Dubai: Team Godolphin’s Manatee takes on the mighty Treve as he bids for a career-first Group 1 victory in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud in France on Sunday.
Trained by the legendary Andre Fabre, Manatee has won three of his last four starts including the Group 2 Grand Prix de Chantilly at Chantilly, the home of the French Derby, on May 31.
Run over a distance of 2,400 metres the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud is part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series which gifts the winner an automatic invitation to compete in the same year’s Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1).
Treve, a back-to-back winner of the Prix de la Arc De Triomphe (G1), is looking for an eighth career victory from 11 starts, and second of the season following her comfortable four-length win in the Group 2 Prix Corrida at this track last month.
Trainer Criquette Head-Maarek, who is charged with prepring the five-year-old daughter of Motivator for a third shot at the Arc, said: “I’m not nervous. I never really get nervous.
“For me it is just another race. Her preparation is just the same as any other horse in the yard.
“She is no different to any other horse in the stable, even if she is not exactly the same!”
The trainer also belives that she can improve further on his last win at Saint-Cloud.
“She’s fine, she is in great form and I think she has improved quite a lot since her last race. She has been going very well at home,” Head-Maarek said.
“I think this race is the normal progression for her and she looks good physically.”
Her rivals also include Group 1 winners Dolniya and Flintshire.
Dolniya won the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan earlier this year while Flintshire, who was runner-up in the same race, won the Group 1 Hong Kong Vase last December.
