Lazzat made it five wins from as many starts after he shrugged off a penalty and turned away the challenge of Havana Cigar to win the Group 3 Prix Paul de Moussac over seven furlongs.
In doing so he gave trainer Jerome Reynier a timely confidence-boost ahead of Royal Ascot, where he will be represented by Facteur Cheval, Darlinghurst and Zarakem.
For owner-breeder Nurlan Bizakov, the dream of heading to Sydney for the A$10,000,000 (£5.2m/€6.1m) Golden Eagle on November 2 is firmly alive with the three-year-old son of Territories.
"I think that will have done him a lot of good because he's only just learning to battle," said Reynier. "He was able to follow his pacemaker, whereas previously he's had to make his own running and he wouldn't have learned as much by doing that again today.
"We've all sorts of plans and options. If our long-term objective is to go to Sydney for the Golden Eagle, I need to try to avoid him getting involved in any really tough fights."
Paddy Power cut Lazzat to 10-1 (from 14) for the Qatar Sussex Stakes, though he could take in another Goodwood prize 24 hours earlier to leave the way open for last year's runner-up Facteur Cheval to be the stable's representative in that race.
"I think maybe the Lennox Stakes might be the right fit, as opposed to taking on hardened older sprinters in the Prix Maurice de Gheest," said Reynier. "However, he has the French premiums, so that race has its attractions.
"If we want to go to Australia, we have to use the next race in the best way possible as his prep for that, because after that he'll have two weeks of quarantine in Newmarket and the same at the other end of the flight.
"It's quite an epic undertaking but it's 1,500 metres [seven and a half furlongs] going right handed and he'd be taking on southern hemisphere four-year-olds with a pull at the weights, so why not give it a try?"
Racing Post 2024/06/09
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