PARIS – The Workforce that showed up Sunday at Longchamp was not the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes flop, but it was the record-setting winner of the Epsom Derby. In a remarkable feat of training, Michael Stoute nurtured a superb performance out of the enigmatic Workforce to win the $5.33 million Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, setting off scenes of joy by his numerous British backers who had banged him down to 6.60-1 shortly before post time.

PARIS – Goldikova served notice that she will be in top form for her attempt at an unprecedented third consecutive Breeders’ Cup Mile title when she won the $333,000 Prix de la Foret at Longchamp on Sunday, defeating Paco Boy by a rather comfortable half-length in one of six Group 1 races on the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe undercard.

PARIS – The $173,000, one-mile Prix Daniel Wildenstein has occasionally thrown up a Breeders’ Cup Mile runner. Domedriver vaulted from victory in the race in 2002 to win the Mile, but there will be no Mile candidate emerging from Saturday’s renewal at Longchamp, where Royal Bench took advantage of the very soft ground to win for the first time at the Group 2 level.

PARIS – Cape Blanco can use his stirring victory in the Irish Champion Stakes to vault to glory in the $5.33 million Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, despite the likelihood of soft ground at Longchamp on Sunday. While the Galileo 3-year-old has been eased out to as high as 9-1 by some British bookmakers of late, he won twice on soft turf as a 2-year-old, so his poor effort in a soft ground French Derby might be excused.

PARIS – All American eyes will be on Goldikova in the $313,000 Prix de la Foret, one of six Group 1 races on the Arc undercard at Longchamp on Sunday. But her trainer, Freddy Head, has warned that if the ground becomes too soft as a result of the rain expected to fall on Friday night and Saturday on a course already deemed soft, he will have no choice but to withdraw his 5-year-old mare and send her instead directly to Churchill Downs in search of her third Breeder’s Cup Mile crown.

In a year of superlative performances by European 2-year-olds, not least the extraordinay victory of Frankel in last Saturday's Royal Lodge Stakes, Newmarket was the site of two more of the same on Friday as Dream Ahead and Hooray cruised to handy scores in a pair of six-furlong Group 1 contests.

PARIS – Workforce, the seven-length winner of the Eposm Derby but a great flop in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, passed a final test at Newmarket on Thursday morning and will run after all in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe on Sunday.

PARIS – Aidan O’Brien has made the surprise move of naming Christophe Soumillon to ride Irish Champion Stakes winner Cape Blanco in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on Sunday.

Soumillon, a native of Belgium, won the Arc in 2003 with Dalakhani and in 2008 with Zarkava when he was first-string rider for the Aga Khan but was apparently left without a mount in this year’s race until O’Brien came to the rescue.

PARIS – The weather could play havoc with Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe as intermittent rain on Friday and Saturday followed by a downpour on Sunday have left Paris a soggy city this week. With more rain forecast for Thursday and Friday, the world’s second richest race at $5.33 million could be one that very much favors soft-ground lovers.

Poet’s Voice, a 9-2 shot ridden by Frankie Dettori, won the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot on Saturday, denying the Aidan O’Brien-trained Rip Van Winkle by a nose in the mile contest.

Makfi, the favorite, was a disappointing fifth of eight, running his second consecutive poor race at Ascot. The French invader, sent off at even money and ridden by Christophe Soumillon, was unable to find any extra in the straight.