Lazy Griff given Group One aim

Lazy Griff has a French return at Group One level on his agenda after a smart victory at Chantilly on Saturday.

The two-year-old, who is trained by Charlie Johnston and owned by Middleham Park Racing, has been building a decent record but his only previous victory came in a minor event at Beverley.

Third in a Deauville Listed race in August, he crossed over to France once more for the Group Three Prix de Conde under Christophe Soumillon.

The bay made all the running in a field of seven and was not for catching, holding off the fast-finishing runner-up to score by a neck when always doing enough to seal the victory.

“We’d had that race in mind for him since he ran well in the Listed race in Deauville,” said Middleham Park’s Mike Prince.

“We knew there’d be improvement for stepping up to nine furlongs.

“He’s very stoutly bred and he’s actually turned out to be more precocious than we thought he was going to be initially, we thought he’d be a nice type for the back end of the season but he started showing up nicely earlier in the year.

“We cracked on with him and it’s all come to fruition nicely.

“He had got slightly outpaced over a mile, he was a bit vulnerable to those with a bit more pace.”

He went on: “We wanted Christophe to make it a test of stamina which is why he kicked on earlier than he might have done to stretch them out a little bit.

“It was cosy at the end, the second horse was closing but Super Soumi had them cooked, it was nice and comfortable.”

The Criterium de Saint-Cloud is now the target, a Group One event run over 10 furlongs in late October that the Johnston stable won in 2022 with Dubai Mile.

Prince added: “The plan is to go to the Group One Criterium de Saint-Cloud on October 27. He’s been to France twice now and he’s run well both times, he’s quite experienced with the travel so we’ve got no qualms about that.

“The ground might be a bit heavier at that time of year but he is German-bred and it was good to soft when he debuted at Doncaster, so we wouldn’t necessarily worry about running on soft ground.

“He’s a three-year-old type so hopefully there’s more to come next year as well.”