Caballo De Mar one of five added to Prix du Cadran mix

Caballo De Mar will step up to the highest level at ParisLongchamp on Saturday after George Scott elected to supplement his German St Leger winner for the Qatar Prix du Cadran.

Owned by Victorious Forever, the four-year-old has rapidly risen through the ranks this term, winning five times in eight starts as well as rattling the crossbar in both the Chester Cup and at Royal Ascot.

After a career-best performance in Dortmund recently, the Eve Lodge handler always intended to test the waters at the highest level of the staying division before the season came to a conclusion.

However, that will now be slightly earlier than expected after connections seized the opportunity to add Caballo De Mar to the Cadran line-up for €21,600.

Scott said: “He’s an improving young horse and we had decided we were always going to supplement him somewhere, either Ascot for the Long Distance Cup on Champions Day or the Prix Royal-Oak.

“So when the Cadran entries came out and it was a small field we felt happy to take our chance.

“He’s a horse who is in very good form with himself and we don’t know if he will stay that extended distance (two and a half miles) but he got the Chester Cup trip really well off a pretty strong pace.

“Admittedly that was in a handicap but we’re hopeful he will stay and in a prestigious race like this he’s well worth his chance.”

It promises to be an exciting day in the French capital for Scott and the owners after their Prix Niel runner-up Bay City Roller was confirmed for the Prix Dollar with Oisin Murphy booked for the ride.

The Cadran – which attracted an all-British-trained cast of just three at Tuesday’s acceptance stage – is now likely to have a field of eight after Caballo De Mar was one of five to add their names into the mix for the Group One event.

Others supplemented to join the original acceptors of David Menuisier’s Sunway and Andrew Balding’s pair of Coltrane and Alsakib are the Brian Ellison-trained Tashkhan, Queenstown for Aidan O’Brien, Andre Fabre’s Sacred Spirit and Francis-Henri Graffard’s Coetzee.