Racing: Pasquier's partnership with Manduro to end

One of the season's most successful partnerships is more than likely to be broken up come the most important test. Manduro has never been beaten in his five races with Stéphane Pasquier on board – four of them this season, the last three at Group One level.

But the delighted, grateful pats applied by the jockey to the sleek black neck as the horse passed the post in Sunday's Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville will probably be the last moment of intimacy at the top level between the pair. For the rider has been on loan only to Manduro's connections, owner Baron Georg von Ullman and trainer André Fabre, and despite his run of success on the talented German-bred five-year-old, he will be in a rival saddle in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Yesterday the Khaled Abdullah camp reminded the world of the Frenchman's loyalties, and to the Longchamp contender Zambezi Sun in particular.

"Pasquier is retained by us, not André Fabre," said the Saudi prince's racing manager, Teddy Grimthorpe, "and if Zambezi Sun runs in the Arc, Pasquier will ride him."

Manduro and Zambezi Sun, trained by Pascal Bary, are vying for second favouritism for the Parisian autumn showpiece behind the Derby winner Authorized, due to run in the International at York today week.

The three-year-old Zambezi Sun, on whom Pasquier won the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp last time out, will return to the Arc course and distance next month for his generation's big-race prep, the Prix Niel. On the same day, Manduro will try 12 furlongs for the first time in the older-horse equivalent, the Prix Foy.

Grimthorpe reported the progressive Zambezi Sun, a home-bred son of Dansili, to be thriving. "He is in very good form," he said, "pleasing Pascal in everything he is doing, and still developing."

Abdullah's Juddmonte operation may be without a representative in the 10-furlong International, which it sponsors, for Passage Of Time is by no means a certain runner in the Group One feature of York's opening day, over a course and distance where she scored in the Musidora Stakes in May.

The Henry Cecil-trained filly, suffering from a throat problem when the unplaced favourite for the Oaks but in sparkling form on the Newmarket gallops recently, may not turn out against her own sex for the Yorkshire Oaks the following day either.

"There is a very good programme for her later," said Grimthorpe. "Races like the Vermeille and the Opera in France, and the Breeders' Cup. As a result, we don't necessarily want to be rushing her back into Group One, and so she is not a certain runner next week."

Before the last of the great summer festivals gets under way on the Knavesmire, there is a classy warm-up at Newbury on Saturday. Three top-level winners, Red Evie, Soldier's Tale and Caradak, are scheduled to meet in the Hungerford Stakes.

For the Michael Bell-trained Red Evie, the winner of the Group One Lockinge Stakes at the Berkshire track in May, the weekend's seven-furlong Group Two contest is a drop in grade and distance as she bids to kick-start her season again after two last places in top company at Royal Ascot in June and Newmarket last month.