Although 20 runners went to post for the Listed Grand Handicap de Deauville, there was only ever going to be one winner as the son of King's Best, Best Dating, cruised to a two-and-a-half length triumph. A runner-up in the race the previous season, the lightly raced four-year-old never looked in any danger, in the process recording his third triumph and first at Stakes level.
Bred in Ireland by Gerrardstown Stud, he is a son of the Cadeaux Genereux mare Just Special, a Listed winner over seven-furlongs at Leopardstown, who has given birth this year to a Cape Cross half-brother to Best Dating.
King's Best, who stands nearby to Deauville at Haras du Logis, sired two Derby winners last season; Workforce, who ran the fastest-ever Epsom Derby and Eishin Flash, the Japanese Derby hero. The sire of 12 G1-horses in total, his exceptional 2007 crop includes 16 Group or Stakes horses. His first French conceived crop are yearlings this year and he has 12 scheduled to come under the hammer at the Arqana Yearling Sale at Deauville next week.
