The most unforgettable runnings of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe tend to be defined by the name of the winner: Dancing Brave in 1986, Sea The Stars in 2009 and the unbeaten Zarkava’s retirement run the year before. But for anyone who was lucky enough to be there, Arc day in 2006 was as memorable as any of recent decades, and it was all thanks to the horse that crossed the line in third.
Deep Impact was not the first runner from Japan in Europe’s most prestigious all-aged race. But he was, by a long way, the most popular, and the combination of a horse with an aura of invincibility and his superstar jockey, Yutaka Take, persuaded tens of thousands of fans to make the 20,000km round trip to Paris for a two-and-a-half minute horse race.
It was a strange and also an inspiring experience to wander through Longchamp’s enclosures and in front of the grandstands, already packed many hours before the big race itself, and think that in the early years of the 21st century, it was still possible for so many people to be so enraptured by a racehorse.
A big Japanese presence at Longchamp when the country has a fancied runner in the Arc has been a feature of the weekend ever since. And as the fans have kept coming, so have the disappointments, for those at the track and also the millions watching at home in the small hours of Monday morning. Orfevre’s defeat in 2012 when victory seemed inevitable is an especially painful memory.
Frequently beaten but forever unbowed, Japan’s fervent racing fans will return to Longchamp on Sunday not just to support Shin Emperor, the country’s only runner in a 16-strong field, but also, as something of a saver, Joseph O’Brien’s Al Riffa, who will be ridden by Take, 18 years on from his defeat on Deep Impact.
Shin Emperor has yet to win at anything better than Grade Three level in Japan, but his close third in last month’s Irish Champion Stakes was as fine an Arc trial as you could hope to see.
It is also in his favour that this will not be the strongest Arc of recent years in terms of quality. City Of Troy, the season’s outstanding three-year-old colt, is being aimed at the Breeders’ Cup Classic, while two top-class geldings, Goliath and Calandagan, are ineligible under the current conditions. But that also means that it is a wide-open contest, and it is an Arc too that feels unusually rich in storylines.
André Fabre, an undisputed all-time great, saddles three runners – Sosie, Mqse De Sevigne and Sevenna’s Knight – in search of a record-extending ninth win, two months before his 79th birthday.
Look De Vega, the French Derby winner, runs for Carlos Lerner, an Argentinian by birth who fell in love with racing and horses on a visit to Chantilly as a student and settled in France soon afterwards, and his son, Yann, a former jockey.
Holding the reins, meanwhile, is 46-year-old Ronan Thomas, a journeyman for much of his riding career, whose French Derby win aboard Look De Vega in June was his first Group One success in France.
Aidan O’Brien, inevitably, has an obvious chance too to add a third Arc to his record with Los Angeles, the Irish Derby winner, at the end of what has already been an outstanding season. But Los Angeles is just one among four horses that could easily emerge as the eventual favourite on Sunday, and there is only 9lb between the entire 16-strong field on Timeform ratings, and just 4lb between the top 10.
If the French three-year-old form turns out to be the best on offer, then either Sosie or Look De Vega will probably emerge in front. But neither has a rating to match last year’s three-year-old winner, Ace Impact, at this stage of their career, while Shin Emperor, like so many Japanese runners before him, is not certain to appreciate a soft surface.
This could still be the year, though, when the Japanese fans leave Longchamp at least partially satisfied. British punters of a certain age still regard Take with suspicion after his fast-finishing Arc defeat on White Muzzle in 1994, but he has proven himself time and again to be a world-class rider and in Al Riffa (3.20), he may have finally found the horse to get him over the line at Longchamp.
Quick GuideGreg Wood's horse racing tips for Sunday
Show
Uttoxeter 1.15 Norn Iron 1.50 Nowmelad 2.25 Traveling Soldier 3.00 Rambo T 3.35 Lihyan (nb) 4.10 Home Free 4.45 Get With It 5.20 Ned Cash
Kelso 1.30 Bel Amigo 2.05 Shared 2.40 Yokkell 3.15 Do No Wrong 3.50 Fringill Dike (nap) 4.25 Iwa 5.00 Dalileo
The four-year-old has clearly been aimed towards this race all year, came from well off the pace to give City Of Troy a serious race in the Eclipse in July, and then stayed every yard of the 12-furlong trip when successful in the Group One Grosser Preis von Berlin last time.
At around 10-1 with British bookies, he is a slightly under-the-radar contender with as strong a chance as any of the favourites, and an excellent bet to give Take a Longchamp moment to cherish.
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Meanwhile, Kyprios, the Gold Cup winner at Ascot in 2022 and 2024, became the first horse trained by Aidan O’Brien to win eight races at Group One level as he made all the running to take the Prix du Cadran here on Saturday.
This was not a dismantling of the field to match Kyprios’s 20-length success in the same race two years ago, but the odds-on favourite did not look seriously threatened at any stage after being sent straight into the lead by Ryan Moore.
Kyprios is now one Group One win in front of such outstanding O’Brien-trained champions as Yeats, Magical, Minding and Rock Of Gibraltar, and is expected to remain in training next season, when a third Gold Cup success will be the initial target. He also holds an entry in the Group Two Long Distance Cup at Ascot on 19 October, a race in which he was the beaten favourite last season.
“At those distances he’s only playing with horses,” O’Brien said. “He’s so much class, and Ryan said he’s just going along there in second gear and wanting someone to come and join him all the time. He’s an incredible horse, the horse of a lifetime really.”
O’Brien has no regrets about sending Kyprios to the Prix du Cadran rather than Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, a possibility which was floated briefly after his win in the Irish St Leger last month.
“He’d be a lot better with a stronger pace in front of him,” O’Brien said, “but he tries so hard he would go down on his knees for you, that’s the way he is, and that might be the wrong thing [to do] looking to have him, hopefully, for next year.”
At Newmarket, the six-time Group One winner Inspiral could finish only second behind David Menuisier’s Tamfana in her final race, the Sun Chariot Stakes.
Tamfana hit the front more than a furlong out under Colin Keane, a late replacement for Oisin Murphy after he was claimed for third-home See The Fire, and while Inspiral finished well from off the pace, she was still two lengths adrift at the line.
“For once everything went smoothly and she really deserves this,” Menuisier said. “It’s a big monkey off our back getting this first Group One [in 2024], we have a few more big runners this weekend [including Sunway in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe]. Come on, let’s go and get them.
“It’s great for syndicates [Tamfana’s owner, Quantum Leap Racing] to be rewarded and this filly was bought for €20,000 [£17,000]. She’s gone and beat horses owned by the biggest owners in the world, and it is just magic.”