All seven contenders for the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp have won at a Group level, with four of those victorious in Group 1s and two of those Group 1 winners being touted as really exceptional milers, the 1600m distance of Sunday’s (8 September) highlight at ParisLongchamp.

It will come as a surprise, bordering on a shock, if one of that Newmarket-trained pair – the four-year-old grey Charyn or the imposing three-year-old chestnut Notable Speech – doesn’t grab the winners’ money offered for one of France’s most celebrated autumn prizes.

Charyn is an example of a colt whose three-year-old career gave just a hint of what he could achieve the following season. And he has simply got better and better in 2024, with 1600m G1 demolition of rivals in Royal Ascot’s Queen Anne Stakes and again in last month’s Prix Jacques Le Marois at Deauville. They both came on a straight track on fast and good ground respectively but earlier in the year he had won a G2 at Sandown, going round a right-hand bend like ParisLongchamp, and on slow ground.

Jockey Silvestre de Sousa confirms Charyn’s versatility. Speaking earlier this week, he said: “He’s an easy horse to deal with and can go in any ground you ask him to. It looks like it will be good on Sunday but if it turns softer it won’t matter to him.” Likely to race prominently as usual, De Sousa adds: “He is a very genuine horse who gives you 100% each time and I don’t think we have yet got to the bottom of his ability.”

William Buick offers an equally positive judgement about Notable Speech. Despite an unbeaten history, he was widely ignored as a likely winner of May’s G1 Newmarket Classic – the 2000 Guineas – but, smoothly passing rivals up the famous Rowley Mile, he proved far too strong for subsequent dual G1 winner Rosallion and nine others.

Then came his sole lapse, at Royal Ascot, before bouncing back stylishly with a fluent victory in Goodwood’s Sussex Stakes, his second G1 victory in just six career starts. Buick says: “He was a brilliant Guineas winner capable of a rare change of gears, and he showed that again at Goodwood. His run at Royal Ascot (seventh in the St James’s Palace Stakes) was simply too bad to be true. He’s such a brilliant horse, a horse that really excites you and it’s a real privilege to be riding him.”

Neither Charyn’s trainer Roger Varian nor Charlie Appleby trainer of Notable Speech have won this race before but Andre Fabre is angling for a record eighth Moulin victory. He fields hugely experienced five-year-old Tribalist who – like Notable Speech – runs in the Godolphin colours.

If the surface turns slow Tribalist can’t be ignored, with multiple G3 and G2 victories – all coming on easy ground and over this trip. Then there is Henry Longfellow – whose trainer Aidan O’Brien and jockey Ryan Moore have enjoyed a remarkable winning spell – even by their standards. The son of Dubawi boasts plenty of high class form in his six career starts but O’Brien and Moore will need to work their collective magic if he is to reverse the 3.3 lengths beating he took from Notable Speech when fourth in the Sussex Stakes in late July.