HELISSIO, ridden by Dominique Boeuf, smashed the track record for one mile and three furlongs at Longchamp yesterday when winning the Group Two Prix Noailles on only his second start.
The Prix Lupin and then the Prix du Jockey-Club are the Ellie Lellouche-trained colt's major objectives after he had demolished his rivals for a runaway four-length success.
In the Prix d'Harcourt, the other Group Two race on Longchamp's first Sunday meeting of the year, the Aga Khan's Valanour made a sizzling return to action when giving his trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre his first success of the season when beating Carling by one and a half lengths.
Gunboat Diplomacy was made the even-money favourite to complete a big-race double for Lellouche but was always struggling on the fast ground and weakened to finish last of six.
The English trained Penny Drops (David Harrison) faded out of contention in the closing stages when fourth to Slicious in the listed Premio d'Aprile at San Siro.
David Bridgwater has pledged to continue the battle for the jump jockeys' championship in Britain after finally clinching his 100th winner of the season. The 25-year-old is currently 37 winners behind Tony McCoy in the riders' table.
But he said: "I will keep going and have a go at the title. I'll ride every horse that comes my way and if there are the 35 or 40 winners among them that I need, I will ride them. But I have got to catch Mr McCoy and I think he is too far in front."
Bridgwater completed his first seasonal century on Balasani at Newton Abbot on Saturday, having been stuck on 99 winners since March 27th. "It has been a week but it was worth the wait," he said. "It was quite a day as it was my father's 63rd birthday too but I didn't do much celebrating as I'm not a great drinker."
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