FLARE UP IN FRANCE
Guineas hero will bid to end the Pier show
JIM BOLGER’S star colt Poetic Flare is set for a mouthwatering Deauville duel with Palace Pier in Sunday’s Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville.
Poetic Flare, the winner of the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket and St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, came unstuck on the soft ground at Glorious Goodwood last month when runner-up to Alcohol Free in the Sussex Stakes.
“It was the ground that beat us,” said Co Carlow trainer Bolger.
“The going does not look that bad at Deauville on Sunday. I don’t know what is running but we are.”
The John and Thady Gosden-trained Palace Pier did not run in the Sussex Stakes because of a poor blood count.
But the twice Royal Aacot and Lockinge Stakes winner, is the 5-6 favourite with Ladbrokes to repeat last year’s success in the Group 1 contest. Poetic Flare is next best at 100-30.
Bolger’s Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Mac Swiney is set to take his place in the Juddmonte International at York over 10 furlongs tomorrow week after the trainer claimed he did not stay over a mile and a half in the English and Irish Derby.
This will be only the second time Mac Swiney has tackled the trip.
“He was not right when he ran over 10 furlongs at Leopardstown in the Derrinstown (fourth behind Bolshoi Ballet),” added the 79-year-old.
● RICHARD KINGSCOTE has relinquished his role as stable jockey to Tom Dascombe to focus on riding more for Michael Stoute.