On the same day that Prince Cheri (FR) won his last race, the Group III Kingston Town Stakes at Rosehill, Fiorente (IRE) opened his Australian account in the Group II Dato'tan Chin Nam Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley.
In the meantime, Fiorente (IRE) added a Group 1 Melbourne Cup and Group 1 Australian Cup and his first crop has hit the racetrack while the 9yo entire Prince Cheri (FR) continues to ply his trade on the track.
The son of Lando turned back the clock at Randwick on New Year's Day when Corey Brown coaxed him back to the winner's stall in for the first time since September 2013 in the $150,000 Listed Tattersalls Cup (2400m)
To be fair to Prince Cheri (FR) he has been sparingly raced.
In fact, he has had 56 fewer starts than the only other 9yo in the race, last year's winner Destiny Kiss, who ran his usual honest race to finish third on a track a lot firmer than he likes.
Brown came with a perfectly timed run on Prince Cheri (FR) to defeat Vassal (GB) (Dansili) by half a length.
Trainer John O'Shea said Prince Cheri had a short sprint and it was imperative to time his run.
"He has been crying out for that ride where you can hold him up for as long as you can. He's got a great turn of foot over 200 metres but you can't be flushing him out too early and there's none better than C Brown to do that.
"He has a wonderful demeanour and is a very happy horse. He is by a German stallion Lando and in Europe, they race them until they are eight or nine so he is bred to race on late in his career."
Brown said the veteran is a gentleman to ride.
"John said he thought they may have got there a bit too soon on him last start where today I just bided my time," he said. He didn't win by a big margin but he really let rip when I let him go."
Prince Cheri (FR) came to Australia as a first-up winner at Clairefontaine before finishing second in a Listed event at the same track.
Under the training of David Vandyke, he won three of his four Australian starts was third in the other.
But he had just three starts in 2014, five in 2015 and zero in 2016.
His overall record stands at 5 wins, 1 second and 4 thirds from 22 starts.
A three-quarter brother to Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden winner Prince Flori and a half-brother to the stakes-placed Prinz Hlodowig (Rajsaman), Prince Cheri (FR) is out of the winning Mondrian mare Princess Cheri.
He is a son of German Derby and Japan Cup winner Lando who recently in 2013 at the age of 23.
