IT was billed as one of the best Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes for years.
All the top middle-distance horses in Europe appeared to have turned up for Longchamp’s end-of-season decider.
Now, after German raider Torquator Tasso caused a massive shock, some seem to think the race has to be moved forward to try to avoid a repeat of such a testing-ground travesty.
No one wants to say it out loud, that the call to bring the historic race forward is down to the surprise, but certainly not lucky, result. But it clearly is.
Had Tarnawa, Hurricane Lane or Adayar held off the charge of the two-time German Group 1 winner, you wouldn’t have heard a peep out of anyone. The result would have confirmed the pre-race hype.
Now, Europe’s congested racing calendar is meant to bend its pages to accommodate those who don’t like to get their shoes damp on Arc day.
Olivier Delloye, chief executive of racing rulers across the Channel, France Galop, is open to the idea, suggesting it could shunt forward a week.
Yep, that’s seven days. It might mean the Arc is run in September rather than October but it would surely make little difference where the ground is concerned.
After all, you may have noticed that the weather isn’t all that predictable and a quick flick through the recent going descriptions for Longchamp’s biggest day suggests it’s not as bad as those with jerking knees would have you believe.
Admittedly, the last two Arcs have been run on heavy ground and it was very soft when Waldgeist swooped to deny Enable a historic third win in the great contest.
It’s also been run on ground officially described as good five times in the last ten years.
Compare that to Longchamp’s Arc Trials day three weeks earlier. In the same time, the Prix Niel, Foy and Vermeille, have also been run on good ground five times, twice on soft, once on good to soft and once on very soft (that adds up to nine as trials day wasn’t held in 2020).
So, even if the Arc was brought forward three weeks, it would still run the risk of testing going. To move it by a week, with the climate changing to seemingly more intense bursts of rain, is not going to help much but it could have a devastating effect on some of the other races.
Hurricane Lane headed to Longchamp three weeks and a day after adding the St Leger to his Irish Derby and Grand Prix de Paris victories.
Reducing the gap to a fortnight would mean the world’s oldest Classic would suffer another blow and this time it could be terminal.
There is just no way anyone would consider running an Arc contender at Doncaster 15 days before the Europe’s most prestigious middle-distance prize. To the top-bracket three-year-olds the St Leger would have the pulling power of a 1986 Mini Metro.
With it any dreams of another Triple Crown winner would disappear. They might as well bury one of the hardest-to-win prizes in British racing on Town Moor.
Maybe, that doesn’t bother those who are willing to sacrifice nearly 250 years of history in the hope for better ground in France but it should.
British racing is based on history and tradition. To condemn the St Leger to second-class status in the misguided pursuit of better ground in France would be a destructive decision.
It’s been more than 50 years since Nijinsky won the 2000 Guineas, Derby ad St Leger to become the first post-war Triple Crown winner.
Attempts to become the 16th horse to land all three Classics come along about as often as Halley’s Comet but Camelot went agonisingly close in 2012.
It is still hugely relevant to owners with an appreciation of racing history but there is little chance of any top three-year-old – of which Hurricane Lane is clearly one – taking in the Leger 15 days before the Arc.
Unless someone at France Galop has got access to a 12-month weather forecast with 100 per cent guaranteed accuracy any decision to move the Arc would be folly.
Leave it as it is and give those soft-ground horses their chance to shine.
