Treve scores in Group 2 Prix Corrida

Treve, so slow to find herself last year at 4, returned for her 5-year-old season with an emphatic win Friday at Saint-Cloud in the Group 2 Prix Corrida. Her 2015 campaign began with a resounding victory, and her connections hope to cap it with a third straight win in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

No horse has won the Arc three times, but Treve looked capable of pulling off the feat Friday. Making her first start since her 2014 Arc win last fall and termed roughly 80 percent ready by trainer Christiane Head-Maarek, Treve was away alertly from an inside draw but dropped back to race in fifth of eight as her stablemate and pacesetter, Silvaplana, towed the field along.

Jockey Thierry Jarnet was content with his position until the field, going left-handed in the 10 1/2-furlong race over good ground, turned into the long homestretch. With about 500 meters left, Jarnet steered right, guiding Treve to a hole between horses, which she entered and passed through while still finding her best stride. Hitting the front under fairly strong encouragement, Treve truly dazzled for about 50 yards, opening distance on her foes before being geared down the final half-furlong or so to win by four lengths over the George Strawbridge homebred We Are.

It was a stark departure from last spring, when Treve was outdueled by Cirrus des Aigles in the Prix Ganay before running well below form at Royal Ascot. Her campaign this year will be much different, with Head-Maarek, who trains for Al Shaqab Racing, pointing the star mare to the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, followed by the Prix Vermeille before a third tilt in the Arc.

Field of 14 for French Derby

Trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre has won the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) six times, and with the Aga Khan’s promising colt Karaktar, he stands a good chance of winning a seventh on Sunday at Chantilly.

Karaktar is one of 14 horses entered in the race, which will be contested at 10 1/2 furlongs over ground expected to be good to soft.

Karaktar, by High Chaparral, has gone 2 for 2 at 3, with both races, the most recent the Group 3 Prix Noailles, having come at the same trip he tries Sunday. Christophe Soumillon will have to work out a trip from post 12, however.

Principal rival New Bay, though, is drawn even wider in post 13. The Juddmonte Farms homebred by Dubawi who is trained by Andre Fabre is lightly raced with room to improve Sunday at the longest distance he’s yet tried. Once started last year at 2, he won a conditions race to launch his 3-year-old campaign before finishing second of 18 last out in the French 2000 Guineas. That race is just a mile, and Fabre believes New Day will better suit Sunday’s longer race.

Sumbal has started his career with three wins, including a last-out romp in the Group 2 Prix Greffulhe, but there were just two other horses in that race, and Sumbal will be tested for class Sunday. The same can be said of the Joe Allen homebred War Dispatch, who has won five of his six starts while racing at provincial racecourses until his most recent out, a victory in the Group 3 Prix de Guiche.