10 May 2018
Photo scoopdyga.com
95 horses were entered today Wednesday in the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Gr1), a €5m race scheduled this year on Sunday, October 7 for its return to ParisLongchamp after two editions at the scenic Chantilly.
This is less than last year, since we counted 120 entries back then in Chantilly, but the price of these entries was then € 7,200, not € 8,300 as it is now.
The next deadline is October 3, when supplementary entries will be made available at € 120,000.
The entries are roughly evenly distributed between the French trainers and those from abroad, which are fifty in number, including 18 for the winner of the 2007 and 2016 editions, the Irish Aidan O'Brien, 13 for the French leader André Fabre, 6 for John Gosden, winner in 2015 and title holder with Enable, who is part of the lot, and six also for Charlie Appelby. Four Japanese competitors are also registered, including a daughter of the mighty Japanese chestnut Orfevre, second in a memorable edition of the race in 2012, then again in 2013.
Six of the last seven winners are 3 or 4 year old fillies, and 26 are trying their luck this year, of which only six are four years old or older. As for males, the 3yos make up the biggest lot with 42 thoroughbreds in to defeat their elder Cracksman, who has just caused a sensation in the Prix Ganay, the day of the inauguration of ParisLongchamp.
The big champions of the season have not been sacred yet. However two of the first three in the Two Thousand and One Thousand Guineas (Gr1), the first classics of the season, are in the running. More generally, the main hopes of the season are listed in the Arc lot, such as Olmedo, Study of Man, which has just won the Prix Greffulhe (Gr2), and favorites of Sunday's French Guineas, Wootton and Barkaa, let alone the ten favorites of the Epsom Derby to date.
#ArcQuest #QPAT18