It’s the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Sunday and for those of a certain vintage it’s deja vu all over again as this season’s headline act, City Of Troy, skips Europe’s greatest all-aged race to wait for next month’s Breeders Cup Classic.
Back in 2001, another Aidan O’Brien trained Derby winner did the same thing. Plenty of us at the time felt it a portentous step by the all-powerful Coolmore operation to keep Galileo for the Classic. Maybe such a snub might be the start of a slide in the Arc’s prestige.
Decades of presumption about the Derby establishing champions and the Arc confirming them looked shaky as the mile and a half class required to win both pillars upon which European racing’s ultimate pecking order was established became increasingly unfashionable in stallion terms.
But Coolmore’s gamble failed as Galileo flopped on dirt in a race where that year’s Arc hero, Sakhee, came within an ace of completing a magnificent double. Winning the Arc didn’t do Sakhee any harm, and missing out on the Arc didn’t stop Galileo breeding a dynasty.
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Best of all, the Arc’s appeal has endured to the extent that whatever City Of Troy’s US fate, its stature is surely secure. Paris was the centre of the summer’s sporting world. Racing’s good fortune is how the first Sunday in October is an annual feast of excellence at Longchamp.
It doesn’t mean the best always win out. That position towards the end of a long season, and open to autumnal weather vagaries, means more champions have found the Arc a step too far rather than those who enjoyed a crowning glory.
If Sea The Stars made it look easy, Nijinsky was found wanting. Proper Derby superstars such as Troy, Generous and Reference Point failed whereas Dancing Brave bounced back from Epsom defeat to win perhaps the deepest Arc of all in 1986.
All of it is a cocktail that means France’s greatest race continues to grip the popular imagination like no other.
Coolmore’s commercial calculations mean they’re prepared to pass it up this time. But there is a heady mix of majesty, tradition and just plain “je ne sais quoi” about this 2½ minutes on the Bois de Boulogne that underlines how class really can be permanent.
None of which means this looks set to be a vintage Arc. City Of Troy is the year’s major talking horse but even if he’d lined up, his official rating isn’t exceptional yet. Golden Horn had reached 130 by the time he won the 2015 Arc. Sea The Stars was at another level again in 2009.
City Of Troy isn’t the only absentee. Breeding being the other side of the racing coin means geldings are banned from running. It rules out the King George winner Goliath and Calandagan in what is increasingly acknowledged to be a self-defeating anachronism. England’s top colt, Economics, waits for the Champion Stakes at Ascot.
But just because it mightn’t stamp a great champion this time doesn’t mean there can’t be a landmark result.
Perhaps the most significant of all would be if Shin Emperor realises Japanese racing’s greatest international ambition by succeeding in the Arc. They have been trying since 1969, and finished runner-up three times, so victory for Shin Emperor would be a watershed by any measure.
From an Irish perspective, Aidan O’Brien is chasing a third success while his son Joseph has Al Riffa. It is the paucity of the English challenge though that underlines what might be the single most substantive racing theme of 2024, the rejuvenation of French racing fortunes.
It is only seven years since one of France’s top trainers, Jean-Claude Rouget, suggested some races should be closed to foreign runners given how easily horses from Ireland and Britain were plundering the top prizes there.
That year more than half of France’s Group One races went for export. Not one of the six on Arc-day was kept at home. There was a corresponding lack of French trained runners competing abroad, a glaring absence given their traditional high success rate around the globe.
This year has seen that pattern reversed with a vengeance. Of the 16 Group One’s in France this year, a dozen of them have been won by locally trained horses. They include all four classics, including the Derby with Sunday’s prime contender Look De Vega.
A five-year Royal Ascot drought ended during the summer and just what the Arc is missing out on through the gelding ban was starkly shown by Goliath’s outstanding King George victory. Now the point can be underlined by home success on the day that matters most to them.
Despite Goliath’s absence, Look De Vega and Sosie top betting lists. with the latter’s trainer, Andre Fabre, French racing’s “grand maître”, aiming for a remarkable ninth Arc success. Although when the gates open it’s always everyone for themselves, the French revival can only be an overall positive for racing. And where better to seal the point than Paris in the autumn.
Something for the Weekend
After such a build-up, it would be rude not to try to solve a notably open Arc puzzle. Time was when an improving three-year-old French filly was a first option. It isn’t so much the case any more but any 20/1 about AVENTURE (3.20) could be value. A strong pace will suit the daughter of Sea The Stars who raced too keenly when runner-up in the Vermeille behind Bluestocking.
Closer to home, the unexposed FIREBIRD (2.15) got mugged by a 50/1 outsider on her last start in the Ballyogan at Naas and has a good shot at compensation in the Curragh’s Pastures Stakes tomorrow.
