French trainer Corine Barande-Barbe is in no rush to make future plans for Cirrus Des Aigles after a minor setback ruled him out of Sunday’s Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
Barande-Barbe was looking forward to stepping him back up to a mile-and-a-half, with a view to a tilt at the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on July 21, but future plans are now up in the air.
“It is not serious. He just has a bit of an infection on his ankle and it impossible to run him in these conditions as it would hurt him, so we have to stay at home,” Barande-Barbe said.
“We’ll just have to see how he is this week. This happens to horses all the time.”
Andre Fabre’s Meandre got off the mark for the campaign with a fine display in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
The four-year-old was a hugely impressive winner of the Grand Prix de Paris last summer, but was then beaten in the Prix Niel and well held in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
His comeback fourth in Newmarket’s Jockey Club Stakes did not inspire much confidence for the rest of the campaign and a subsequent defeat at Group Three level meant he was the outsider of four runners in this competitive Group One heat.
Shareta cut out the running in the early stages of the mile-and-a-half contest, closely pursued by Arc heroine Danedream and Meandre.
It turned into a sprint in the straight and it was Meandre who showed the best turn of foot in the testing conditions to claim top honours under Maxime Guyon.
Shareta kept on dourly to fill the runner-up spot, with the returning Galikova the first beaten before staying on to grab third from the favourite, Danedream.
