'I thought it would take a good horse to beat him' - Burke lands Robert Papin to keep fine run going

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Winning 17 Group races and well over £3 million in prize-money in 2023 is a hard act to follow, but Karl Burke is making a pretty good fist of it.

The North Yorkshire trainer is having another fine season and scored his eighth Group-race success of this campaign with the progressive Arabie in the Prix Robert Papin at Chantilly.

Newmarket Listed winner Celandine made the running, but Jim Crowley had her covered and after hitting the front he had enough in reserve to hold on by three-quarters of a length from Shadow Army, who kept on for second.

The winner had taken the Group 3 Prix du Bois, the traditional trial, here previously and Burke said: "That was brilliant, I'm delighted. He's a horse with a lot of ability but he's very idle, very lazy. He does only what you ask him.

Arabie took the traditional trial for the Papin last month

"But his homework has definitely improved from his last run going into this one and I was pretty bullish that he'd run a big race. I thought it would take a good horse to beat him.

"He was a little bit slowly away, he stood in the stalls for a while and I was a bit worried for a second or two, but Jim is very experienced and got him off the rail and round. I actually expected him to be under pressure a little bit earlier than he was."

Crowley added: "He's got a great mind on him, he's very relaxed. When he gets to the front he shuts down a little with me, but he was always doing enough. He's the type of horse I think will keep on improving."

Arabie now has a Group 1 target after emulating Unfortunately's 2017 success for Burke, which restored overseas dominance to a Group 2 contest British-trained juveniles took every year from 2014 to 2021.

"He's a fair horse and he'll go to the Prix Morny now," said Burke. "He'll run very well in it."

The trainer won the Irish 1,000 Guineas with Fallen Angel in May and has another strong crop of two-year-olds this term, with Shareholder and Leovanni giving him a juvenile double at Royal Ascot last month.

"We're having a fantastic run and we've got some lovely horses," he said. "There are plenty of nice ones to run as well."

Shadow Army previously finished 13th when favourite for the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot. His jockey James Doyle said: "That was much better from him.

"He was still quite green, he missed the kick and didn't really travel that well early on. We were a bit tight for room but once we got a bit of space he finished off lovely."

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