John Gosden will be the only British trainer with runners in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on Sunday, when Golden Horn, the Derby winner, will be joined by Eagle Top, who was beaten a nose in the King George at Ascot, in the attempt to deny Treve a third consecutive success in Europe’s most prestigious race.
Gosden is already all but certain to finish the season as Britain’s champion trainer, and it is a sign of the concentration of quality in his stable that he will still be double-handed this weekend in the absence of Jack Hobbs, the Irish Derby winner. The likelihood of fast going in Paris has persuaded Gosden and Godolphin, the colt’s owners, to wait for Ascot’s Champion Stakes in the hope of an easier surface.
Anthony Oppenheimer, Golden Horn’s owner, paid €120,000 to add his colt to the field, while Shahah, who will act as a pacemaker for Treve, and Alain Couetil’s five-year-old Spiritjim, the runner-up in the Prix Foy last time out, were also supplemented, adding a total of €360,000 to the original prize fund of €5m.
A field of 18 runners now seems likely to go to post on Sunday, significantly more than seemed likely two weeks ago when Treve was odds-on with almost every bookmaker and expected to get the soft ground that suits her well. As a result, Friday’s draw for stalls positions, which will be streamed online, could alter the shape of the race, with the connections of all runners keen to avoid a pitch on the wide outside.
Treve has drifted to odds-against for her third Arc in recent days as the ground at Longchamp has grown steadily faster, and a high draw could see the trend continue. Criquette Head-Maarek’s mare is currently top-priced at 11-10, while Golden Horn, the mount of Frankie Dettori, is best at 9-2. New Bay, the French Derby winner, is 11-2, while Eagle Top is among the outsiders at 50-1.
France-Galop, the ruling body of French racing, issued a bulletin on the going at Longchamp on Thursday afternoon that confirmed there will be no watering at the track before the two-day Arc meeting, which opens on Saturday. The ground is currently good to soft but is expected to dry to good by Saturday.
Yarmouth racecourse has been forced to abandon its final two meetings of the season on 20 October and 27 October. The course reopened in August following remedial work to level ridges in the racing surface but was forced to abandon its showpiece fixture last month when heavy rain caused the turf to become slippery and a rider was unseated shortly after crossing the line.
“The track did not perform as we would have hoped in September given the challenging weather during the month,” Glen Tubby, Yarmouth’s executive director, said. “We are undertaking remedial work to address the areas of concern to enable us to be ready for the start of Great Yarmouth’s 2016 season. In order to do this, we need to utilise the last of the autumn growing season to ensure that the track is sufficiently recovered before the winter.”
“All customers who have purchased a ticket for either fixture in October will receive a full refund.”
Victoria Pendleton, the Olympic gold-medal-winning cyclist, will have two horses to ride during the forthcoming point-to-point season as she continues her quest to ride in the Foxhunter Chase at the Cheltenham Festival in March.
Pendleton will partner According To Sarah and Sedgemoor Express, who will be trained by Alan Hill, when the pointing season starts in late November. Hill is the husband of Lawney Hill, whose Royal Etiquette finished second at Ripon on August when Pendleton took her first ride in public as a licensed amateur jockey.
