Group Three winner Trais Fluors heads a classy field of 15 runners for the €52,000 Listed Prix Lyphard (1.37pm local time) over an extended nine furlongs at Deauville, France, on Thursday, November 29.
The Polytrack contest is the first of three Fast-Track Qualifiers staged in France during the sixth All-Weather Championships, with the winner guaranteed a free start in the feature £200,000 Betway Easter Classic over 10 furlongs at Lingfield Park on £1-million All-Weather Championships Finals Day, Good Friday, April 19, 2019.
Trais Fluors (Andre Fabre/Pierre-Charles Boudot) has contested three G1 races so far in 2018, with the pick of those efforts coming when third behind Recoletos in the G1 Prix d'Ispahan over nine furlongs at Longchamp in May.
The four-year-old Dansili colt's only All-Weather start saw him finish second in a mile conditions race on Polytrack at Chantilly in March.
Lucky Team (Joel Boisnard/Theo Bachelot) is a specialist on the All-Weather and produced a 40/1 shock on All-Weather Championships Finals Day at Lingfield Park this year when coming with swooping run to win the £150,000 Sun Racing All-Weather Mile Championship.
The six-year-old has had four starts on the All-Weather this autumn since returning from a break, most recently finishing fifth in a conditions race over this distance at Chantilly on October 16.
The Andres Wohler-trained Rolando (Mickael Barzalona), one of four German-trained runners, has a victory and two seconds to his name from three starts on Polytrack at Deauville.
The four-year-old has run on turf at San Siro, Italy, on his last two starts. He finished a close third in the nine-furlong G3 Premio del Piazzale Memorial Enrico Camici on September 23, though he was not at that level on his latest start on October 21 when dropped to a mile for the G2 Premio Vittorio di Capua, finishing eighth.
Wohler said today: "Rolando seems to be in good order.
"He ran over a mile last time, which is short enough for him, and to go with that it did not help that the race was slowly run.
"The Prix Lyphard will be a tough race, but he has shown that he likes the track at Deauville and the 1,900 metres is his perfect distance - that is why we are taking our chance."
The German challenge also includes Kronprinz (Peter Schiergen/Andrasch Starke), a G3 victor at Krefeld, Germany, in April.
There is UK representation courtesy of G3 Jersey Stakes sixth Walk In The Sun (Martyn Meade/Rob Hornby), who is unbeaten in two starts on the All-Weather. The lightly-raced three-year-old Street Sense colt has not raced since being pulled up in a Listed contest at Newmarket in July.
Czech Republic-based trainer Vaclav Luka saddles Maisons-Laffitte Listed scorer Wireless (Bauyrzhan Murzabayev). He finished third in the G3 Prix Bertrand du Breuil on turf at Chantilly in June. The seven-year-old is unbeaten in three All-Weather outings.
Other contenders include lightly-raced four-year-old Normandy Eagle (Freddy Head/Aurelien Lemaitre) three-time All-Weather scorer Replenish (Stephan Cerulis/Vincent Cheminaud), who finished third behind Astral Merit in the 2017 Prix Lyphard, and Lady Sidney (Romain Le Dren Doleuze/Stephane Pasquier) who is a three-time course and distance winner in handicaps.
