Moonlight Cloud right up there in mile heaven

Mark Howe
Sunday 11 August 2013 17:23 EDT
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Trainer Freddy Head put Moonlight Cloud on a par with his great milers Miesque and Goldikova after she beat the strongest international line-up of the season in the Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville.

Moonlight Cloud became the first to win the Normandy track's Group One highlights in the same year, just seven days after her third triumph in the Prix Maurice de Gheest, holding on by a short-head from the Richard Hannon-trained Olympic Glory, who just failed to catch the winner under Frankie Dettori. André Fabre's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe candidate Intello finished a length and three-quarters behind in third, while the bubble burst once and for all on the 2,000 Guineas victor Dawn Approach, who was nearly eight lengths behind the winner in fifth.

Head, who rode Miesque and trained Goldikova, plans to run Moonlight Cloud in the Prix de la Forêt at Longchamp on Arc day, 6 October. "With this victory she's joined Miesque and Goldikova among the Deauville legends," he said. "The plan has always been to run in the Forêt."

In Ireland, the runaway Coventry Stakes winner War Command looked a busted flush when a tame third to Sudirman, representing similar connections, in the Group One Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh, where the one-time Derby favourite Kingsbarns missed an intended gallop after racing owing to drying ground.

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