Thesecretadversary powers to Deauville Prix Jean Prat Group 1 win

Thesecretadversary turned the Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Prix Jean Prat into a breakthrough for Fozzy Stack, dictating from the front and beating a deep international field that included two Guineas winners at Deauville-La Touques. The 3-year-old colt was officially timed in 1:22.17 over 1,400 metres, held True Love by half a length, and saw Nighttime and Rayif follow in the frame as the race delivered the first Group 1 of the summer at the Normandy track.

The win mattered as much for the trainer as for the horse. Stack collected his first European Group 1, adding to the American top-level success he had already recorded with Aspen Grove in 2023, while Christophe Soumillon continued his Deauville run of success after defending the Prix Jean Prat title he won in 2025 aboard Woodshauna. It was also Soumillon's first Group 1 victory of the 2026 season.

Thesecretadversary's route to that moment had already signaled quality. He had won the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot, then met setbacks in both the Newmarket and Curragh editions of the Two Thousand Guineas, but those efforts now look more like interruptions than limitations. Stack had been convinced the colt belonged at the top table, and when no rival was willing to take the pace on, he told Soumillon to go forward and control the race. True Love, the only filly in the field, finished second; Nighttime was third.

The result also widens the colt's late-summer options. Stack said Thesecretadversary holds entries in the City of York Stakes over the same trip and the Haydock Sprint Cup over 6 furlongs, leaving open a path between elite mile and sprint company. That flexibility gives the ownership of Gaynor Rupert's Cayton Park Stud and Sue Magnier more than a single black-type moment, because the horse now carries both racing and breeding appeal into the back half of the season.

The Jean Prat has long been a race that matters beyond one afternoon, and its modern 7-furlong version has become a springboard for stallions such as Too Darn Hot and Pinatubo since the distance change in 2019. For a colt by St Mark's Basilica, already proven in Group 3 company and now successful at Group 1 level against classic-age rivals, Deauville looked less like a lucky steal than the arrival of a genuine top-class miler.