Longchamp showpiece: Grand Prix De L’Arc beckons

After a massive weekend in America just passed, with Dubai World Cup winner Curlin in Grade 1 winning action, as well as Well Armed who was third in that race and UAE Derby third Cocoa Beach, France is the centre of attention this week.

Old adversaries Lush Lashes (Jim Bolger) and Halfwaytoheaven (Aidan O’Brien) are both entered in Saturday’s Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket but it is the action across the English Channel that will dominate the racing press.

Arc weekend is finally here and France’s big weekend, at Longchamp, starts Saturday with two Group 1 races dominating a quality card. Group 1 fillies Natagora and African Rose could clash with the much improved Paco Boy in the Prix De la Foret but Saturday is just the hors d’oeuvres before Sunday.

Five Group 1 Thoroughbred races and a valuable Purebred Arabian contest await Longchamp racegoers and the millions watching on TV worldwide. The feature, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, will see the amazing Zarakava bid to maintain her unblemished record. This is her stiffest task to date, mind you, and dangers appear aplenty.

Godolphin will rely on Schiaparelli in a race trainer Saeed Bin Surour has won three times, but not since 2002. They have never won the weekend’s big sprint and Dandy Man will try and remedy that in the Prix de L’Abbaye.

There are also Group 1 juvenile races for fillies (Prix Marcel Boussac), as well as the Grand Criterium which is open to all and they serve as a fascinating conclusion to a massive week in the two-year-old ranks; on Friday, Newmarket plays host to both the Cheveley Park (fillies) and Middle Park Stakes, both for juveniles and come Monday morning we look guaranteed to have a strong idea of their pecking order ahead of the winter.

Last week John Gosden’s Rainbow View established herself as the season’s leading two-year-old filly and it will take a major performance this week to usurp her position.