Cirrus Des Aigles registered his 20th victory with an authoritative performance in the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan over 1,800 metres at Longchamp yesterday.

Cirrus Des Aigles was urged to the front by jockey Christophe Soumillon as soon as the gates opened and the eight-year-old gelding was never headed, as main rival Olympic Glory faded into fourth under Frankie Dettori.

Freddy Head’s Anodin was second for jockey Olivier Peslier, while the mare Pollyanna was third for trainer John Hammond.

“I keep expecting to wake up and find out it isn’t true,” winning trainer Corine Barande-Barbe told At The Races. “But it isn’t a dream. There aren’t many horses like him. He adores races like that and it was like an exercise gallop for him.”

Cirrus Des Aigles is now set to run in the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom in two weeks as the 2012 Dubai Sheema Classic winner goes in search of his sixth win at the highest level. He is still entered in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes next month at Royal Ascot, where Noble Mission will also head after securing his first Group 1 win in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh in Ireland.

Noble Mission, trained in Newmarket by Lady Cecil, has been a revelation this season, in part because of jockey James Doyle’s decision to ride his mount more prominently. Once again, Doyle took the lead early on and Noble Mission simply had too much on the rain-affected going and held off the late challenge of Aidan O’Brien’s Magician.

Noble Mission is entered in the Hardwicke Stakes at the Royal Meeting, but could wait until the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes in July to compete again.

It was a fourth Group 1 win for Doyle at the Irish course after Al Kazeem and Rizeena last season and Kingman in Saturday’s Irish 2,000 Guineas, but he could not make it a fifth when his mount Vote Often was third in the Irish 1,000 Guineas behind winner Marvellous.

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