Cotai Glory's Atomic Force once again looked a youngster out of the top drawer on Sunday when running away with the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin at Chantilly.
The Kevin Ryan-trained two-year-old had been a brilliant winner of the Group 3 Prix du Bois last time out, bounding clear for a five-length win. And despite the step up in grade, he was similarly dominant on this occasion; fast out of the stalls under Stephane Pasquier, Atomic Force dictated matters with his ears pricked from the outset and wasn't hard pressed to score by two-and-a-half lengths over Baghed.
The Galileo Gold filly, Hellomydarlin, made good headway from the back to finish an excellent third.
"He is really the type of horse that is very easy to train," Kevin Ryan told JDG. "He has a high cruising speed and can accelerate very fast. It puts the horses in difficulty quite early in the race. Today, that’s what he did again. I am delighted with his performance. He's going to come home and obviously, since he's a gelding, that limits his schedule. I will discuss it with its owners later in the week. We will let them enjoy the present moment and then we will see its programme."
Now the winner of three of four starts, Atomic Force was by David Barry in Ireland and is the best of several winners out of Atlas Silk, a winning Dansili daughter of Listed scorer Marani from a fine Juddmonte family.
He was a £22,000 yearling purchase by Kevin Ryan and Stephen Hillen from Railstown Stud at last year's Goffs Sportsman's Sale.
Atomic Force's win caps a big week for Cotai Glory, who was also represented on Saturday by a pair of new two-year-old winners in Tropez Power (at Newbury) and Hollow Steel (at Ripon). Friday's action also featured a win by Pockett Rockett at Hamilton Park while there was a pair of two-year-old winners on Wednesday in Pearl Glory (on debut at Lingfield Park) and Ask My Glory (at Naples).
With 21 winners (45.6% winners to runners) to his credit and the earners of nearly £300,000, Cotai Glory leads all European first-crop sires by number of winners, prize-money and percentage of winners to runners. In addition to Atomic Force, his first runners include the Coventry Stakes runner-up Eldrickjones and Windsor Castle Stakes runner-up Dig Two.
Hellomydarlin, meanwhile, becomes the fourth first-crop stakes performer for Galileo Gold, who was represented earlier in the afternoon by Redcar scorer Uncs.
Successful on debut at Goodwood for George Boughey, Hellomydarlin was bred by Tally-Ho Stud out of Speed Freak, a Fastnet Rock relation to Bungle Inthejungle.
Galileo Gold's first crop also includes the Listed winners Ebro River and System.