THERE are few races that have the demands or the prestige of the notoriously tough Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

The names of Arc winners read as a list of racing’s great champions – Sea Bird, Ribot and Dancing Brave, names held immortal in the history of the thoroughbred. Such is the quality of its roll of honour that it could scarcely be considered an insult that the unheralded chesnut filly who triumphed by a brave neck in the heavy ground of 1993 was deemed ‘the most forgettable of Arc winners’ by Tony Morris. How wrong he would turn out to be.