€52,000 Lyphard Polytrack Challenge (L): Dawn Intello, always so smart

Tuesday, 28 November 2023, Deauville-La Touques racecourse (Calvados). - The consistent Monty (Motivator) was tipped as the favourite in the €52,000 Prix Lyphard (L), the first leg of the "classic" Polytrack Challenge, run over 1,900m/9.5f. Despite leading the field alongside Babala (Sea the Stars), Andreas Schütz's charge faltered in the closing stages. In a twist of fate, his stablemate and fellow colours-bearer, Dawn Intello (Intello), who had been tracking in third behind the British raider Claymore (New Bay) and Palais du Louvre (Galileo), sustained his drive to the line, seizing victory by nearly a length over Claymore, with Palais du Louvre a neck behind in third. A further length adrift, Integrant (Frankel), recovering from a sluggish start, rallied from the rear to claim fourth from Merkur (Kingman), who had bided his time on the rail.

The six-year-old Dawn Intello had previously triumphed at Group 3 level in the Coupe de Maisons-Laffitte (Gr3) back in 2021, followed by another Gr3-win in Italy in April 2022, and also secured a second-place finish in a Group 2 in Italy. Much earlier, he had already bagged a fourth place in the 2021 Jockey Club sporting the colours of Jaber Abdullah before donning the silks of AB Racing in partnership with Ecurie Ades Hazan from July '21. As a yearling, he fetched €57,000 from Rabbah Bloodstock at Arqana, which could be seen as a bargain for a grandson of Sulk (Selkirk), winner of the Prix Marcel Boussac (Gr1) and placed in several other Group 1 races in France and England.