Well done Mme Marcialis on winning the Marcel Boussac. King's Harlequin got absolutely murdered twice in running.
He's a very quick horse, he looked like Willie left some work to be done, so he will definitely improve again. He's got a good style of travelling and the engine to stay further for sure Oddy. The world is their oyster with him by the look of it, hope he stays sound.
WTF 1: fecking rough race in the Marcel Boussac, Thunder Beauty had to find another leg to stay upright, will give her another chance WTF 2: what are the ITV blathering on about, the female jockey being a mother? Do mothers lose strength and skill after giving birth? Not a happy bunny at the moment!
I have backed Enable at 6/1 and 5/1 in Ante-Post bets and despite so many things falling right for her I am not confident because of the ground. Plenty of good horses have floundered on the mud and we saw her reeled in last year when considered a good thing. I am hopeful she can do it but it seems almost too good to be true the way others have fallen by the wayside and left her looking like the only true top notch horse in the race. Of the others Stradivarius and Sottsass look too short to be value and Persian King seems like a fish out of water in this ground at this trip. I would say Raabihah at 11/1 each-way four places looks likely to yield a return. In the Foret I did Safe Voyage earlier in the week and mentioned on the Arc thread that the 7F specialist seemed overpriced at 7/1. Earthlight was skinny at 7/4 and the Quinn horse, who has won 10 times at 7F seemed much better value at four times the price. Backed into favourite now I don't see the same appeal for a bet but at the 7/1 I am hopeful the early bet will have proven to be a good investment. I have been a fan of Tawkeel but she hasn't been as well regarded as Raabihah by the trainer. Unbeaten though and I had a small bet at 4/1 based on her good win in the St Alary earlier in the season. Glass Slippers will have every chance to do the double in the L'Abbaye but the odds are not great given her draw.
In hindsight, you knew in the Eclipse Enable was not the same filly this year, won 2 egg and spoon public gallops since then, avoided Love at York.
Thought that was poor ride by Guyon on Raabihah, he could have had Sottsass position close to the slow pace, but instead he was desperate to hold her up and ended up tracking Enable and got blocked for a run, ran on quite well and she could have been involved in the finish with a better ride imo. The fact that Persian King has finished so close up suggests it was a false race.
Well done Swanny. So another colt who wasn't good enough to win the Arc previously now steps up. Makes it feel like a weak renewal but if you follow the trends then probably Persian King the one to be on next year
I was big on Sottsass for it last season but he hadnt looked up to much this year, he was just in the right place at the right time here tbh, in a true race In Swoop would probably have won it.
Big ante-climax there. Never looked like Enable was going to win it. After all the talk of France having a weak team the first five home were all French horses. Well done all those who were on Sottsass, I just couldn't see it after the season he has had. As expected Stradivarius didn't have the gears, even in the testing ground. Persian King ran a belter and you would wonder if he would have won it on better ground. Who would have thought that last year's French Derby would have been so heavily represented in this year's Arc. A mediocre feel to the race though and I suspect my first thought that Enable looked very workmanlike in the September Stakes may have had some more truth to it than Frankie's explanation that the surface was somehow amiss that day.
You just never know in France, Smokey, but I think he won it on merit. Am pretty sad about Enable though, must admit. Applause to connections for having a go, when they knew the odds were very much against her. Wasn't too impressed with the ITV people today, Chapman in particular?
Obviously that was a bitterly disappointing way for the Enable story to end without the fairytale. She looked to be travelling well until the turn into the straight with Stradivarius on her outside. The front three had not gone suicidally on the ground and still had more left in the final two furlongs and when Enable simply did not pick up, Frankie accepted it and did not beat her up chasing a place. So the WuFlu robbed the event of a crowd, dodgy horse feed robbed it of four runners and the heavy ground robbed it of one of the best two horses even running and the other one got stuck in it. The form of the race looks decidedly suspect but the record books will show that the 2020 running of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was won by Sottsass.
You will go a long way looking for a nicer fillies bumper than the the one at Tipperary today. Several smart pedigrees on show with de Bromheads possibly being the best lineage of them all but I am pretty taken with the page of MAGICAL ORLA and using 365's each way extra have backed her at 20/1 with no less than 7 places!
16:25 Longchamp (Prix de L'Abbaye) - Make A Challenge (Has won quite a few times on soft ground, but this ground is heavy and, apparently, 'sticky' too! However, very well-drawn in Stall 11, and should run a big race for Irish trainer Denis Hogan and jockey James Doyle.)
