Breeders' Cup Turf unlikely for Arc winner Torquator Tasso
Enable in 2018 became the only horse to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and the Breeders’ Cup Turf in the same season. Barring a change of plans, Torquator Tasso will not get a chance to join her in that rare air.
Torquator Tasso pulled off a 71-1 Arc upset Sunday, earning through the Breeders’ Cup Challenge Series an automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Turf and travel expenses to Del Mar. But if Torquator Tasso leaves trainer Marcel Weiss’s base in Germany again this season, it would likely only be for the Japan Cup on Nov. 28. Torquator Tasso’s wins in both the Arc and the Grosser Preis von Baden qualified him for Japan Cup bonuses worth between $3 million for a win and $200,000 for a fourth-place finish. Weiss, a head trainer for less than two years, downplayed any chance of the 4-year-old colt, ridden by Arc first-timer Rene Piechulek, traveling to Del Mar.
Torquator Tasso got a 130 Timeform Rating for this Arc; Sottsass, last year’s winner, was rated 127, while Waldgeist got a 132 in his 2019 upset of Enable.
Arc runner-up Tarnawa remains under strong consideration for the BC Turf, which she won last year at Keeneland. Tarnawa returned to trainer Dermot Weld’s training yard in Ireland reportedly a somewhat tired mare after racing over heavy, testing going Sunday, but she’s lightly raced this season and would have 27 days to bounce back following her French exertions.
Godolphin and trainer Charlie Appleby already have Canadian International winner Walton Street under BC Turf consideration and their third- and fourth-place Arc finishers, Hurricane Lane and Adayar, seemingly are done racing for 2021. Plans for sixth-place Snowfall have yet to be determined, while her Aidan O’Brien-trained stablemate Love seems likely to race somewhere this fall – possibly the BC Turf or Filly and Mare Turf – after being scratched from the Arc because of an elevated temperature. Arc fifth-place finisher Sealiway did travel to Keeneland for the BC Juvenile Turf last season. The rest of the Arc runners seem unlikely to try a Breeders’ Cup race.
Three-year-old filly Rougir (119 Timeform Rating) won the Prix de l’Opera, a BC Challenge race, and trainer Cedric Rossi in post-race comments suggested Rougir could accept her automatic berth in the Filly and Mare Turf. Audarya, the 2020 Filly and Mare Turf winner, was fourth in the Opera and could defend her BC title or start in the British Champions Fillies and Mares on Oct. 16 at Ascot.
The BC Mile gained a serious contender Sunday in Space Blues (124 Timeform), who cruised to an impressive win in the seven-furlong Prix de la Foret. Space Blues, all being well, will ship to Del Mar, while two other Godolphin runners – Benbatl and Master of The Seas – remain under consideration for the Mile. Duhail, who had a tough trip over heavy going he might have disliked finishing 10th in the Foret, had previously been mentioned as a possible Mile participant.
A Case of You (122 Timeform), narrow winner of the Prix de l’Abbaye, earned automatic fees-paid entry into the BC Turf Sprint and is a possible runner at Del Mar, his connections said. Defending Turf Sprint champ Glass Slippers was third in the Abbaye and might wind up at Del Mar.
Two-year-old Angel Bleu (114 Timeform), winner of the Jean-Luc Lagardere, excels on soft going and seems unlikely to try the BC Juvenile Turf, while there was no readily available information on the BC Juvenile Fillies Turf chances of Zellie (111 Timeform), who won the Marcel-Boussac, another race in the Challenge Series.