Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is set to revolve around Treve’s bid for a unique hat-trick of victories in Europe’s most coveted all-aged prize, but Aidan O’Brien has his own star filly in Found who could attempt to secure her own slice of Arc history.
Just six Irish-trained horses have won the Longchamp spectacular and they comprise an exclusively male list of some of racing’s most evocative names such as dual-winner Alleged (1977-78), Sinndar (2000) and Sea The Stars (2009.)
However, the fact that no Irish-trained filly has ever won the Arc isn't preventing O'Brien from targeting Found at the race he won in 2007 with Dylan Thomas despite her never having run over a mile and a half.
Instead, last year's Prix Marcel Boussac heroine is rated as low as 12-1 in some ante-post Arc lists on the back of her admirable second to Golden Horn in the Irish Champion Stakes, after which Golden Horn's jockey Frankie Dettori nominated her as among the main threats to Treve.
"I suspect Treve and the three-year-olds – Jack Hobbs, Golden Horn, New Bay – and maybe Found will be the major players for the Arc," Dettori said.
Indications now are that John Gosden won't run both his Derby heroes, Jack Hobbs and Golden Horn, splitting them instead between Paris and the English Champion Stakes, with ground conditions at Longchamp this weekend likely to prove a factor.
“If the ground is good to soft or better, that would be great and Golden Horn would run and I’d think Jack Hobbs would then wait for the Champion Stakes. But we are very much in the hands of the weather and we’ll see how the ground plays,” said Gosden.
The Paris area is currently forecast to remain largely dry for much of this week, although significantly the going at Longchamp was reportedly on the soft side during the weekend.
Encouraging
O’Brien tried to dethrone Treve in last year’s Arc with another three-year-old filly, Tapestry, and she could return to Longchamp on Sunday for the 10-furlong Prix de l’Opéra after her hugely encouraging return to action behind Ribbons in the Blandford Stakes.
Tapestry may be joined by Jim Bolger’s double-Group 1 winner Pleascach, fourth to Golden Horn in the Irish Champion Stakes on her last start.
Ireland's 2014 Horse of the Year Sole Power will have a fifth career start in the Prix de l'Abbaye and trainer Eddie Lynam will hope his stalwart performer can reverse a regressive form graph in the five-furlong Group 1.
This weekend’s Group 1 action will also include Newmarket’s Sun Chariot Stakes which has 18 entries still left in it, including David Wachman’s star filly Legatissimo.
