Rayif runs riot in French 2000 Guineas

Rayif gained revenge on Puerto Rico as he took the shortest route to land the Emirates Poule d’Essai Des Poulains at ParisLonghchamp, continuing an already fine season for trainer Francis-Henri Graffard.

In the colours of the Aga Khan Studs, Rayif was beaten into third by Aidan O’Brien’s Group One hat-trick seeker Puerto Rico in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in October, but it was a different story in the French 2000 Guineas on a gloomy afternoon in the Bois de Boulogne.

Karl Burke’s Hankelow set the pace stalked by Puerto Rico as Mickael Barzalona hugged the rail on the 4-1 winner and bided his time before pushing the button to accelerate and sending him on, cosily holding the fast-finishing Komorebi, with Hankelow a brave third just ahead of Puerto Rico and Ryan Moore.

Princess Zahra Aga Khan told Sky Sports Racing: “I wasn’t sure he would stay the distance, but he did very, very well. His older sister (Rayevka, won earlier on the card) is a sprinter and he can get a good mile.

“It’s only been raining for a few hours so I assume it’s slippy, not heavy. I don’t think he’s been tried on heavy going and we’ll see, but he certainly has the speed to get through the ground.

“Francis has an amazing training method. It’s amazing to watch around our training yard and Mickael has the most amazing timing. It’s lovely to see.”

Representing Godolphin, Louise Benard said of Komorebi: “We believe he can be stepped up in trip. The question is, how far? We’ll take our time to analyse things and make a decision, but in any case William Buick was not negative about trying him over a longer distance from a jockey’s perspective. The Prix du Jockey Club has not been ruled out at this stage.”

Burke was proud of Hankelow’s effort, saying: “At the 400-metre mark, I thought we might actually win it. But he’ll stay further and he simply lacked the winner’s turn of foot. He came back again strongly at the finish. I think with another 10 strides he might even have regained second place. But he’s a very good horse.

“We always believed he needed this type of ground and it was the first time he had raced on it. Longchamp suits my horses very well. We’ve had a lot of success here. I think he’ll come back for the Prix du Jockey Club. But first we’ll take him home before making a decision. The French Derby will certainly be high on the list.

“Maybe the winner is an exceptional horse. Francis can do no wrong at the moment, can he?”

O’Brien said of Puerto Rico: “He ran very well. He was a bit rusty.

“We kind of prepared him to run at Newmarket and then we skipped it and maybe he was kind of ready to peak last week and maybe in the week he just went down a little bit.

“That could be the reason, but we were very happy to run and for a first time back it was a very respectable run and you’d be very happy and looking forward to him running next time.

“The penny just really didn’t drop until the race was over.”