Le maestro judges it to perfection again with Le Brivido

You don't get to be champion trainer 24 times without getting the big decisions right more often than not.

Andre Fabre's stranglehold is on the French title but he knows his way round the British programme book too and he got things spot on with Le Brivido's first cross-channel trip.

He could have aimed the French 2,000 Guineas runner-up at Tuesday's Group 1 St James's Palace Stakes but the lightly-raced colt would have faced a very tough battle there – far from ideal at his stage of development.

Instead he thought slightly out of the box, dropped him to seven furlongs for the Group 3 Jersey and was rewarded as the 2-1 favourite rallied to beat 66-1 shot Spirit Of Valor by a neck.

"It was not a difficult decision," Fabre said. "He has the speed to deal with the shorter distance, he has won over six furlongs so this wasn't going to be too fast for him.

"It gives him some experience, he's still a young horse. When he got beaten in the French Guineas it was a matter of greenness, he hit the front a bit soon."

Le Brivido was a ninth Royal Ascot winner for Fabre, who is reluctant to bring him across for the Qatar Sussex Stakes due to the undulations at Goodwood and is eyeing the Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville – for which he is the 6-4 favourite with Paddy Power.

But it was a first success at the meeting for French champion jockey Pierre-Charles Boudot, who is perhaps best known for smashing Christophe Soumillon's record of 228 winners in a year by scoring 300 times in 2016.

"It's very important for a jockey to win a race like that," he said. "Ascot is one of the best tracks in the world – I've had a few places and I'm very happy to have a winner here."

Spirit Of Valor had finished eighth in the 2,000 Guineas and sixth in the Irish equivalent. But trainer Aidan O'Brien said: "It wasn't a complete surprise he ran so well.

"We always liked him and the fast ground seemed to make a big difference to him, which is understandable being a War Front.

"It looks as if six or seven furlongs on that ground really suits him but I wouldn't rule out going back to a mile on fast ground." Underfoot conditions were also reckoned to be key for third-placed Mubtasim, with owner Sheikh Rashid Dalmook Al Maktoum's racing manager Bruce Raymond saying: "It was a big run and he showed big improvement. He must have the ground very fast."

Jersey Stakes result and analysis