Arc preps at Longchamp led by talented 3-year-olds

The great French trainer Jean-Claude Rouget told Scott Burton of the Racing Post earlier this week that he believed 3-year-old fillies Love and Raabihah occupied the top positions on his list of contenders for the 2020 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Love, the Aidan O’Brien-trained smashing winner of the Epsom Oaks, won the Yorkshire Oaks last month and is being trained up to the Oct. 4 Arc. Rouget should have a fairly good read on Raabihah since he trains her.

While Love prepares for the Arc at home in Ireland, Raabihah has her Arc prep Sunday at Longchamp as the odds-on favorite in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille. The Vermeille, restricted to fillies and mares, is one of three 1 1/2-mile Arc trials on Longchamp’s Sunday card along with the Grand Prix de Paris for 3-year-olds and the Prix Foy for older horses.

One reason Rouget rates Love and Raabihah over the likes of two-time Arc winner Enable, a 6-year-old mare, and Ghaiyyath, the 5-year-old horse with the world’s best official rating of 2020, is the Arc’s scale of weights. Three-year-old fillies like Love and Raabihah get 10 pounds from older males like Ghaiyyath and four from older females like Enable.

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The spread in the Vermeille also is considerable, with 3-year-olds like Raabihah getting eight pounds from the older fillies and mares. Raabihah, priced right now between 8-1 and 10-1 for the Arc in futures wagers, has raced only four times and could only finish fourth in the Prix de Diane, the 1 5/16-mile French Oaks. But 1 1/2-mile racing almost certainly is what Raabihah desires. Racing at Longchamp this spring she won a listed race over 11 furlongs by four lengths, and after the Diane she was an easy winner of a Group 3 at Deauville as Rouget geared the filly, a Hamdan Maktoum homebred by Sea The Stars, toward her autumn goals. Her principal rival Sunday, Even So, comes from Ireland, but for trainer Ger Lyons, not O’Brien. Even So, by Camelot, won the 1 1/2-mile Irish Oaks on July 28 in her most recent start.

The 3-year-old race on Arc trials day used to be the Prix Niel, but the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris has taken its place, and Serpentine occupies the top of the early betting market. The O’Brien-trained Serpentine starts for the first time since posting a 25-1 upset in the Derby at Epsom, a race he won by five lengths under a bold front-running ride from jockey E.J. McNamara. Christophe Soumillon has the mount Sunday on a colt who managed to win the Derby eight days after a maiden win and still has something to prove. The Rouget-trained Port Guillaume might hold more appeal at longer odds. This colt won his first three starts over lesser competition, finished a decent fifth in the French Derby over 1 5/16 miles, and really shined when stretched to 1 9/16 miles in the Prix Hocquart last time. He’s been purchased by Australian interests and where his career continues after Sunday’s start has yet to be announced.

Stradivarius, one of the best staying horses to race in Europe, is a heavy favorite in the Prix Foy. With his connections eyeing the Arc, he tries to cut back to shorter 1 1/2-mile trips from his comfort zone in races 1 3/4 miles and longer. Stradivarius finished third, beaten more than five lengths by Ghaiyyath, in the 1 1/2-mile Coronation Cup this past spring, his first start at the distance since 2017. His chief rivals are Anthony Van Dyck, who was second in the Coronation, and Way To Paris, who probably needs softer turf than the expected “good” ground Sunday to show his best.

BC Challenge races in Ireland

A pair of races that are part of the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series, the Flying Five for older sprinters and the Moyglare Stud for 2-year-old fillies, highlight the Sunday program at The Curragh in Ireland.

Overseas turf sprinters have struggled to gain traction in the BC Turf Sprint but the five-furlong Flying Five offers automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Turf Sprint at Keeneland in November. The tepid early favorite, A’Ali, tried the BC Juvenile Turf Sprint in 2019 at Santa Anita and finished 10th.

The Moyglare Stud often yields BC Juvenile Fillies Turf runners and has Pretty Gorgeous as an odds-on antepost favorite. Pretty Gorgeous, trained by Joseph O’Brien for American owner John Oxley, romped in her career debut, was beaten as the favorite facing Group 3 foes at Leopardstown in her second start, and came back with an easy win last month at The Curragh in the Group 2 Debutante Stakes. O’Brien’s brother Donnacha trains second favorite Shale, while the brothers’ father, Aidan O’Brien, has three entrants.

◗ Barney Roy is the name Americans are most likely to recognize in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden on Sunday at Baden-Baden, but he’s only fifth choice in early betting on a 1 1/2-mile race that often produces starters in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.