Pat Smullen hopes a middle draw in Sunday's €5 million Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe can help Harzand put a perfect seal on his momentous season in Europe's most valuable race.
The dual-Derby hero was confirmed an Arc starter after coming through a piece of work on the Curragh yesterday. However his stable companion Fascinating Rock will wait instead for next month's English Champion Stakes at Ascot.
A total of 19 remain in contention to run in the Arc but Smullen is keeping his fingers crossed that at least some of those might drop out in order to lessen any potential impact of the draw around the race's temporary home at Chantilly.
Traditional home
Harzand’s trainer
Dermot Weld
has already stated he would prefer if the race was run at its traditional home in Longchamp which is however being redeveloped and won’t be able to host the Arc either in 2017.
Famous Name’s narrow French Derby defeat in 2008 is uppermost in Weld’s mind and Smullen, who rode that colt to finish runner-up to Vision d’Etat in the Prix du Jockey Club, knows too how important the draw can be at Chantilly.
“There’s no doubt Famous Name being drawn 17 cost him the Jockey Club but that can happen at most tracks. There’s no doubt you’d rather be drawn lower rather than high at Chantilly but hopefully it won’t be too much of a factor come race-day. Hopefully some of those 19 come out. A middle draw would be ideal,” said Ireland’s champion jockey.
Smullen will team up with the Weld-trained Almela in Saturday’s Group Two Prix De Royallieu and is also in line to ride the appropriately named Trip To Paris in the Group One Prix du Cadran on the same card.
Harzand will attempt to become just the seventh Irish-trained horse ever to win the Arc. Only another Aga Khan -owned star, Sinndar, has completed the English Derby-Irish Derby-Arc hat-trick that Harzand now has in his sights.
It's a long way from a unheralded Cork card at the end of March when the son of Sea The Stars broke his duck in just his second career start in the €11,000 Blackwater Maiden.
That 16-length maiden victory at Mallow began a season that has already taken Harzand into the record books.
The runner-up that day, Sword Fighter, has matured into no mean three year old himself, winning at Royal Ascot and also in the Group Two Curragh Cup, while the fourth, Qatar Hunter, is set to run in Friday’s Group Three Diamond Stakes in Dundalk.
The subsequent Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Jet Setting also won a maiden on that day. And for good measure this season’s Ebor winner Heartbreak City also won a handicap by a dozen lengths. It does mean however that Harzand has been on the go for some time.
“He did start early but he also had a good midsummer break so I don’t think that’s a factor,” he said. “He did some nice routine work in the morning and I just hope they get a drop of rain in Paris. Obviously he would prefer a bit of ease.”
Mainly dry
The outlook though is reportedly mainly dry ahead of the weekend action which will also see Aidan O’Brien pitch in the trio of Found, Order Of St George and Highland Reel.
The star English runner Postponed continues to top Arc betting lists ahead of the Japanese star Makahiki although the presence of the French Derby and Irish Champion Stakes winner Almanzor among the 19 has caught much attention.
However Ascot's Champion Stakes apparently remains the Jean Claude Rouget-trained colt's preferred option.
"He has been left in as a precaution. I don't think he will be running in the Arc. Jean Claude wants to go to England with him," said Sylvain Vidal, racing manager to Almanzor's part owner, Gerard Augustin-Normand.
