Key events
12.31pm Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac betting
Greg Wood
12.31pm Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac preview
A dozen runners for the Arc meeting’s premier event for juvenile fillies, won last year by an Arc contender, Diamond Necklace. It’s a race where the visitors have enjoyed plenty of success in recent years but the home team have also managed to hold their own, with 10 wins for French stables in the last 20 years and the remainder shared between Ireland and Britain. Aidan O’Brien, needless to say, is the most successful raider from across the water, with six wins since 2005, but it is his son, Joseph, who fields the likely favourite in Green Empress, the runner-up behind his dad’s hugely impressive Sun Goddess in the Moyglare Stud Stakes last time.
She sets the standard, but she was also six-and-a-half lengths adrift and rivals like Christophe Ferland’s Allela, who looks the pick of the locals, must be taken seriously. She is stepping straight into Group One company after winning a couple of minor events at Deauville and Chantilly but is still just 1lb behind Green Empress on Timeform’s ratings with two fewer races in the book. Her stable-companion, Data, is another to consider having run third in a Group Two last time. O’Brien snr fields three runners with Ibelieveicanfly (Ryan Moore) looking like the first-string but all three have something to find on ratings, while Miss Miniver, beaten less than a length-and-a-half when fourth in the Rockfel at Newmarket nine days, is an interesting runner in Godolphin blue from the Roger Varian stable.
SELECTION: Allela
Here’s the line up (and what a tasty one it is ) for today’s action at Longhamp
12.31pm Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac SKY
1.09pm Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere SKY/ITV
1.47pm Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp Longines SKY/ITV
2.25pm Qatar Arabian World Cup SKY/ITV
3.05pm Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe SKY/ITV
3.50pm Prix de l’Opera Longines SKY
4.25pm Qatar Prix de la Foret SKY
We’ll be giving you Greg’s previews and the betting about half an hour before each race.
Preamble
Greg Wood
Bienvenue à Longchamp on one of the most eagerly anticipated days of the racing year: the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the most valuable and prestigious race of the European season, is due off at 16.05 local time (1.05pm BST) and in all there are half a dozen Group One events on the card in the Bois de Boulogne on the busiest afternoon of top-level racing in Europe all year.
The Arc needs little introduction: it’s roll of honour speaks for itself. Ribot, Sea-Bird, Mill Reef, Dancing Brave, Peintre Celebre and Sea The Stars all have their names up there in lights, and that’s to name but six.
If you’re going to click on one of those links, I’d recommend Sea-Bird for several reasons. You can’t beat a Peter O’Sullevan commentary for one, and it’s weird to see the field completely disappear from view for several seconds behind the trees in the middle of the track (the coverage cuts to a bemused Frenchman in the stands). But above all it’s for the way he bursts clear at the top of the straight, putting the race to bed with an effortless, ground-eating stride that looks as though he’s running on his own personal conveyor belt.
The Classics sort out the best horses of every generation, but the Arc sifts the all-time greats from the best of several generations could see Daryz join the very small band of colts that have won the Arc in successive years. Last year’s winner has drawn well in stall five, but now gives weight to a strong cohort of three-year-olds including Thundering On, the Oaks winner; Maltese Cross, the Grand Prix de Paris winner; and his stable-companion, Varandir,who took one of the key Arc trials, the Prix Niel, last month.
Among the older horses, Kalpana, the King George winner, has improved again this year at the age of five and bids to set the seal on Andrew Balding’s best-ever season. And Minnie Hauk, last year’s narrow runner-up, will be a major player if she can bounce back to that form.
The going in Paris is unusually quick for the time of year, which is good news for some contenders – including Maltese Cross and Kalpana – and perhaps less so for Thundering On. But as the field turns for home and starts to fan out across the wide expanse of Longchamp’s final straight, the question will be the same as ever: which horse will rise to the challenge and stamp its name in Arc history?
We’re underway at Longchamp at 12.31pm BST with the Prix Marcel Boussac for juvenile fillies and there is more than an hour to build up to the big race after the Prix de l’Abbaye at 1.47, so kick back, relax and let the Guardian’s live blog pilot you through one of the best afternoons of the racing year.
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