ARC Trials Day at Paris Longchamp on Sunday is not quite what it was. There have been some good winners in recent years, but no horse in the last decade has gone on immediately from success in the Prix Foy, Prix Vermeille or Prix Niel to the same in the Arc just a few weeks later.

Those three contests are all at 2,400 metres, with on-screen sectionals for the leaders, so it is at least possible to deconstruct what went on with little effort but a good deal of accuracy.