Sacre Bleu! Lucky Team completes 1,659-1 finals' day treble for France

Lucky Team completed a remarkable 1,659-1 treble for French raiders on finals' day with an explosive 40-1 success in the Mile.

Ridden by Theo Bachelot – who struck on City Light in the Sprint – for trainer Joel Boisnard, Lucky Team produced a powerful burst down the outside to overhaul 11-8 favourite Second Thought and complete the French domination.

Held up towards the rear, Lucky Team didn't appear to be travelling well with half a mile to go and needed rousting along. However, he was soon back on the bridle and improved on the approach to the turn for home before picking up strongly to win by one and a quarter lengths. Goring was a head behind Second Thought in third.

The six-year-old winner was stepping back up in trip having been beaten in a pair of 6½f conditions stakes at Chantilly on his two most recent outings.

Boisnard said: "Lucky Team is a very good horse, a very good-looking horse and a very talented horse. We came here with the hopes that he would run well, but did not expect him to win and in a course record time!

"Unfortunately, he is not as good on the turf as he is on the all-weather - if he were, he'd be a superstar!"

Also at Lingfield

Earlier on the card, the Stephane Wattel-trained City Light picked off favourite Kachy to run out an impressive winner of the Sprint.

The winner, who was making his first start in Britain, returned at 8-1. The French also struck with Funny Kid in the Marathon, the first championship race of the meeting.

Kachy, who was well backed and sent off at 11-8, had showed blinding speed to win his last two outings, but his chance was compromised when he failed to get a clean break.

He showed his customary pace to recover and held every chance as he led the field on the turn for home, but had no answer to City Light's late surge, with the French challenger passing the post a length and a half to the good.

Last year's winner Kimberella kept on to finish a never-threatening third, a further length and a quarter back.

The winning trainer said: "He was impressive at Chantilly but there is no better place than Lingfield to win on the all-weather. This was my dream.

"I was not worried too much about the wide draw as we didn't want to get trapped on the inside. I knew he had the speed to follow the pace and that we had options. I was very pleased with the way the jockey rode the race.”

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