FRENCH RACING/Chantilly report: Sulamani maintained the family name as he took the scalp of Act One in the Prix du Jockey-Club, the French Derby, at Chantilly yesterday.

A son of Hernando, who won this race in 1993, and a half-brother to 1998 scorer Dream Well, Sulamani was giving trainer Pascal Bary his fourth win in the race in the last eight years.

When Act One, the odds-on favourite on the pari-mutuel, swept to the front one and a half furlongs out, it looked certain that his unbeaten record would be extended to six races.

But Sulamani - racing widest of all in the famous silks of the Niarchos family - and Thierry Thulliez, rushed down the outside to win going away by a length and a half.

British raider Simeon, who took up the lead around the home turn stayed on at one pace once headed, and held on for third place, five lengths behind the first two.

The race remains one of the few that trainer Aidan O'Brien does not have on his curriculum vitae. His squad finished in the ruck with Black Sam Bellamy doing best in fifth with Castle Gandolfo (sixth) and Diaghilev (seventh) following him home.

Dream Well went on from this race to take the Irish equivalent the following month but Sulamani, who was having his third race in six weeks, may not follow suit.

"This horse is not as mature as Dream Well and he has been very busy recently," said Bary.

Rouvres took the honours in a dramatic Prix Jean Prat. The colt was settled in mid-division early on by Olivier Doleuze but looked in trouble as the field accelerated out of the home turn. However Rouvres stuck on well for the win in the Group One prize, beating the dead-heating pair, Shaanmer and Imitiyaz, by a short-neck.

Aidan O'Brien's Creekview was outpaced with two furlongs to run but stayed on again to good effect to finish a close-up fifth.