Torquator Tasso preps for Arc repeat attempt in Grosser Preis Von Baden

Torquator Tasso, winner of the 2021 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, will have his prep for the 2022 Arc on Sunday at Baden-Baden in the Group 1 Grosser Preis Von Baden.

Torquator Tasso won this race by one length a year ago before going on to a 7-2 Arc upset one month later, a surprising performance that was no fluke. Following a very poor comeback performance on May 29 - Torquator Tasso always needs the first start of his form cycle - Torquator Tasso bounced back with an easy Group 2 win at Hamburg before running of his better races finishing second to Pyledriver in the Group 1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, his first race in England.

There, racing over firm ground faster than he needs for his best, he beat top-class Mishriff, who finished third, by nearly three lengths as Pyledriver ran the race of his life.

Baden-Baden’s course as of Friday was listed as soft, much more to Torquator Tasso’s preference, but the 5-year-old horse loses regular rider Rene Piechulek to Mendocino, one of four other horses entered. Piechulek rides on contract for Mendocino’s owner, who declined to give Piechulek permission to stick with the best horse he’s ever ridden. Trainer Marcel Weiss has tabbed Frankie Dettori as a Sunday substitute, with Piechulek expected to regain the mount in the Arc.

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Chief among Torquator Tasso’s rivals is Sammarco, who won the German Derby over 19 rivals on July 3, coming back four weeks later to beat older horses in the Group 1 Grosser Dallmyr-Preis - Bayerisches Zuttrennen over 1 1/2 miles at Munich.

Post time for the Sunday’s 1 1/2-mile contest is 10 a.m. Eastern.

Prix du Moulin de Longchamp

While the Arc trials come next Sunday at Longchamp, this Sunday’s feature, the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp, comes over a one-turn mile. Topping a 10-horse field is Coroebus, who looked like the best 3-year-old miler in Europe after winning the 2000 Guineas in May and the St. James’s Palace at Royal Ascot in June.

Coroebus, a Godolphin homebred trained by Charlie Appleby, fell from his lofty perch finishing fifth Aug. 14 in the Prix Jacques Le Marois, a straight mile at Deauville, but will get back on the winning track Sunday with anything close to his best. The opposition lack true punch, with 7-year-old soft-ground specialist The Revenant second favorite with English bookmakers as of Friday.

* The connections of Lady Hollywood hope to get their filly into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint after she won the Prix d’Arenberg on Thursday in France.