'We’ve got to find out if he’s still got that spark' - Go Bears Go makes European return in Deauville Group 3

While the Group 2 Lucien Barriere Grand Prix de Deauville is nominally the top of the bill for the final Sunday of the summer meeting, there is arguably at least as much interest around the Group 3 Prix de Meautry (3.25), which features the return to European action of Go Bears Go.

One of the leading sprinting juveniles in 2021, Go Bears Go won the Railway Stakes as well as being placed in both the Norfolk and the Phoenix for trainer David Loughnane and owner Kia Joorabchian's Amo Racing.

A single success at the Curragh the following year led to Go Bears Go transferring to Wesley Ward for a four-year-old campaign in America, but the Kodi Bear entire is now back with Loughnane and has been given the go-ahead to run in the Meautry, despite the threat of rain from the southern flank of Storm Mia. 

"He arrived Saturday morning and we’re going to take our chance," said Loughnane. "There’s been a couple of big showers this [Saturday] morning but hopefully we won’t get too much more. They’re predicting good to soft and as long it doesn’t turn heavy, we’ll be fine."

Loughnane added: "He’s obviously not run for 300-odd days, and he’s been back a few months since his stint in America. Mentally and physically he’s in a good place, but we’ve got to find out if he’s still got that spark on a racecourse.

"If he finished in the first three or four we’d be delighted, and it would be a big stepping stone back into the company we feel he’s capable of."

Go Bears Go holds entries in the Flying Five and the Qipco British Champions Sprint, and Loughnane will be hopeful that his charge finds the Deauville sprint track every bit as restorative as was the case for Bradsell, who won the Listed Prix du Cercle here en route to Nunthorpe glory. 

Coeur De Pierre chased home Bradsell that day over five furlongs but also has winning Group form over six, while Beauvatier is a genuine Group 1 horse and is given the chance to prove he is an out-and-out sprinter. 

Saint Lawrence and Spycatcher have excellent Deauville performances in their back catalogues, though the best recent performance boasted by any of the visitors is the Prix Kistena success of the Clive Cox-trained James's Delight, whose progress from handicaps in his second season racing has been little short of relentless. 

"He’s over already and I think it’s going to be on the easy side," said Cox. "He’s very much at home in those conditions. He travelled over really well and he’s in excellent form, so hopefully we can maintain that really solid level of form he’s displayed recently."

Arrest certainly won't mind whatever rain gets into the Deauville turf and looks to have been found an excellent chance to land Group 2 honours in the Grand Prix de Deauville (2.50). 

Arrest looks likely to get his conditions in the Grand Prix de DeauvilleCredit: Alan Crowhurst

His three starts on ground described officially as soft or worse have resulted in a win in the Chester Vase and runner-up efforts in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud and the St Leger.

That said, he was well beaten when second to Point Lonsdale and Giavellotto on his two most recent starts, and Kieran Shoemark will be mindful to ensure the race is a sufficient test of stamina. 

Sacred Spirit found only the progressive Klondike to strong in the Prix de Reux, while, at a bigger price, it looks significant that Andreas Suborics has supplemented Quantanamera rather than stay closer to home at the start of Baden-Baden's Grosser Woch meeting.

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