Thesecretadversary adds Prix Jean Prat to Ascot gains

Royal Ascot hero Thesecretadversary scooped top honours in Deauville with a brilliant front-running success in the Prix Jean Prat.

Fozzy Stack’s Jersey Stakes scorer had previously fallen short when tackling Group One events, hitting trouble in running at Woodbine last year and also not showing his true colours in both the Newmarket and Curragh editions of the 2000 Guineas.

However, with his tail-up and confidence high following victory over seven furlongs at the Royal meeting, he excelled once again at that distance under Christophe Soumillon who was deputising for usual pilot, the suspended Seamie Heffernan.

Thesecretadversary was still full of running at the line as Aidan O’Brien’s running-on True Love finished strongly to make it an Irish-trained one-two. Christopher Head’s Nighttime was best of the home team in third.

Stack told Sky Sports Racing: “That was great and we thought he would run well but we were taking on two Guineas winners which is tough, especially one away from home and another who doesn’t live too far from us.

“It’s a great day and I would like to thank the Rupert and Magnier families (owners) for sending us this horse and his last two days have been unbelievable.

“Seamie spoke to Christophe earlier and told him about the horse and Christophe asked if I would mind if he made the running as there was no pace. I said don’t fight with him and just don’t get beat and he carried that out to perfection!

“This horse has a great constitution and he’s very tough. Both Christophe and Seamie have said they see six furlongs as no problem and he’s getting quicker. For a horse we thought would get a mile and maybe a little bit with it, he’s getting quicker.

“We trained his grandmother (Scream Blue Murder) and she was a sprinter and a lot of the family have been sprinters so maybe he’s returning to type.

“We’ll see how he comes out of this and get home and we’ll make a plan.

“He’s been on the go since just before Ascot as a two-year-old and has been to Canada and we’ve thrown a lot of things at him but he keeps coming back.”

The victory continues a fine run for Stack who also sent out exciting juvenile Nola Soul to win at Royal Ascot and Stack added: “If you said to me a month ago I would have had two Royal Ascot winners and then a Group One at Deauville I would have said ‘stop it’, it’s amazing.”