Trois Fois?

Overcoming an unfavorable draw in 2013 and turning around a substandard season when following up last year, Al Shaqab Racing’s Treve (Fr) (Motivator {GB}) arguably has everything in her favor for the first time as she bids for history in Sunday’s G1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at a sun-shrouded Longchamp. Dynamic on the testing ground that halts the progress of others, the 5-year-old has nevertheless shown enough class on this faster surface to suggest that the drying conditions will have little impact on her prospects. Encountering this type of going when bounding to prominence in winning the 2013 G1 Prix de Diane and when slamming her rivals to surprise the nay-sayers in this 12 months ago, the bay also had lively turf to contend with when registering a straightforward victory in the June 28 G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. With her emphatic six-length score in the G1 Prix Vermeille over this track and trip three weeks ago having burnt a hole in everyone’s recent memory, it is no surprise that she is close to odds-on to prevail in her unprecedented mission.

If there is one trainer who can retain composure in such a high-pressure environment, it is Criquette Head-Maarek and she is remaining calm at the center of the whirlpool of excitement and anxiety. “I’ve got no pressure. I’m taking her to the race like I would take any other horse,” she explained. “I am not someone who is nervous. For me, it doesn’t make any difference. It is a blessing for a trainer to get a horse like that and you enjoy every moment of it.” Returned from the paddocks as connections changed heart over carrying on with her racing career, her conditioner believes that brief respite from training led to a new resurgence in the mare. “She spent four months turned out last winter and that was very good for her. That healed up all the little problems. Her foot came back good and we put different shoes on her and she is very comfortable. The Vermeille didn’t take anything out of her and I would say she will come on for that, as she was short of competition. She ran exactly the same as the first year she won the Arc and for me she is back to where she was when she was a 3-year-old, she is back to her best. She is better at Longchamp and she has an amazing memory, that mare. This year she hasn’t put a foot wrong and everything is better. She is way above anything that I’ve trained–it is that turn of foot she has got, it is incredible. Treve is making people come racing, which is very good–she has thousands of followers.”

New Threat…

Whether Khalid Abdullah’s New Bay (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) represents any greater danger than the likes of the fellow Andre Fabre-trained Intello (Ger) (Galileo

{Ire}) that she readily brushed aside two years ago remains to be seen, as like that past talent he has won the G1 Prix du Jockey Club and is best of his country’s generation and sex. He was imperious when winning the course-and-distance prep, the Sept. 13 G2 Prix Niel, that has been such an important guide to this in recent times and the homebred also had the speed to run second in the G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains here May 10 three weeks before his Chantilly Classic victory. “Everyone knows you have to go into any major race in the best form and generally without interruption. So far, that’s happened to him,” racing manager Teddy Grimthorpe said. “I think we go there with excitement. A lot of people expect Treve to win and why wouldn’t they? Her CV is pretty unimpeachable and her trainer’s for that matter, in this race. If you had Treve you’d be pretty excited, but we’re going to try and do our best to upset that. We’ve got more to prove than Treve has, no question about that, but the way we’ve come into the race we’re very pleased with everything.” Jockey Vincent Cheminaud added, “He did what we expected him to do in the Niel and has definitely improved in his work since. We don’t know his limitations and we’ll find out here.”

Free Pass…

As usual, Ireland is well represented in this showpiece without boasting the likes of something in the mold of Sea the Stars (Ire) or Sinndar (Ire) or even Dylan Thomas (Ire). Leading the way is Moyglare Stud’s 4-year-old Free Eagle (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}), who is racing for only the seventh time but who already has the most recent renewal of Royal Ascot’s G1 Prince of Wales’s S. on his resume having won that on his seasonal debut June 17. Beaten by Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}) in Leopardstown’s G1 Irish Champion S. over 10 furlongs Sept. 12, the homebred was hampered by that rival late on which probably cost him second to Ballydoyle’s filly Found (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). Fiona Craig, breeding advisor for owners Moyglare Stud, said, “Dermot [Weld] has been very happy with him since Leopardstown–I don’t think he could be in better form. It will be his first run over a mile and a half, but his pedigree suggests he should get it and Pat [Smullen] has been adamant ever since he was a 2-year-old that he would. We always hoped he could be a Derby horse as a 3-year-old, but unfortunately he got a problem. We haven’t really had the opportunity to run him over a mile and a half. Criquette is running a pacemaker, which is no surprise and I think we can be pretty sure we’re going to get a true-run race. The only ground he wouldn’t want is holding, and it’s not going to be that.”

TDN Rising Star Found was finally stepping up to a trip she looked likely to thrive over when runner-up in the Irish Champion over a mile and a quarter, having finished second in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas at The Curragh May 24 and G1 Coronation S. at Royal Ascot June 19. Whether last year’s G1 Prix Marcel Boussac heroine needs this far remains to be seen and Aidan O’Brien, who also saddles last year’s G1 Yorkshire Oaks winner and fellow TDN Rising Star Tapesty (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), has his doubts. “Her dam ran over a mile, but she’s by Galileo, who is usually a big influence for stamina. You’d think and hope she would [stay], but you can’t be sure until they do it,” he said. “She’s a filly who was top-class over a mile. She has been in good form since Leopardstown and has not done too much. She bends her knees a lot and goes on soft ground, but I think she will be okay on good ground. She loved Longchamp last year. We said if everything went well, she’d have an easy enough spring and we’d train her for the Arc and that’s what we’ve done. She is stepping up to a mile and a half and realistically we are going there to give her a chance. She could always come back again next year.”

Outsiders With a Squeak…

When you have the likes of His Highness The Aga Khan’s G1 Dubai Sheema Classic scorer Dolniya (Fr) (Azamour {Ire}), Jean-Francois Gribomont’s G1 Grosser Preis von Baden hero Prince Gibraltar (Fr) (Rock of Gibraltar {Ire}), Godolphin’s G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly winner Manatee (GB) (Monsun {Ger}) and Lady Bamford’s G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. runner-up Eagle Top (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) all trading at bigger than 40-1 by mid-afternoon on Saturday, it is clear that you have an above-average renewal of this great race. Of this quartet, it is the latter who is perhaps the forgotten horse being in the shadow of his stable companion Golden Horn and coming off a disappointing third in the 11-furlong G3 Arc Trial at Newbury a fortnight ago. The homebred has been brought along steadily by John Gosden who was quick to draw attention to his comprehensive defeat of Adelaide (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) when the ground rode fast in Royal Ascot’s G2 King Edward VII S. last June. “Eagle Top is worthy of his place after his fine run when second in the King George,” his trainer told the Racing Post. “He then detested the holding ground at Newbury in his trial, but it is best to remember he ran his best race at Royal Ascot last year when beating Adelaide by three lengths on fast ground.”