No Leopardstown appearance for Sealiway

Champion Stakes winner to stay at home for now.

Francis-Henri Graffard’s Sealiway will miss the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown and begin his late-season campaign in the La Coupe de Maisons-Laffitte at ParisLongchamp on Sunday.

The four-year-old has been seen four times this year, most notably finishing second to Skalleti in the Prix d’Harcourt and third in the Prix Ganay before coming home fifth in the Prix d’Ispahan on his latest outing in May.

Prior to that he had won the Champion Stakes at Ascot when trained by Cedric Rossi, and the same contest is on the agenda once again for the colt and so too is the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe – a race in which he finished fifth last term.

“He’s not going to Ireland, he’s running on Sunday in a Group Three over 10 furlongs,” said Graffard.

“He is in very good from and it will be a good starting point for an autumn campaign of the Arc and Ascot.”

Another regular at Ascot’s end-of-season finale is Graffard’s seven-year-old gelding The Revenant, the winner of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes in 2020 having finished second the year before.

Last season he was fourth behind Baaeed in the same contest and is pencilled in to return to the Berkshire meeting once again come October.

A run in the Prix du Moulin on Sunday will come first, after which Graffard may target the Prix Daniel Wildenstein at the same track – victory in which would be a third for the chestnut.

“He’s very well, he’s going to run in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp at the weekend,” the trainer said.

“We’ll hope for a bit of rain in the next few weeks, the horse is well and he has an entry in the Prix Daniel Wildenstein so we will see – then he will come to Ascot, definitely.”

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