Maisons-Laffitte today

This is the last big raceday in Paris, before the French circus moves to Deauville for the big summer meeting o the Normany coast, and Maisons-Laffitte celebrates the occasion by staging two group races, bvoth with good fields. The Prix Robert Papin for 2yo´s over 1100 metres at 15.45 sees the return of the Paul Cole-trained speedball Percolator (Chistophe Soumillon), winner of all his 4 starts, 3 of them in France. He established a new course record when winning here last time, but is likely to start at very short odds, and Robert Collet´s Enchanting Muse (Christophe Lemaire), impressive winner of his only start before, could be a better bet at the likely prices. The Prix Eugene Adam for 3yo´s over 2000 metres at 16.50 could see the coupled runners in the Khalid Abdullah colours playing a leading role. Henry Cecil, who has won this race twice in ther last 10 years, has good prospects with Twice Over (Ted Durcan), for whom the ditance is probably ideal, while André Fabre, who has won the race 13 times, relies on Ideal World (Stephane Pasquier). Royal Ascot winner Collection (William Haggas/ Kerrin McEvoy) steps in class with a decent chance, but Mario Hofer´s Lancetto (Olivier Peslier) is only an outsider; he would have a chance on his second place to Kamsin at Frankfurt in April, but ran very disappintingly last time, Hofer also saddles the tough Kaliyan (Johan Victoire) in the Grand Handicap de Maisons-Laffitte over 2400 metres at 14.45.