RACING: Turtle Bowl survived a stewards' inquiry to keep the Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly yesterday with the Mick Channon-trained Rocamadour running a great race in third place.
Olivier Peslier brought the 9 to 2 winner with a devastating late run down the outside in the Group One contest, but did the Aidan O'Brien-trained Ad Valorem no favours in the process.
Kieren Fallon was forced to snatch up Ad Valorem just as he was getting his run together, with Michael Stoute's Home Affairs also involved in the incident.
Peslier, who had earlier won the Group Three Prix Du Bois on Gwenseb, caught long-time leader Rocamadour and then held the late thrust of Starpix by a length.
Rocamadour, ridden by Ted Durcan, was just edged into third place ahead of Home Affairs, with Ad Valorem fifth.
The race had been moved from its historical position on French Derby day and its distance was cut from nine furlongs to a mile. The big disappointment was France's top two-year-old colt from last year Helios Quercus, who never got going and finished seventh.
Meanwhile, trainer Michael Bell believes the "muddling pace" in Saturday's Coral-Eclipse Stakes could have been responsible for Motivator suffering his first defeat.
The Vodafone Derby winner went to post the 2 to 5 favourite for the Sandown feature following his highly-impressive victory at Epsom. But after hitting the front with over a quarter of a mile to go in the 10-furlong Group One contest, Motivator was collared close home and beaten half a length by the Aidan O'Brien-trained raider Oratorio.
"I think the more one sort of reflects on it, the pace in the race is what got him beaten," Bell said. "Give credit to the winner but I have to say had they gone a faster pace Oratorio would possibly have struggled to lay up even more."
O'Brien, who was winning his third Eclipse, said that the big-race atmosphere suited Oratorio, who had looked decidedly bone-idle in his previous race when third in the St James's Palace Stakes.
"He's the only horse I have ever trained who puts on weight when he comes to the races," said the handler.
"When we put him on the scales tomorrow I guarantee that he will have put on two or three kilos - it's amazing.
"He's a horse who will keep racing and he will keep getting better and better. He's just so laid-back that I think the noise and the parade really geed him up today. He seemed to rise to the occasion.
"I don't know if he didn't stay in the Derby. Mick (Kinane) said he just never felt quite right. We might try a mile and a half again in the future, but we will be going back to a mile for his next race in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood."
Jamie Spencer is as low as 4 to 6 favourite to land a first jockeys' title after an eventful weekend which saw him ride five winners while reigning champion Frankie Dettori bagged only a broken collarbone.
The young Irishman's tally included the first four races at Carlisle's evening meeting on Saturday, a feat which saw his odds trimmed from 5 to 6 by Paddy Power yesterday.
Dettori, who started yesterday as a 7 to 4 chance, has been pushed right out to 12 to 1.
The Italian was hurled to the ground when Celtic Mill clipped heels with Lafi approaching the furlong marker in the Group Three Laurent-Perrier Champagne Sprint Stakes at Sandown.
