Although he won only once in six races in the following year he showed arguably his best form when easily beating a top-class field in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and running second to Troy in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
[5] On his three-year-old debut, Gay Mecene was matched against Super Concorde, the top-rated French two-year-old of 1977, in the Group Three Prix de Guiche over 1950m at Longchamp Racecourse on 19 April.
The win established Gay Mecene as a contender for the French Classic Races but when moved up to Group One class for the Prix Lupin on 14 May he finished fourth behind Acamas, Pyjama Hunt and Turville after having briefly held the lead in the straight.
Gay Mecene led from the start and set a steady pace before accelerating in the straight and winning by three quarters of a length and a neck from Rusticaro and Pyjama Hunt with the 2000 Guineas winner Roland Gardens in fourth.
Ridden by Jean-Claude Desaint (Freddy Head opted to ride Dancing Maid), Gay Mecene was held up at the back of the field and was still only sixteenth of the eighteen runners on the final turn.
He finished a well beaten third of the four runners behind Ile de Bourbon and Frere Basile, but appeared to have a legitimate excuse, as his jockey reported that the colt had never recovered after being struck in the eye by a clod of earth.
Three weeks later, Gay Mecene made a second visit to Britain when he contested the United Kingdom's most prestigious weight-for-age race, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes over one and a half miles at Ascot Racecourse.
In the inaugural International Classification, a collaboration between the official handicappers of France, Ireland and the United Kingdom, Gay Mecene was rated the twelfth-best three-year-old colt in Europe.