Caballo De Mar brought an end to Scandinavia’s eight-race winning run when repeating his win in the Qatar Prix du Cadran from 12 months ago in a thrilling finish at ParisLongchamp. George Scott's stayer was delivered by Oisin Murphy at the furlong marker to grab the lead from Scandinavia and the fading pacesetter Queenstown. As the pair locked horns through the final furlong, Scandinavia regained the lead only for Caballo De Mar to fight back in the shadow of the post to get up by a neck.
Connections had to sweat through a stewards' inquiry after an objection by Ryan Moore, whose mount Scandinavia, the 1-6 favourite, appeared to receive a bump from the 9-2 winner close to the finish. Scandinavia's sequence had included five Group Ones, but Scott's charge is a formidable opponent at his best, particularly in Paris where he is now three from three in Group Ones. Scott said: "What an amazing performance from the horse and the team at home.
Never miss a story with all the latest racing news, interviews and features on your phone. Find out more "I was very emotional afterwards - he's just such a special horse to us and to come and win the Cadran again is great. "He's an amazing horse and just a real character.
He takes a lot of managing at home, he's very lazy and it's hard to get a grip on him." The Newmarket handler felt beforehand he had a chance of beating the red-hot favourite, adding: "We wanted to track Scandinavia and it all went to plan. We managed to get well up on him and then he fought back. See the latest horse racing news, interviews and features from Sky Sports Racing "I thought if there was an opportunity to beat him it was today because my horse loves it here, he was showing all the right signs and Scandinavia had a very hard race in Ireland last time.
We felt we could beat him today, but you're not going to say something like that. "We'll see how he comes out of it, but he could go to Ascot on Champions Day." Aidan O'Brien said of Scandinavia: "He ran a great race and it's been a long season for him. "The ground was a little bit on the slower side for him.
Ryan said he was coming back at him. "That will be him finished for the season. I was never going to go to Ascot as the ground would definitely be gone for him by then."
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