Andre Fabre was left scratching his head after all three of his horses failed to perform well at last week's Craven meeting in Newmarket.
Fabre saddled the 2-1 favourite for the Craven itself in Alcantor, a close second in Group One company the previous year, Narkez in the Feilden Stakes, Suvania in a seven-furlong handicap.
All three, though, were unable to trouble the judge, and since Fabre is playing much better at home in France, he is left to wonder whether fast ground was the problem.
“Nothing has really shown up. I was really disappointed with all three of mine at Newmarket,” he said. “Alcantor is fine, there’s nothing wrong with him and I don’t know if it was just the ground, the jockeys were saying it was fast and my horses never found their action. The ground seemed to dry up very quickly and everybody was a bit surprised. Alcantor was never going to run in the English Guineas, that was never the plan, he will go for the Poulains (Poule d’Essai des Poulains, French 2000 Guineas).”