Graffard: "I made a mistake by running Calandagan at Epsom"

Francis-Henri Graffard was left regretting the decision to allow Calandagan to line up in the Coolmore Coronation Cup after the world’s highest-rated horse on turf from last year toiled in the testing conditions at Epsom.

The globetrotting five-year-old was unbeaten in five Group One starts since being narrowly denied by the reopposing Jan Brueghel in this race 12 months ago, a run that included successive wins at Ascot in the King George and the Champion Stakes before he became the first overseas runner in 20 years to lift the Japan Cup.

Having picked up where he left off on his return from a winter break with victory in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan in late March, Calandagan was the easy-to-back 5-4 favourite to avenge that Epsom reverse, but concerns about the rain-softened ground proved well found as he never threatened to land a telling blow and trailed home a well-beaten fourth behind the runaway winner Bay City Roller.

Graffard said: “Obviously I made a mistake by running him. He hated the ground, he never travelled and he was having a very hard blow afterwards – I’ve never seen him blowing so much.

“It’s frustrating to have asked him for this effort today, but to be fair I walked the course at the end of the morning and I think it has changed a lot since the beginning of the afternoon.

“It was a messy race with horses all over the straight. I don’t like that and I’m upset for my horse, but hopefully he comes out of it well, we’ll regroup and be competitive next time.”

Graffard hopes to see Calandagan return to British soil for the King George in late July, adding: “I think he will go for the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and back for the King George.

“Mickael (Barzalona) looked after him in the straight, but mentally Calandagan will be upset about it himself – he was ready to compete, but the ground was just too testing.”

Jan Brueghel this time had to make do with the runner-up spot, with his dual Derby-winning stablemate Lambourn third.

“The winner won a Group One in Germany by seven lengths on soft ground. Obviously it’s tough going out there now, but we were very happy with our two horses,” said trainer Aidan O’Brien.

“Both of them get a mile and a half well, as we saw. But when conditions turn like that you kind of have to be a bit of a specialist.”