Longchamp on the suburbs of Paris hosts the Group 1 Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe on Sunday, Autumn's highlight of the racing calendar. There's a stellar cast once again assembled with the best middle distance thoroughbred horses in Europe in action, as well as a couple from Japan. Favourite is the Alain De Royer-Dupre trained Sarafina, but there's a strong challenge from Britain and Ireland with last year's winner Workforce returning and Aiden O'Brien's stable star So You Think both entered.
Four year old Sarafina isn't the strongest of favourites going into Sunday's race, drifting out to 4/1 with William Hill following the news that she has been drawn thirteen. A winner on her last three starts, including the Group 1 Grand Prix De Saint Cloud last June, she's a course and distance winner who'll be getting a fillies allowance of three pounds on some of her male counterparts.
Unlike Sarafina, So You Think has been getting market support and the five year old is now joint favourite at odds of 4/1 with bookmaker William Hill. The former Australian racehorse has had a cracking first season for trainer Aidan O'Brien picking up four Group wins out of five, three of which were Group 1's. Victories include the Tattersalls Gold Cup, Coral Eclipse and most recently the Irish Champion Stakes where he beat another of Sunday's entrants Snow Fairy by half a length at Leopardstown. The horse is an absolute brute and picked up five Group wins in the space of 63 days down under around this time of year before just getting edged out under top weight in the Melbourne Gold Cup when trained by Bart Cummings.
His only blip on his CV this season was when he was caught on the line in the Prince Of Wales's Stakes by Rewilding at Royal Ascot in June. He was tactically undone that day by Frankie Dettori who incidentally picked up a ban for excessive whip use, so with the likes of St Nicholas Abbey and Treasure Beach in the field, O'Brien will have mapped out the ideal pace for this horse and he would be our tip for Arc glory.
Next best could be the French trained filly Galikova, half sister to Goldikova, the multiple group winner who is running earlier on Sunday's Longchamp card. A winner on three of her four starts as a three year old this season in France, she can continue the trend of three year old's winning the race (7 of last 8 runnings). She also gets a three year old fillies weight allowance giving her nine pounds advantage on So You Think and looks to have a very good each-way chance at odds of 13/2 with William Hill.
Other entries include last year's winner Workforce at 8/1. The Sir Michael Stoute trained four year old doubled up with the Derby and this twelve months ago but has seen the backside of So You Think this season in the Coral Eclipse and he's not a horse you can back with a great deal of trust. Snow Fairy was beaten just half a length by So You Think in the Irish Champion Stakes but is treble the price here and with a weight allowance, whilst last year's runner up Nakayama Festa from Japan has another crack at a big price.
Nap: So You Think @ odds of 4/1 with William Hill.
NB: Galikova (each-way) @ odds of 13/2 with William Hill.
Latest Arc de Triomphe Odds
4/1 Sarafina
4/1 So You Think
13/2 Galikova
8/1 Workforce
12/1 Snow Fairy
12/1 Meandre
12/1 Reliable Man
12/1 Hiruno D'Amour
14/1 Masked Marvel
16/1 Danedream
25/1 Nakayama Festa
33/1 St Nicholas Abbey
33/1 Treasure Beach
50/1 Shareta
50/1 Testosterone
100/1 Silver Pond
Odds supplied by Williamhill.com.
Posted: Friday, 30th September 2011
Author: Russell Lloyd
Tags: arc de triomphe, so you think, tips, galikova, william hill,
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