Prix de L’Opera Longines Tips & Betting Preview

Race Time: 2.10pm Meeting: Longchamp Day: Sunday 4th October Distance: 1m 2f
Full Race Name:  Prix de l’Opera Longines (Group One) (3yo+ Fillies & Mares)

One of the races of the day as far as we can see with some top top class fillies and mares set to go to post in one close to call contest between some classic winning three year olds and their elders if not necessarily betters. We feel Found could win this for Aiden O’Brien but as we write she is more likely to head to the Arc itself in which case we need to start elsewhere with our mini assessment, and as big fans of Hugo Palmer why not Irish Oaks winner Covert Love (9/2)? Her four wins a row were gained by stepping up in grade race on race, culminating in her Group One success, after which she lost little in defeat when beaten a neck by Irish 1000 Guineas winner Pleascach in the Yorkshire Oaks, pretty much mugged on the line.  That really is as good as it gets for the three year old form but then again, she has had a long hard season and they may yet find they are going to the well one too many times with the daughter of Azamour who defies her breeding with her mile and a half stamina.

Last season saw Freddie Head win the race with We Are (13/2), and although she has had her well documented issues since, Freddie seems pretty confident he has her back to her very best again now. She seems sure to run a big race, and Freddie is a great trainer (and a really decent person as well, with time for the press when needed), but we feel this looks like it could be a much stronger renewal than 2014, and even at her best she could still come up a little short this season. 

John Gosden is having the sort of season he will struggle to better and who is to say Jazzi Top (13/2) won’t add to his ever expanding roll of honour?  A classy three year old, she has won three of her five races so far this season but failed to sparkle in both her attempts in Group One company. She did put in a career best effort when taking the Group Two Prix De Al Nonette last time out at Deauville at that was over this ten furlongs so you can never be sure, but in theory she ought to finds two or three of these a bit too good for her this afternoon.

Looking for in form outsiders was never going to be easy, but Karl Burke’s Odeliz (14/1) has to be at least considered, especially after her last win at Deauville where she had We Are in behind.  She seems to handle all sorts of going so tat is not an issue (though soft may hurt some or most of her opponent more than it will the daughter of Falco), and if Adrie De Vries rides again, she will be a big price (he is hardly known outside of Germany and Dubai), but have a better chance than her odds suggest we assure you.

Lastly, we suspect Aiden O’Brien dropped out Tapestry to run Diamondsandrubies (12/1) for a reason, and at her best she is a very decent filly even if she rarely bothers to show it! Her Group One Pretty Polly Stakes win when she saw off Legatissimo and Ribbons at The Curragh is absolutely top class form but she failed to repeat that in two races since and is not one we feel we can rely on.