Wrecking crews are due to start demolishing Longchamp’s magnificent stands a few hours after this year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe but at least it now seems certain that the old place will go out in style. Treve, who will be attempting to win the race for an unprecedented third time, produced an astonishing performance to win the Prix Vermeille here on Sunday, taking apart a Group One field at a canter, and is now odds-on to take the Arc over the same course and distance in three weeks’ time.
It is difficult to imagine either a horse or a strategy that might beat her. Physically Treve looks a different horse this year, taller and stronger, and while her Arc victories in 2013 and 2014 – by five lengths and two respectively – were imposing, this race took her form to a new level.
There was not the depth to the field that she will face in the Arc, where New Bay, an impressive two-and-a-half-length winner of the Prix Niel earlier on the card, is likely to start second-favourite. Arabian Queen, who ended the unbeaten record of the Derby winner, Golden Horn, at York last time out, was one of only two runners in the Vermeille with a previous Group One success.
Treve, though, dispatched them all with exceptional ease and Thierry Jarnet, her jockey, simply let her get on with it. She pulled her way towards the front in the false straight before the turn for home, was still on a tight rein as she hit the front and then quickened away with such power that her opponents were instantly overwhelmed.
At five years of age Treve now seems to be the complete racehorse, able to travel behind any pace, sit anywhere, change up or down at any stage and still produce an unassailable burst of speed.
“It did not take me by surprise because I know her,” Criquette Head-Maarek, her trainer, said afterwards, “but you can’t say before the race that we’re sure to win. And I’m still thinking that she will run great in the Arc, but we have to see the race. New Bay ran a good race before her and all the English and foreign horses are coming over.
“So you can’t say that she’s a sure winner of the Arc. She loves the place and she’s very good right-handed, so she’s got a lot of things for her and she’s better than last year. Today was just like she ran the Arc in 2013.
“I’ve never had in training a horse with that ability, that could follow any pace and then quicken like she does. That’s something that I’ve never seen.”
One bookmaker briefly offered 6-4 against Treve for the Arc after Sunday’s race but evens was soon the best on offer with Coral and Hills both odds-on. Since Head-Maarek will have left at least something to work on before the Arc itself on 4 October, she will surely be an odds-on chance on the day.
It is possible, too, that this performance will scare away some potential opponents, reducing the chance that she might be drawn wide in a big field, though here Treve looked capable of overcoming any disadvantage.
“She almost did [pull her jockey into the lead],” Head-Maarek said. “Coming into the false straight, she wanted to go. Physically she is much better than last year.”
In a normal year a French Derby-winning three-year-old from the André Fabre stable would be an obvious Arc favourite. New Bay can be backed at 6-1, however, despite a comprehensive success in the Prix Niel, in which the beaten horses included Erupt, the winner of the Grand Prix de Paris in July.
“It was a really solid performance,” Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager to the colt’s owner, Prince Khalid Abdullah, said. “He’s had a very good season so far, and we’ll see how good he is in three weeks’ time. We’re always hopeful.”
Postponed, the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner at Ascot in July, also confirmed his place in the Arc field with a determined success in the Prix Foy. Postponed, whose rider Andrea Atzeni lost the St Leger in the stewards’ room on Saturday, was forced to fight for victory by Frankie Dettori on Spiritjim and completed the course in a faster time than either Treve or New Bay.
Luca Cumani’s colt remains a relative outsider for the Arc, however, at a top price of 20-1.
Ervedya, the Coronation Stakes winner at Royal Ascot in June, had last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Karakontie behind her when successful in Longchamp’s second Group One event, the Prix du Moulin, while in Ireland, Aidan O’Brien completed a Group One double in the two juvenile events on the second afternoon of Ireland’s Champions Weekend.
Air Force Blue, who took the National Stakes by three lengths with Joseph O’Brien, the trainer’s son, in the saddle has overtaken Emotionless, the impressive winner of Saturday’s Champagne Stakes at Doncaster, as the new 5-1 favourite for next year’s 2,000 Guineas.
“We took a chance running him on ground that he would have hated,” Air Force Blue’s trainer said. “He’s a real smooth, fast ground horse. Joseph said he was running away the whole way and he couldn’t even get him back in behind horses.
“He’ll have one more run if he’s going to go again and I’d imagine that would be the Dewhurst.”
Joseph O’Brien could finish only second aboard the 5-4 favourite, Ballydoyle, in the Moyglare Stud Stakes, however, as stable-mate Minding claimed a three-quarter length win for Seamus Heffernan. Another filly from the yard, Alice Springs, completed a 1-2-3 for the trainer.
“We always thought Joseph’s filly [Ballydoyle] was very good but we weren’t sure about the ground as she’s a beautiful mover,” O’Brien said. “She ran a very good race. We knew Seamie’s filly Minding would handle it as her dam [Lillie Langtry] handled it well. It was always a possibility it would happen, as we thought she had improved and she did.”
O’Brien’s colt Order Of St George, who was scratched from Saturday’s St Leger the day before the race, took the feature race on the card, the Irish St Leger, to complete a Group One treble for his trainer.
Order Of St George was taken out of the English St Leger when the ground at Town Moor dried out on Friday, although overnight rain eventually saw the Classic run on going that was good-to-soft in places. The surface at The Curragh proved ideal as he drew 11 lengths clear to win unchallenged.
“He sneaked through lovely and is a very good stayer,” the trainer said. “He got the trip really well and travelled very strongly. When Joseph said go he quickened up very well.
“It’s unusual for a horse that stays that well to have that kind of class. We may have a look at the two-mile race at Ascot [Champions Long Distance Cup on 17 October] with him.”
