Can't believe it is that time already. Getting in quick Daryz 10/1 Minnie Hauk 12/1 Regaleira, any price I like - not quoted Had to take those odds Current odds
For 2026, you can have 12/1 Minnie Hauk and Daryz followed by 25/1 Byzantine Dream and Diamond Necklace with 33/1 Aventure, Consent, Sosie, Benvenuto Cellini and Bow River. 100/1 Lambourn or Los Angeles anyone? The Prix Marcel Boussac winner Diamond Necklace ticks the boxes for Urban Sea four generations back; and is a half-sister to Ribblesdale winner Magic Wand (Galileo) and Irish Oaks winner Chicquita (Montjeu). So she might line up next year as a three year old filly with some ‘Oaks’ to her name. Barney will be along in a moment to give you the statistics... just 51 weeks to wait for the draw...
Good article in yesterday's Weekender by Pricewise. He thinks it's a farce that 'supposedly the best race in the World' is run on such a biased track. The problem he sees is that too many races are run on the track over the Saturday and Sunday before the Arc and the idea of saving the better ground for the Sunday only accentuates the advantage of the lower drawn horses.
Maybe they should stiffen up the qualification and have fewer runners. I don't know how much the entrance fees are as a % of the prize money I suppose staggering the stalls could be dangerous
I never read the article in the Weekender, so it is probably unfair to comment; however, the argument falls flat in quite a few ways. Firstly, in recent years the running rail has been moved out quite some considerable distance on the Saturday of the meeting in order to save a strip of ground for Sunday. Almost every year Timeform points out that this leads to inaccurate race distances because they do not move the starting posts and the rail is not placed by any scientific measure and will be different every year. Whether the saved strip of ground is ‘better’ would be debatable since it has the same amount of watering as the ground that is used on Saturday. Secondly, what was notable this year was the mad rush to get a good position at the start of the race, primarily because the fancied Japanese horses were drawn high. Hence the first couple of furlongs were fast and then it did not slow down until the false straight when the two front runners had clearly had enough and got swamped by the rest of the field. The winner and the runner up were out towards the middle of the track so were probably running on ground that had been used on Saturday but France Galop have an army of workers that repair the track between races. On Sunday in the closing 10 furlong handicap (15 runners), the easy winner came from stall 3 but the second, third and fourth came from 10, 8 and 6 in a time only fractionally slower than the Prix de l’Opéra where the first four were drawn 4, 5, 7, 6 (12 runners). On Saturday in the closing 12 furlong handicap (18 runners), the easy winner came from stall 8 with the second, third and fourth from 3, 7 and 9 (time 2:44.18 compared to 2:29.17 for the Arc run over 110 yards less). In the Prix de Royallieu the first and second came from stalls 11 and 10 in a 12 runner field where the favourite finished a well beaten seventh behind her pacemaker in sixth; however, that race is two furlongs longer than the Arc and there is a bend before they reach the Arc starting point so there is no mad rush from the gate. So I think that the draw bias has become a thing because of how this particular race is run and the actions of the jockeys. If I had the time and access to the results, it would be interesting to see what draw bias there is taking into account the results of twelve furlong races with large fields over the season. My suspicion is that there probably would not be one evident because most ordinary French races are run at a married man’s gallop followed by a sprint in the straight so a high draw would be insignificant.
There was not a maximum field in 2025 (17 started) and the normal maximum does effectively have a qualification factor as they ballot out the lowest rated horses just the same as we do in Britain in the big sprint handicaps and the Grand National, for example. That is why there are rarely any pacemakers in the Arc because a horse would have to have a high rating to get in the line-up.
A lot of the entries are a waste of money then as there must be a lot of horses entered with ratings no where near high enough to qualify. Maybe the owners think/hope that their "no hopers" will suddenly sprout wings
