Top-Class European Group 1 Action! + Huge 863/1 Treble!

With the Glorious Goodwood Festival now out of the way, there is only Chester providing flat racing in the UK on Sunday! Fortunately for punters, the European action more than makes up for it – with Deauville and Dusseldorf both staging Group 1 races the Prix Maurice de Gheest and the Henkel-Preis der Diana respectively.

To keep up to date with all the British and Irish Racing on offer, view our free Horse Racing tips – which includes runner-by-runner previews and selections for Market Rasen, Chester and Galway!

Prix Maurice de Gheest (Group 1, 2:47pm)

The feature race on the card at Deauville is the Prix Maurice de Gheest, which has been raided by British trainers in recent years – with five of the last ten renewals going to horses travelling from across the English Channel. Run over an intermediate distance of six and a half furlongs, this year’s renewal includes the last two winners Polydream and Brando.

The market is currently headed by Advertise, who has done well since reverting to sprinting the last twice – landing the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup prior to finishing second behind Ten Sovereigns in last month’s July Cup. He appears to set the standard on that form, and Frankie Dettori maintains the partnership.

Polydream took this a shade cosily under Maxime Guyon last year, and her trainer Freddy Head previously trained Marchand d’Or and Moonlight Cloud to win three consecutive renewals of the race. She is the main hope for the home challengers, but this looks significantly stronger than the preceding renewal.

Advertise will no doubt be popular with punters, but he appears to offer little value at the current prices – and he is taken to come up second best to an Aidan O’Brien challenger once again, this time in the shape of LE BRIVIDO. Runner-up in the French 2000 Guineas at this venue in 2017 (when in the care of Andre Fabre), he has failed to win from his four starts since joining O’Brien but ran two eye-catching races in Group 1 company at Royal Ascot earlier this campaign. He clearly has the ability to feature at this level, and today’s trip may well prove ideal for him.

Tip: LE BRIVIDO (11/1 with RaceBets)

Henkel-Preis der Diana – German Oaks (Group 1, 4:00pm)

The 161st running of the Henkel-Preis der Diana – more commonly known as the German Oaks – has no British representation from a horse perspective, but Jack Mitchell travels over to ride Apadanah – who finished fourth in the Italian Oaks last time, and Martin Dwyer takes over on the Peter Schiergen trained Skyful Sea.

Donjah currently heads the market with RaceBets, and she looked something out of the ordinary when running out a six-length winner of a Group 3 at Krefeld in November. She has not been seen since that success, however, so looks vulnerable to a race-fit rival today, and at a tasty each-way price, SHINING PASS gets the nod.

Andreas Wöhler’s filly was behind Durance at Hamburg last time, but she appeared to make her challenge from the wrong part of the track there. Being quite a keen going sort, she should have improvement to come once learning to settle better – and connections know the family well, having trained the dam’s half-sister Serienholde to win this race in 2016.

Tip: SHINING PASS (15/1 with RaceBets)

Prix Valparaiso Sporting Club – Prix de Reux (Group 3, 4:40pm)

The famous blue silks of Godolphin are well represented here with three of the eight runners. Charlie Appleby brings over FIRST NATION and Walton Street from his Newmarket base, whilst their final representative – the Andre Fabre trained Gyllen – was a Group 2 winner at Maisons-Laffitte last July.

Preference is for James Doyle’s mount FIRST NATION, who went into plenty of notebooks when a fast-finishing third at Sandown last month. That form has received a notable boost since from the winner Elarqam, and his latest effort in a Listed race at Newbury is worth upgrading as he was attempting to concede nine pounds to two potentially smart three-year-olds.

With these better ground conditions and the step up in trip both notable positives for his chances today – everything looks set for a big performance.

Tip: FIRST NATION (7/2 with RaceBets)