CHANTILLY, France, 9 June 2003 — Nebraska Tornado caused a major surprise here yesterday as she took the French Oaks to give trainer Andre Fabre his third classic out of the four run in France this season.
The unbeaten filly had looked most unlikely even to start, having to be hauled in by five stalls attendants.
However, under the calm guidance of jockey Richard Hughes, she stole a march on the more fancied runners in the finishing straight and powered away to give owner his first French Oaks winner since Jolypha, 11 years ago. English raider Time Ahead was second, though like the winner she hadn’t wanted to enter the stalls and had thrown Saturday’s English Derby winning rider Kieren Fallon to the ground.
Of the more fancied horses only French 1000 Guineas winner Musical Chimes, also trained by Fabre, showed and came with a late run under Christophe Soumillon, but could only take third and hand the Belgian jockey his first defeat in a French classic this season. Favorite Fidelite never figured and finished third last while Frankie Dettori’s miserable weekend reached its nadir as he was thrown off during the pre-race parade — for the second time in the afternoon — and then Campsie Fells trailed in last.
Earlier Thierry Jarnet had landed the other two group races on offer, first on Tripat, trained by Chantilly-based Englishman Richard Gibson, in the Group Three Prix du Chemin de Fer du Nord.
A messy race resulted in both the second and third being disqualified, Vangelis running badly out of tune was demoted for interference giving Fallon a comedown from Saturday’s glory.
Special Kaldoun and Bernebeau, the mount of Dettori were promoted to second and third respectively. Jarnet then produced an assured performance on the cult hero of French racing Ange Gabriel in the Group Two Grand Prix de Chantilly, easing home last year’s Hong Kong Vase winner ahead of Martaline.
However, the runner-up could be counted a little unlucky as she was blocked by Christophe Soumillon on Balakheri just as she was about to make her charge and lost ground having to change her route. Soumillon’s mount had started the race as she finished it by irritating the hell out of another rival — breaking from the stalls she unnerved Dettori’s ride Morozov which provoked it to shy away and dump the Italian unceremoniously on the ground — it wasn’t to be the last time.
