€130,000 Vicomtesse Vigier: Sober holds his ground

Monday, 29th May 2023, ParisLongchamp Racecourse (Paris). – Five contenders lined up for one of the first major staying tests of the season, the €130,000 Prix Vicomtesse Vigier (Gr2), but this small field was very lively over the course of this two-miler. The Good Man (Manduro) immediately took the lead with the favourite, Big Call (Animal Kingdom), behind him, who tried to challenge him for the lead at the top of the climb. In the fake straight, the field panned out, promising a highly contested finish. The Good Man, as brave as ever, fought until the end, but the last challenger, Sober (Camelot), who had travelled in the third position during the race, eventually prevailed to win by a short neck. Big Call didn't let up either, but he had to concede a length at the end, four lengths ahead of the other two, defeated at mid-straight.

Third in the Prix Royal-Oak (Gr1) over this course at the end of last year, Sober here claimed his second win of the season, his first at this level. Between his victorious return and this success, he finished seventh in the Prix Barbeville (Gr3), on very soft ground.

Sober is the third foal out of the mare Burma Sea (Lope de Vega), who won only one race, at 2, for her breeder Gestüt Ammerland, and was entered in the spring classics but didn't run after July... She was then sold privately at the Arqana sales to the Wertheimers for €350,000, as she is a sister of an Italian classic winner, and her dam is a full sister to the champion mare Borgia (Acatenango).

Burma Sea is also the dam of Devil (Siyouni), a gelding winner of the Prix Eclipse (Gr3) at 2. After Sober, she gave Delire (Siyouni), a 2-year-old in training with Carlos Laffon-Parias, a Dubawi filly, and a Dark Angel colt.