Royal Ascot hero Thesecretadversary took top honors at Deauville with a brilliant leadoff success in the Prix Jean Prat.
Fozzy Stack’s Jersey Stakes scorer has previously fallen short when covering Group One events, having suffered a run at Woodbine last year and failing to show his true form in both the Newmarket and Curragh editions of the 2000 Guineas.
But with his tail up and confidence boosted after a run over seven furlongs at the Royal Meeting, he excelled over the distance once again under Christophe Soumillon, who was deputized to regular pilot Seamie Heffernan.
The Secret Foes were still full of runs on the line as Aidan O’Brien’s True Love run finished strongly to make it 1-2 for the Ireland-trained side. Christopher Head’s Nighttime finished third among home teams.
stack said sky sports racing: “It was great and we thought he would run well, but we were dealing with two tough Guineas winners, especially one who lives far from home and the other who lives not too far from us.
“It’s a great day. I’d like to thank the Rupert and Magnier families (owners) for sending us this horse. His last two days have been unbelievable.
“Seamie had previously spoken to Christophe about the horse and Christophe asked if it would be okay for him to run as he had no speed. I told him not to fight and not to tire out and he did that perfectly!
“This horse has a great build and is very strong. Christophe and Seamie both said six furlongs would be no problem and he was getting faster. For a horse we thought he was going a mile, maybe even a little faster.
“We trained his grandmother (Scream Blue Murder) and she was a sprinter and a lot of his family were sprinters so maybe he’ll get back into typing.
“We’ll see how he gets out of this and get home and we’ll make a plan.
“He’s been to Canada off and on since he was two, right before Ascot, and we throw a lot at him, but he keeps coming back.”
This win continues the good run of Stack who dispatched exciting youngster Nola Soul to win at Royal Ascot.
“If you had told me a month ago we would have had two Royal Ascot winners and then a Group One winner at Deauville, I would have said ‘Stop it’,” Stack said. “It’s amazing.”
