1 September 2024
Photo scoopdyga.com
ParisLongchamp, Sunday, September 1st, 2024 – The €80,000 Prix Gérald de Geoffre, formerly known as the Prix de Lutèce (Gr3), served as the second leg in the selection process for the best 3-year-old stayers, following the Prix Michel Houyvet (L) four weeks earlier. The race, contested over 15 furlongs, saw the winner of the previous leg, Columbus (Oasis Dream), emerge again, despite starting as the third favourite.
Indeed, both the pundits and the public favoured two other contenders. Shamarkand (Harzand) was coming off two consecutive wins, including one in the Prix Frédéric de Lagrange (L), the Vichy Derby, where he defeated Columbus, who finished third. Six weeks and Comlumbus' reckoning had passed since that encounter. The other favourite, Hamavi (Dubawi), was aiming to build on his success in the Grand Prix de Clairefontaine (L) a month earlier, but both he and Shamarkand were tackling this distance for the first time.
However, it seems that more than the extended distance, it was the race's unfolding that proved their undoing. Five horses lined up at the start, but with their 4 and 5 draws, the two market leaders found themselves at the rear after jostling for position leaving the stalls. From then on, they were at the mercy of the riders of the front-runners, Chartwell (Churchill), who had recently finished a pleasing sixth in the Grand Prix de Clairefontaine won by Hamavi, and Columbus. And so, by the time they entered the final straight, their chances were already dashed.
An incident had occurred earlier when Kalet, boxed in on the rail behind Chartwell, attempted to force his way out, encountering predictable resistance from Columbus. Kalet sustained an injury in the process. Chartwell and Columbus, meanwhile, accelerated, while Hamavi, who had been pushed for a while, and Shamarkand proved unable to reel them in. Columbus ultimately prevailed in a close battle, winning by half a length, with Shamarkand a good length back in third at the finish.
Columbus was bred in Germany by Gestüt Brummerhof. Sold as a yearling at Baden-Baden for €110,000 to Grove Stud, he was then consigned to the Arqana breeze-up sales in Deauville, where Meridian International (Ghislain Bozo) purchased him for €65,000. He is the second foal out of Cribbs Causeway (Rip van Winkle), a Group 3-placed mare in Britain whose second dam notably produced Coronet (Dubawi), winner of the Prix Jean Romanet (Gr1) and the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (Gr1), and also second in the Ribblesdale Stakes (Gr2).