SUPERB though Enable’s victory was in the main event, the performance of Arc Day on the clock – the performance of the season, indeed – came from Battaash in the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp.

The Charlie Hills-trained gelding already had the best Timeform timefigure (130) in Ireland and Britain this year from his performance to beat Profitable and Marsha in the King George Stakes at Goodwood, and he accounted for that pair even more handsomely in a time of just 57.59s here.

Aided by sectionals, taken from video-editing software as the on-screen ones malfunctioned for this race and the Arc, I make Battaash’s overall time worth a figure of 132, with a slight upgrade to that permissible given the amount of running he did mid-race: his penultimate 200-metre sectional was an eye-watering 10.75s.

DAYJUR

There were shades of the same owner’s Dayjur in this effort, and there can be few higher compliments to pay a horse than that. Dayjur’s 142 Timeform timefigure for winning the Nunthorpe Stakes at York in 1990 has not been bettered since and remains a record for that course and distance.

Behind Marsha (110 timefigure) and Profitable (112), the outsiders Duke Of Firenze (107) and Queen Kindly (104) passed beaten horses late on but were far enough back not to undermine an outstanding effort by Battaash. Oasis Dream (133) was the last sprinter to surpass this timefigure, when winning the Nunthorpe in 2003.

The other older-horse Group 1s on Arc weekend produced nothing nearly as spectacular on the clock, but Aclaim (117 in winning the Prix de la Foret) and Rhododendron (115 for winning the Prix de l’Opera) put up solid efforts, while Vazirabad (90, Prix du Cadran) can be excused a slow time on account of a muddling pace which nearly saw the front-running second Mille Et Mille nick the race.

Races on the Saturday, which is when the Cadran took place, were at approximately 40 metres longer than advertised due to dolling on the home bend. The smart time performances put up in victory by Garlingari (118, Prix Dollar) and Taareef (116, Prix Daniel Wildenstein for the second year running) take that into account.