Gio Ponti, Marsh Side nominated to Arc

Oct. 3 is a long way away, but the $5.2 million Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is in the back of the minds of Christophe Clement and Neil Drysdale. Clement dropped the name of his dual Eclipse Award winner Gio Ponti into the list of 141 Arc nominees announced on Thursday by France-Galop, and Drysdale did the same with Marsh Side.

They are the only American-trained horses among the nominees for the 1 1/2-mile Arc, which hasn't had an American runner since the Billy Wright-trained El Senor finished ninth in 1991.

The nominees are headed by three-time Arc runner-up Youmzain and recent Dubai Sheema Classic winner Dar Re Mi, who was fifth in last year's Arc. Aidan O'Brien has nominated 20, headed by Epsom Derby favorite St Nicolas Abbey and Fame and Glory, while Godolphin has named 24, including 15 trained by Saeed bin Suroor, 5 by Mahmoud Al Zarooni, and 4 by Andre Fabre. The most prominent of them is the Fabre-trained Cutlass Bay, the winner of last Sunday's Group 1 Prix Ganay. Japan, which came close to winning the Arc with El Condor Pasa in 1991 and Deep Impact in 2006, has nominated seven, among them the classy 4-year-old filly Red Desire and Japanese 2000 Guineas winner Victoire Pisa.