Francis-Henri Graffard offered up no excuses for last year’s King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes hero Calandagan, admitting his champion gave everything in his repeat bid but lost out to a superior opponent on the day as Kalpana gained her revenge.
Calandagan, sent off the 6-5 favourite, came from the back of the field in the home straight and battled on well to go down by a length and a half 12 months on from inflicting defeat on Andrew Balding’s mare.
Since then Calandagan had cemented his position as the best turf horse in the world with a victory back at Ascot in the Champion Stakes and most memorably of all in the Japan Cup, but he had his colours lowered on this occasion.
“We had less time between Saint-Cloud and today which doesn’t help, especially with the heat we had in France,” said Graffard.
“But, he has been beaten by a good filly who looked fantastic in the paddock before. As a horse I have nothing to blame him for. He tried and he was a good second.
“You just feel sorry for him to be beaten because he doesn’t like that. He gave away a lot of weight today and he always finds himself quite far back. He doesn’t look like a flat horse. She just quickened strongly and he kept trying. That is racing.
“To go back to the Japan Cup would be the dream for him at the back end. I have to be careful with the ground in the autumn and York is a possibility as well, but he’s had a hard race today so I will have to see how he comes back before deciding.”
Calandagan, ridden by Mickael Barzalona, stayed on well to finish second with Irish Derby winner Benvenuto Cellini under Ryan Moore another half length back in third and Lambourn with William Buick in fourth.
Aidan O’Brien trained both the third and fourth and insisted he was delighted with the pair’s showing.
“I’m very happy. He (Benvenuto Cellini) ran a great race and his first one against the older horses,” said O’Brien.
“We learned a lot about him. We learned that he gets a mile and a half well which obviously we couldn’t be sure until he did it against the older horses.
“Even going to the line he didn’t look finished. He could go to the Breeders’ Cup. Lambourn has run well as well and he’s a dual Derby winner and is a good solid horse.”
