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Favourite Modern Games fares badly in Prix du Jockey Club draw farce

Modern Games: could make it back-to-back Classic wins in France
Modern Games: could make it back-to-back Classic wins in FranceCredit: Scoop Dyga/France Galop

Favourite Modern Games will break from stall 13 in Sunday's Group 1 Qatar Prix du Jockey Club, for which the allocation of stalls had to be completely redone after Point Lonsdale was erroneously left in the draw despite not being declared for the Classic.

Point Lonsdale, trained by Aidan O'Brien, was one of the notable absentees as 15 stood their ground for Sunday's French Derby at Chantilly.

However, the colt was mistakenly left in the draw, in the process initially denying the Andrew Balding-trained Imperial Fighter a place, necessitating the whole process being redone several hours later.

The Charlie Appleby-trained Modern Games, who will bid to follow up his Poule d'Essai des Poulains victory last month, had fared well in the void draw when allocated stall eight.

But William Buick's mount was shunted out five places in the redraw, with stall 13 a negative to his chances as only four horses have won from 11 or higher since the race distance changed from 1m4f to 1m2½f in 2005.

Further British interest will be provided by the James Ferguson-trained El Bodegon (stall one, Ioritz Mendizabal), who had Cazoo Derby second-favourite Stone Age in behind when winning a Group 1 on his last trip to France in October, while Balding's Irish 2,000 Guineas third Imperial Fighter will emerge from stall 12.

Tom Marquand keeps the ride on the Andre Fabre-trained Ancient Rome, who finished fourth in the Poulains. He will hope to reverse the Longchamp form from stall five.

Cash, who chased home Epsom Derby-bound Westover in Sandown's Classic Trial when last seen, had been expected to take his place at Chantilly but was not declared by trainer David Simcock.

O'Brien, who took this €1.5m contest 12 months ago with St Mark's Basilica, will instead rely on Ivy League (stall seven, Ryan Moore) and The Acropolis (stall ten, Frankie Dettori).

Prix du Jockey Club final field

Vadeni (stall 2) Jean-Claude Rouget
Al Hakeem (11) Jean-Claude Rouget
Welwal (6) Jean-Claude Rouget
Imperial Fighter (12) Andrew Balding
Onesto (14) Fabrice Chappet
Mister Saint Paul (9) Etienne Leenders
Modern Games (13) Charlie Appleby
The Acropolis (10) Aidan O'Brien
El Bodegon (1) James Ferguson
Lassaut (8) Jean-Claude Rouget
Machete (3) Fabrice Chappet
Ancient Rome (5) Andre Fabre
Vagalame (15) Carlos Laffon-Parias
Yoozuna (4) Christophe Ferland
Ivy League (7) Aidan O'Brien


Prix du Jockey Club, Sunday: 3.00, Chantilly

Coral: 2 Modern Games, 6 Al Hakeem, 15-2 Vadeni, 17-2 Onesto, 10 Lassaut, Ancient Rome, 11 Welwal, 16 Imperial Fighter, 18 Ivy League, 20 El Bodegon, 28 Yoozuna, 33 The Acropolis, 40 Vagalame, 50 Machete, Mister Saint Paul


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Published on 2 June 2022inInternational

Last updated 18:09, 2 June 2022

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