SAGACITY stormed up the rails to beat Gerard Butler's Reduit by a length in yesterday's Criterium de Saint-Cloud.
Sligo Bay (Michael Kinane) did best of the Aidan O'Brien-trained pair, finishing three lengths back in third, with stable-companion Leopard Spot in fifth. Reduit looked likely to become a British-trained winner of France's final Group One race of the season but was unable to hold Olivier Peslier's mount on the soft ground.
Butler said of Reduit: "Frankie (Dettori) thought that he went a bit too soon. You have to get the distance in a Group One race and he did not quite last home.
"He could come back to France for the Prix du Jockey Club next June, and he might go for a race in Dubai earlier on."