RACING:THE INTERNATIONAL flavour of yesterday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe was mainly supposed to come from Aidan O'Brien's ex-Australian star So You Think and a pair of Japanese runners but instead it was the unheralded German filly Danedream who came through to rout Europe's best in record-breaking style.
Supplemented into the race at a cost of €100,000 on Thursday, the rapidly progressive three-year-old scooped a €2 million-plus first prize and became just the second German-trained Arc winner after Star Appeal’s 119 to 1 shock in 1975.
Danedream led home a 1-2-3 for fillies as the 27 to 1 winner proved a massive five lengths too good for the 66 to 1 Shareta who had been put in the race for a pacemaking role for her stable companion Sarafina who could only finish seventh. The English-trained Snow Fairy was third.
Best of the boys in fourth was So You Think, just ahead of his Aidan O’Brien stable-mate St Nicholas Abbey. Seamie Heffernan anchored So You Think at the rear of the field as another Ballydoyle runner, Treasure Beach, beat Shareta to the pacemaking punch in the early stages.
Treasure Beach cut out a stiff tempo on quick going but while So You Think resolutely ploughed his way through tiring horses in the straight, he never looked to hold a winning chance and Danedream had Europe’s most prestigious race in the bag well before the line.
“He had a very wide draw so you had to make an early decision and I wanted to make sure there was something left for the finish. I thought it was a good run,” Heffernan said afterwards, while O’Brien indicated So You Think could attempt to take on America’s best dirt horses next in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
“I thought he ran very well. He was coming home very well and it was the first time he’d run over that trip for us,” Ireland’s champion trainer said. “He’s a big cruiser and I think he would handle the dirt no problem but the boys will have to discuss it before we decide what to do next.”
The Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare race on turf had been a target for Danedream but a pair of Group One victories in her native Germany, plus some impressive home work-outs recently, encouraged trainer Peter Schiergen to aim her at the Arc.
German jockey Andrasch Starke reported: “It was a dream for me just to ride today in this race. In the last two furlongs she just gave me a great feeling and I was just dreaming.”
A comparatively muted reaction from the packed Longchamp stands indicated plenty punters felt they were dreaming too but the clock indicated there could be no quibbling with the winner’s merit as she clocked a record 2.24.49 for the race.
There were four British-trained Group One winners on the most competitive single card run in Europe but the Irish raiding party drew a blank with David Wachman’s Fire Lily doing best when a slightly unlucky runner-up to Elusive Kate in the Prix Marcel Boussac. Fire Lily was carried wide across the track by the winner who nevertheless ran out a convincing winner under young jockey William Buick.
It turned out to be a day to remember for Buick after he also scored aboard Dream Ahead who edged out Goldikova in a titanic finish to the Prix de la Foret. Dream Ahead could now be retired to Ballylinch Stud in Co Kilkenny after securing a third Group 1 pot of the year.
Frankie Dettori had to settle for third in the Arc on Snow Fairy but secured the 500th Group prize of his glittering career when Dabirsim edged out a hugely dramatic Prix Jean Luc Lagadere finish. “It’s unbelievable to ride 500 Group winners, it’s an astonishing number so it’s a big, big moment for me, and I’ve been very lucky to ride some very good horses,” the Italian said. “He will definitely make a Guineas horse. He’s a superstar. When the gap came he was electric. He’s the best two year old I’ve ridden.”
Dettori secured his own Group One double at the end of the Arc card as Nahrain maintained her unbeaten record with a nose defeat of Announce in the Prix de l’Opera. Jim Bolger’s Banimpire was third. Nahrain was a first top-flight winner for rookie Newmarket trainer Roger Varian.
Unlucky Irish raider Sole Power came from a different parish when third to the 20 to 1 outsider Tangerine Trees in the Prix de l’Abbaye.
