Starspangledbanner, the winner of two Group 1 races in England in 2010, can win his first stakes of 2012 in a competitive running of the Group 1 Prix de la Foret at Longchamp on Sunday.
Izzi Top will be favored in a field of 14 in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera for fillies and mares over 1 1/4 miles, a race that offers an automatic berth to the Breeders' Cup Filly and Mare Turf.
With three horses supplemented to the race on Thursday and another horse removed from the race, Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe seems set to go with a field of 18, barring withdrawals at the final declaration stage on Friday morning.
Cirrus des Aigles, who has won three Group 1 races in as many countries in the last year, will be heavily favored to win his first start since May in Saturday’s Group 2 Prix Dollar at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris.
Trainer Aidan O’Brien said that he would have two Arc runners, St Nicholas Abbey and Camelot, after putting both horses through workouts at his Ballydoyle training center in Ireland on Wednesday morning.
North American residents will be able to wager directly into the parimutuel pools at Longchamp in France on Saturday and Sunday for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe festival in a deal worked out by AmWest Entertainment.
The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe lost still another top contender when Nathaniel was taken out of consideration for Sunday’s race in Paris.
A quarantine of stables in Cologne, Germany, will prevent Danedream from traveling to Paris for Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, a race the 4-year-old filly brilliantly won last year.
Battle of Marengo won his second consecutive stakes, and earned a fees-paid berth to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, with a victory in the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at the Curragh in Ireland on Sunday.
Steeler gamely won the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes at Newmarket on Saturday by one length over Artigiano. Steeler gained a fees-paid berth into the BC Juvenile Turf and earned points toward qualifying for the 2013 Kentucky Derby.
