The white and red colours of the Dane Peter Holm-Lassen were first past the post on Wednesday afternoon at Le Croisé-Laroche near Lille, where the five-year-old Tic Tac won a handicap over 2500 metres. Scandinavian readers remember the gelding from another time — two years ago he ran in the Svenskt Derby Consolation and the Hurricanelöpning at Jägersro.
The race was the Prix Miguel et Christophe Clément, a Class 3 handicap for four-year-olds and upwards. Of 51 entries, 15 went to post on soft ground, and Tic Tac carried 56 kilos in the hands of Hugo Journiac. There was a neck back to the German-trained Keep Away (Dabirsim) in second and another neck to Spring Eve (Born To Sea). The first prize was 9,600 euros — 13,920 euros with the owner’s premium.
Tic Tac is by Starspangledbanner out of Étonnez Moi (High Chaparral) — exactly the same cross as Ayani, who in 2023 won the Voterlöpning, the Svenskt Derby and the Hurricanelöpning.
He was born in France, but was imported to Sweden in March 2023 and spent his whole Scandinavian career with Lennart J:r Reuterskiöld — eight starts, all on the dirt track at Jägersro. His only win came in the Redovisningslöpning on 8 October 2023, when he scored by a head. As a three-year-old he was third three times, second in the Svenskt Derby Consolation behind Chappel and fourth in the Hurricanelöpning.
In September 2024 Tic Tac moved to France, and the French debut proved decisive in more ways than one. The task was a claiming race over 2400 metres at Saint-Cloud — his first start on turf of any kind — and he won by four lengths under Mickael Barzalona.
But in a claiming race the winner is for sale, and that was precisely where Peter Holm-Lassen claimed him.
The Dane did not send him just anywhere. Tic Tac went into training with Henry-Alex Pantall — the same trainer who fifteen years earlier had had Prince Fasliyev for him — and in the new colours he was first second at Compiègne and then, two weeks later, a winner at Angers. Since 2025 he has been with Yann Barberot in Deauville, himself a jockey until 2008.
Since then the handicap mark has told the story. After the two wins he stood on 40.5, and the whole of 2025 went by without a victory while the mark fell and fell. Only at 28.5 in May this year did he hit the bottom — and win at Dieppe. Wednesday’s victory came off 30, with Journiac back in the saddle after three autumn runs out of the money.
Peter Holm-Lassen has had horses in training in France for more than 25 years. In 2001 Idaho Quest was second in the Prix Foy (Gr.2) at Longchamp and the following year fourth in the Prix Ganay (Gr.1), and in 2009 Prince Fasliyev won the Pramms Memorial (L) at Jägersro with SEK 600,000 to the winner.
Later came Dressed In Fur, whom he claimed out of a selling race in just the same way — at Dieppe that time — and who, after seconds in the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte (Gr.2) and the Prix Miesque (Gr.3), was sold for 155,000 guineas at Tattersalls.
Peter Holm-Lassen has also bred horses in France, and the Chantilly stable that Pia Brandt owns today she bought in its day from the Dane.
