By Duane Fonseca
Good Guess' stunning dismissal of heavy favourite Chaldean in the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat was hardly a surprise for rider Stephane Pasquier.
Pasquier won the 1400m event at Deauville for the first time, but the French rider had full belief in his mount whose only previous attempt at this level had ended in a dismal sixth in the French equivalent of the 2000 Guineas in May.
Since then the Kodiac colt had finished second in Group Two company. Sent out a rank outsider for this, Good Guess, trained by Fabrice Chappet turned up stylishly, taking up the running from leader Sauterne, who raced alone at the far side a furlong out.
He went easy under Pasquier as if the rest did not matter to win by three lengths from P Cottier's Tony Piccone driven Sauterne.
A further three behind in third was Breizh Sky for A&G Botti and Maxime Guyon.
As far as Andrew Balding's Chaldean went, he was a cumulative 10 lengths back in second under Oisin Murphy.
“It wasn’t really a surprise,” Pasquier said.
“This horse is still immature physically. When he won here in the Prix Djebel he was fantastic and then he still needed to mature and grow up.
“Today the pace was fast enough for me, it is a fantastic victory against fantastic horses.
“I always wanted to know ride him close to the pace, but he was slow from the gates. Today was a race where we go straight so I had plenty of time to choose my place and that helped me a lot.”
