Racing: Elusive talent a fine legacy for the spirited Salman

Ahmed Salman may be gone but the way he liked to live his racing continues in the monstrous shape of Elusive City, yesterday's winner of the Prix Morny at Deauville and now a leading aspirant for next year's 2,000 Guineas.

Salman, who died of a heart attack late last month, never treated the turf and the races as a covert operation. He was an extrovert figure, perhaps the most flamboyant of all the owners from the Middle East. When his Oath won the 1999 Derby, the owner almost made Kieren Fallon the first non-rocket propelled man to enter space.

Salman bought horses you could see. Big, stand-out horses, and then insisted they were equipped with a white bridle and, in Elusive City's case, a noseband. You could probably spot them from the moon.

Salman is no longer with us – and an irony this year seems to be how many top prizes are going to the graveyard with the late Lord Weinstock's name also living on through Golan and Islington – but the deeds of his horses continue.

His Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes winner War Emblem was due to take on the older horses for the first time in the Grade One Pacific Classic at Del Mar last night, while further Classic success may be obtained through Elusive City. The big horse is as low as 14-1 with Coral for next spring's 2,000 Guineas, though Ladbrokes still offer 20-1. He will cause plenty of excitement before then.

The American-bred colt apparently conducts himself at home like a lamb, but, on course, he has the attitude of an animal which could eat one. Yesterday he behaved even more badly than before the Richmond Stakes at Goodwood last month, when he was clearly in the mood for romancing judged by his grandma-shocking physical appearance in the parade ring.

After that had come a racecourse gallop at Lingfield and an acclimatisation exercise at Newbury, while Deauville and the gentle rhythms of the Normandy seaside should have been a perfect balm. Someone forgot to tell him.

Elusive City remains a cantankerous beast. When he retires it will not be to pony club or a riding school. Indeed, there were times yesterday when the Group One contest was in danger of being run without his influence altogether.

By the time he got to the stalls, the juvenile's dander was well and truly up. The gear he favoured employing was reverse as he backed into a rail and sent a hedge shivering. The application of a hood eventually made him more malleable.

Yet it still seemed likely that this recalcitrance would have taken much away from the second favourite. The stalls, however, seemed to act as a conversion unit, and when Elusive City emerged he was immediately a settled creature at the back of the field.

Ela Merici led for the home side in the Wildenstein colours, just ahead of Mick Channon's Zafeen, while the unbeaten filly in the race, Pascal Bary's Loving Kindness, was tucked neatly on the rails.

You could tell the last-named was the home favourite from the way the race was run. Dominique Boeuf on Ela Merici all but spread his cloak on the floor to let her through on the rail, but Loving Kindness, whose dame, Coup De Folie, won this in 1993, failed to take advantage of the gifts offered to her.

It was Zafeen who supplied the main opposition, plugging on as Kieren Fallon urged Elusive City and his relentless stride in to the lead. The presence of the runner-up may raise a slight query about the value of the form as he has operated in no grander amphitheatre than Salisbury, but Elusive City remains that compelling commodity, an exciting and unbeaten colt.

Britain or Ireland have won the Prix Morny for the past four years, and Johannesburg's victory last year is perhaps the hardest of acts to follow. We will know more after the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket on 3 October, but not whether Elusive City has the capacity to last out the Guineas mile. Certainly, his trainer, Gerard Butler, has doubts on the evidence of both temperament and pedigree.

Less difficult to predict is that Tony McCoy will add yet another record to his catalogue and become the most successful jumps jockey of all time. It may even come today.

The champion jockey has two odds-on shots among his six rides at Newton Abbot as he remains three off equalling Richard Dunwoody's record of 1,699 career winners.