PARIS // Sole Power failed to find the gaps in the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp yesterday when finishing down the field behind Move In Time, trained by David O’Meara.
Sole Power, who has raced for the past few seasons at Meydan Racecourse during the winter, faced a tall order with 17 rivals in opposition, and his come-from-behind tactics were thwarted as jockey Richard Hughes struggled to find an opening.
Move In Time edged out Rangali, while Moviesta, owned by Queens Park Rangers manager Harry Redknapp, was third.
Hughes revealed that something might have been amiss. “It just didn’t feel like him,” he said of Sole Power.
Move In Time, who was ridden by Daniel Tudhope, has been a big improver this season, and a run in the Hong Kong Sprint in December alongside Sole Power might be in the offering should the seven-year old be invited by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.
“There were so many people jumping around in front of me that I thought we had lost,” the diminutive O’Meara said. “When I finally saw all of the connections of our horse jumping around, I knew we’d got it.
“We’ll have to see whether he gets the invitations. I’ll have to speak to the owners in the next few days.”
Moviesta could be heading to Dubai in the winter.
“He ran an unbelievable race, and he just got stopped in his stride when he was coming through, otherwise he’d have been closer,” Moviesta’s part-owner Ritchie Fiddes said.
“He is a horse that likes firm ground. The next options are to take him to the United States or to Dubai.”
Following on from the demotion of Cirrus Des Aigles in the Prix Dollar on Saturday, Aidan O’Brien’s Gleneagles suffered the same ignominy when first past the post in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere.
In the final stages Gleneagles came across Full Mast, who finished second ahead of Godolphin’s Territories.
It was too much for the French stewards, who awarded the Group One event to Full Mast.
Gleneagles was placed third behind Territories.
“I was always confident, as I know the French rules,” Full Mast’s rider Thierry Thuillez said.
“If a horse is impeded, then a horse must be disqualified.”
It would have been a double for O’Brien, who had earlier saddled Found to win the Prix Marcel Boussac under Ryan Moore.
Later in the afternoon, Freddie Head’s We Are won the Prix de L’Opera under Thierry Jarnet.
We Are beat English raider Ribbons and Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid’s Hadaatha.
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