A field of 15 is primed and ready for the 2023 running of the highlight of the French flat season, if not the global highlight, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp.
Favourite for the race, according to William Hill, is 3.50 chance Ace Impact, who will be hoping to have just that for trainer J-C Rouget.
After starting his career with three straight victories earlier in 2023, he got his first big win in the Prix du Jockey Club, a Group 1 for three-year-olds at Chantilly.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: October 1st, 11:30 A.M. (BST)
Another win in a Group 2 at Deauville means he comes into the Arc unbeaten and will be partnered again by Cristian Demuro, his jockey for all but one of those wins.
Twice Ace Impact’s age but also in winning form is Hukum, on a three-race unbeaten run that stretches back over a year for Owen Burrows and Jim Crowley.
The most recent win was the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Ascot, while the first was the Coronation Cup at Epsom in June 2022. He is at 7.50.
Hukum beat Westover (8.00) into second place at Royal Ascot, who has finished runner-up in three of his four outings since finishing sixth in this race last year. The only other of the four, however, was a victory, which the four-year-old took in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud earlier in July.
After making a good impression in Germany, 9.00 shot Fantastic Moon prepared ideally for today’s test by winning the Group 2 Prix Niel at Longchamp last month. The German Derby winner will be ridden by 2021 winner Rene Piechuluk, as usual.
Aidan O’Brien’s only runner is 11.00 shot Continuous, ridden by Ryan Moore. The winning team of the St Leger as fortnight ago have proven that no distance or going is an issue for this colt.
Feed The Flame (12.00) was second to Fantastic Moon in the Prix Neil, while five-year-old mare Through Seven Seas (12.00) is racing outside Japan for the first time. Bay Bridge was second in the Irish Gold Cup but then ran poorly at Royal Ascot, and is at 17.00.
It would be some story if, on 21.00 chance Free Wind, Frankie Dettori won his final Arc de Triomphe. The Italian already is the race’s most successful jockey with six wins, most recently in 2018 on Enable.
Free Wind was a promising second in the Yorkshire Oaks in August, but this is another level today.
It’s 26.00 bar the final six in the running.
