Lucayan won the French 2000 Guineas at Longchamp on Sunday to give his owners the perfect revenge for having their filly Liliside disqualified after winning the 1000 Guineas two years ago.
What made it even sweeter for Ahmed Mouknass and Anthony Forde was that the breeder of Lucayan, Jean-Pierre Colombo, was the steward responsible for disqualifying their filly in 2010.
Despite their delight and that of trainer Francois Rohaut, the race was overshadowed by Aidan O’Brien’s runner Furners Green collapsing after the winning post and having to be put down after finishing a valiant third.
The surprise runner-up was Veneto who had been the pacemaker for Dabirsim whose chances disappeared when he got blocked coming up the rail under Christophe Soumillon in the straight.
“This is amazing for me as I studied at Royal Holloway in London and I used to see all these elegantly made up women going past on their way to Ascot and I said I would like to have horses one day worthy of running there,” the Mauritania-born Mouknass told AFP.
“I used to ride for miles in the desert in Mauritania so I always had an affinity with horses.
“This is my third year of being an owner and it is a dream after the emotional disappointment to have been disqualified two years ago.”
Soumillon, who was criticised for being too confident on his first ride on Dabirsim, said his horse had done well to get back into contention.
“He raced far better today than the first time this season, but he got totally blocked when we made our run and then having got back upsides the leaders 250 metres from the line he simply ran out of gas,” he said.
Earlier Soumillon had given Beauty Parlour a superb ride in a rough French 1000 Guineas to come through and win on the favourite.
Behind her there was mayhem as horses fought to pass those tiring with O’Brien’s favoured runner Up making ground on Beauty Parlour once she broke free.
However, O’Brien’s 18-year-old son Joseph was not able to conjure up enough of a finishing burst to catch Beauty Parlour who ran out the winner by a length while Topeka, trained by Robert Collet, finished third.
“She’s unbeaten so you can’t really say more about her,” trainer Elie Lellouche said.
“It was a far from ideal race in the way it was run and Christophe did well to send her to the front when he did.
“She is in both the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) and the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot but I would like to send her to the Diane as its home for me”
