Euro/Mideast Road: Puerto Rico wires Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere

Oct 05, 2025 Kellie Reilly/Brisnet.com

The Coolmore partners’ Puerto Rico led all the way in Sunday’s Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (G1) at ParisLongchamp, giving trainer Aidan O’Brien his 10th win in the historic prize for two-year-olds.

Puerto Rico earned 10 points on the Euro/Mideast Road to the Kentucky Derby, but the more immediate benefit is a free ticket to the Oct. 31 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1).

Fresh off a maiden-breaking victory in the Champagne (G2) at Doncaster, where he set the pace, Puerto Rico repeated the same tactics for an even more authoritative score here. The dark bay kicked 2 1/2 lengths clear for jockey Christophe Soumillon. After finishing about seven furlongs in 1:21.53 on very soft going, he paid $9.80 stateside as the second choice.

Nighttime stayed on for second (five points), and favored Rayif rallied late for third (three points). Campacite and Imperial Me Cen dead-heated for fourth, thereby taking 1.5 points apiece. Next came A Bit of Spirit, Cielo Di Roma, Time to Turn, and Vardif.

Puerto Rico and Nighttime are both sons of the 2007 Lagardere champion, Wootton Bassett, who became an outstanding international sire. Also responsible for last year’s winner, the O’Brien-trained Camille Pissarro, Wootton Bassett sadly passed away recently. His one-two result in Sunday’s Lagardere only underscores the magnitude of his loss to the bloodstock world.

“This horse reminds me a lot of him,” O’Brien said, comparing Puerto Rico to his sire. “Camille Pissarro was also a big, powerful, dark horse — just like Wootton Bassett — and this one is the same: big, strong, dark, and very fast.

“Wootton Bassett himself had tremendous speed, and this colt has just as much of it. Christophe (Soumillon) said he’s a very fast horse, a real miler. He added he won’t go beyond that trip, but he has an awful lot of pace.”

Although Puerto Rico has won just twice from seven starts, he’s 2-for-2 since stepping up to this distance. He’d previously placed second in the Railway (G2) at the Curragh and the Richmond (G2) at Glorious Goodwood, followed by a fourth in the Phoenix (G1) back at the Curragh.

Puerto Rico is likely to use his Breeders’ Cup perk and point to the Juvenile Turf at Del Mar.