the second. Will Kelina be able to bridge the gap should the pair reoppose in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches a little over three weeks from now? By then the winds may have changed direction again, with the return of the very best of last year's two-year-olds.  

In the Listed Prix Jacques Laffitte, British raiders Certain Lad and Awaal were out of luck, finishing seventh and ninth behind Godolphin's Life In Motion.

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