Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (Group 1)

THE 2020 Group 1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, in keeping with the extraordinary turn of events that have overtaken not just the racing world in the last few months, was a highly unusual renewal of Europe’s most prestigious race, not just in the way it played out on the track but also in the formation of its final field of 11 runners.

While the travel difficulties associated with a global pandemic undoubtedly contributed to the lack of Japanese involvement outside of Deirdre, a mare who has been based in Europe since long before Covid-19, up until just a couple of days beforehand the chance of the great race going ahead without Irish involvement for just the second time this century was minimal.

Love withdrawn

Sure, Storm Alex had deposited so much rainfall on the Bois de Boulogne that ParisLongchamp – a venue that had been so dry on trials day three weeks earlier that record times fell like confetti – was riding ‘heavy’, ruling out the long-term ante-post favourite and fast-ground devotee, Love.

Still, Aidan O’Brien was expected to provide over a quarter of the field including two front-runners to ensure that the €3 million mile-and-a-half event was run at a strong tempo.

Then the news broke that Gain, horse feed suppliers to both Aidan O’Brien and his two trainer sons, Joseph and Donnacha, were investigating potential contamination in some batches of the equine feed range owing to the presence of traces of the banned cattle-fattening drug, Zilpaterol.

Banned substances

Aidan took immediate action, getting samples from all his horses declared to run in Paris, but although they came back negative from the Irish Equine Centre, those sent to France, where they can identify even miniscule amounts of banned substances, came back positive late on Saturday.

The Coolmore Stud ownership group then took the laudable (and, most would say, unavoidable) decision to withdraw all 11 of their O’Brien family-trained Sunday runners, citing the need to protect the integrity of the sport.

So the Arc was robbed of four runners and became a lesser race as a result.

My initial reaction, on a purely sporting basis, is to hypothesise about what would have happened in the Arc had the Ballydoyle quartet been allowed to run.

There was no compulsion for them to have been withdrawn, Coolmore could have decided to let them race in the hope that, given the horses had been switched away from Gain Feeds as soon as the issue came to light, any Zilpaterol had passed through their systems.

One of the Irish runners might have won, but my best guess is that the strong-staying In Swoop would have been sufficiently helped by a faster gallop to have reversed the first two placings with the more speedy Sottsass.

And the gain for his trainer, Francis Graffard, would not have been limited to the Arc winner’s trophy – it would have put him in pole position to land a first French trainers’ title instead of Sottsass’s handler, Jean-Claude Rouget, becoming assured of taking the crown for a third time.

Uniformity of testing

A more constructive reaction to the contamination saga is to call for uniformity of testing procedures and banned substance thresholds across all major European racing countries.

This does not just apply to horses – the recent cocaine bans handed down to Robbie Downey and Rab Havlin and last week’s revelation that British champion jockey Oisin Murphy is set to suffer the same fate for testing ‘positive’ for cocaine, shows that France Galop has a zero tolerance policy, different to Ireland and Britain.

How can this be fair when the discovery of miniscule amounts, that might be explained by environmental contamination, could be a false positive?

In recent years France has fallen broadly into line with Britain in Ireland where the rules about interference in race finishes are concerned.

Isn’t it time that the same thing happens with dope tests, both equine and human?

Bourdot’s tactics

In the race itself, no Aidan O’Brien runners meant no obvious front-runners. Enable had performed pace-setting duties in the past, and Frankie Dettori revealed after the race that he was ready for her to adopt that role here, but this plan was scuppered by both Enable’s lack of early zest and the tactics of fellow jockey Pierre-Charles Boudot, a young man who must surely now be regarded as one of the world’s best riders.

Boudot was aboard the enigma of the race, Persian King, a three-time Group 1 winner over much shorter distances trying a mile and a half for the first time. Given these stamina doubts, Boudot figured that a slow pace would be much in his favour, and the best way to ensure this was to set it himself.

Persian King has often been pretty keen in the early stages of races. This time, despite Boudot keeping the hand brake on, he settled beautifully in front and was able to drop down onto the inside rail after two furlongs.

Wingman

Chachnak and Sottsass were close behind with Enable one off the inside disputing fourth with her stablemate, Stradivarius, acting as a loyal wingman on her outside.

Little changed until after the two-furlong marker when Chachnak was sandwiched as Sottsass switched out from behind Persian King and Gold Trip, making ground on the outside, edged to his right. Badly hampered and immediately backpedalling, Chachnak in turn slightly interfered with Enable, though in truth Dettori was probably already feeling that this was not to be his day.

Sottsass overtook Persian King with a furlong to run and, having moved a length clear, held off the late thrust of In Swoop, who had come from sixth position and challenged up the inside, by a neck. The winning time of 2m 39.30s was the slowest in over 40 years.

Persian King just got the better of Gold Trip to hold on for third, another length and three-quarters adrift, and the winner’s stable companion, Raabihah, who had intentionally given up a good early position and then had been forced to switch wide in the straight, finishing best of all to complete a French sweep of the first five places.

Enable beaten

Enable and Stradivarius, who have been based in John Gosden’s yard for the best part of five years, finished alongside one another in sixth and seventh, beaten just over six lengths, a sweet note to end on if this really is to be Enable’s swansong.

Dettori said: “I wanted to make the running but for the first two furlongs I was out of my comfort zone, so I left her alone and found a good place in fourth. We still had a good spot with two and a half furlongs to run, she was exactly where I wanted her, but when I pressed the button nothing was there. She couldn’t pick her legs up in that ground – it wasn’t to be.”

Deserving winner

Regardless of the lack of some top rivals, the bad ground, the false pace and the lack of a proper crowd, there is no doubt that Jean-Claude Rouget was a most deserving winner.

A trainer since 1978, this was the first time that he had even gone close to winning the Arc – indeed, it took him 16 years to have a single runner. Endearingly honest afterwards, he revealed that he prefers trying to win the classics, as so much can do wrong by the time October comes around. He feels that to win the Arc a horse needs to be specifically laid out for the race, meaning owners must be told that their horse needs to lose races in order to win the Arc.

That was certainly the case with Sottsass, who had won just once in four starts since finishing third in the 2019 Arc. Rouget never lost faith in the colt and, when jockey Christian Demuro suggested after his underwhelming fourth in the Irish Champion Stakes that he was leaning towards riding Raabihah in the Arc, convinced the Italian that Sottsass was about to hit form.

Outsprint

“I felt that it was important to run him in the Irish Champion Stakes rather than the Prix Foy to get some speed into him, and think that was a good choice,” Rouget said. “And once I saw that the pace was not fast, I was confident because Christian had him in a good place and I knew that he could outsprint them at the finish.”

Given that none of their five Aidan O’Brien-trained contenders made it to post, Coolmore Stud still had a big reason to look back on the race with satisfaction as in January they bought a 50% share in Sottsass from owner Peter Brant. On Tuesday it was announced that the son of Siyouni has been retired to commence his stallion career at Coolmore.