Tokaido gave Amy Murphy her first Group winner on the Flat at Deauville on Saturday, landing the Group 3 Prix du Bois and immediately opening up bigger end-of-season targets.
The two-year-old, carrying the colours of Anoj Don and Daniel MacAuliffe, followed his Listed success at Chantilly with another step forward in France, confirming himself as one of the more upwardly mobile juveniles in Murphy’s care.
According to the Racing Post report from Deauville, the Prix Robert Papin is now the likely next stop, while York’s Goffs sales race in August is also under consideration.
Breeders’ Cup Dream Now On The Table
Murphy said Tokaido had not necessarily been seen to best effect despite winning, noting that he is better when ridden from off a strong pace. That makes the Papin a logical next test, particularly if the race develops into the kind of strongly-run juvenile sprint that can draw out his finishing effort.
The wider significance is the trainer’s breakthrough on the Flat at Group level. Murphy is already a major-race winner over jumps through Kalashnikov, but Tokaido ends a sequence of near-misses in Flat Group company and gives her Chantilly-based operation a new standard-bearer.
The race was also overshadowed by Rouhi’s fatal fall, with Pierre-Charles Boudot reportedly suffering a fractured collarbone. Murphy offered commiserations to Rouhi’s connections before turning attention to Tokaido’s campaign, with the Breeders’ Cup now a live long-range ambition.
