RACING PRIX DE l'ARC DE TRIOMPHE:TOMORROW'S QATAR Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe headlines possibly the finest single day's racing anywhere in the world, but even with raiders on the Longchamp spectacular from five different countries, Planteur can maintain a uniquely local flavour to this most French of events.
Aidan O’Brien’s three runners are headed by Fame And Glory, who attempts to improve on his sixth to Sea The Stars last year, and France’s best-known jockey, Christophe Soumillon, teams up Ballydoyle’s other main hope, Cape Blanco. Both will attempt to become just the seventh Irish-trained horse to win Europe’s most valuable race, the build-up to which has been dominated by concerns about testing ground conditions. Midas Touch makes up the O’Brien trio.
The international flavour is added to by runners from Japan, the Czech Republic, Britain and Germany, and despite fears this might have ended up a comparatively sub-standard Arc, tomorrow’s race will see the winners of all three major European Derbys in 2010 lining up against four-year-old stars, none of whom is more established than Fame And Glory.
Without his old nemesis Sea The Stars to get in his way, Fame And Glory has enjoyed a productive season, beaten just once and picking up a pair of Group One wins. Yet this weekend has been the target all along, and, despite a stall one draw on the rails, Johnny Murtagh was hopeful yesterday.
“Zarkava and Sea The Stars have won the last two years and we’re hoping Fame And Glory is the superstar this year. Séamus (Heffernan) rode him the other morning and told me he was very happy with him.
“This has been his target all year and I wouldn’t be too worried about the ground. I think he’s adaptable,” the jockey said.
On paper, Fame And Glory’s Arc credentials look pretty bombproof, which makes O’Brien’s decision to also run Cape Blanco, a colt he has already stated only just gets a mile-and-a-half, more than a little interesting.
There has also been an uneasiness to Fame And Glory in ante-post betting that might not be in the same category as the Epsom Derby winner Workforce – who only finally got the green light to run on Thursday – but which could be enough to dissuade the uncommitted.
A Fame And Glory success would be the ultimate tribute to Sea The Stars, but in the circumstances it could pay to side with the progressive French three-year-old Planteur.
Beaten twice by the ante-post favourite Behkabad, he nevertheless looks to fit the profile of a French horse trained all year with the Arc in mind.
He should also relish soft ground and victory would be the fifth time the famous Wildenstein colours have landed the Arc.
Allez France (1974), All Along (1983), Sagace (1984) and Peintre Celebre (1997) are some of the most famous, and colourful, winners on the roll of honour which only befits a family with as colourful a history as the Wildensteins. Not many families are reputed to have a world-famous art collection contained in a nuclear bunker in the Catskills near New York, but that is just one of the stories that have accumulated around the art-dealer family.
On a day when seven Group One races worth a total of €5.7 million will be contested, even a nuclear shelter may be hard-pressed to withstand the din of a victory for Planteur, who represents one of France’s oldest and most popular racing organisations.
Five other Irish-trained runners take a shot at Group One glory tomorrow, with Lush Lashes going in the Prix l’Opera, Kargali appearing to be out of his depth in the Foret, Whipless in the Lagabere and Arctic taking on 20 other sprinters in the Abbaye.
Ballydoyle’s Moyglare winner Misty For Me, however, looks to have a major shout of following up in the Prix Marcel Boussac, although the unbeaten Helleborine will be hard to beat.
