Timeform's top-rated Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winners this century including Sea The Stars and Enable
Timeform highlight the best Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winners since the turn of the century, based on the rating they achieved at Longchamp – or Chantilly.
1. Sea The Stars (2009) – Timeform rating 136
Sea The Stars lined up in the 2009 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe – his sixth Group One start in as many months – with his place among the best horses in Timeform's experience already assured whatever unfolded at Longchamp, an outstanding colt no doubt having strung together wins in the 2000 Guineas, Derby, Eclipse, Juddmonte International and Irish Champion.
19 runners went to post which made it one of the largest Arc fields in recent years, with the quantity rather than the quality of the field perhaps providing the main concern for connections. While the line-up contained eight other Group One winners, a good third of the field were either makeweights or pacemakers – the last six finishers started at 172/1, 100/1, 163/1, 151/1, 153/1 and 198/1 – and Sea The Stars had already defeated the pair the market considered his chief rivals, that season’s Irish Derby winner Fame And Glory (twice) and King George winner Conduit.
The race itself was far from plain sailing and Sea The Stars deserved extra credit for how he overcame a less-than-ideal run after fighting for his head as Mick Kinane tried to restrain him. Settling eventually about halfway down the main field on the inner, he still had a bit to do on the home turn, looking in danger of being crowded out as Getaway threatened to deliver a challenge on his inside. He then had to steer round the weakening pacemakers before quickening between the leaders to assert a furlong out, ultimately well on top at the finish.
By and large the cream rose to the top – the next five home were all Group One winners – and it was testament to the sheer class of Sea The Stars that he didn’t even need to reproduce his very best form to land the spoils by two lengths from Youmzain, capping a faultless three-year-old campaign which will live long in the memory.
2. Sakhee (2001) – Timeform rating 135
The eightieth running of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was all about Sakhee, a horse who had gone from strength to strength since returning from injury earlier in the year, and his performance at Longchamp more than confirmed the improvement he’d shown when winning the Juddmonte International by seven lengths on his previous start.
In testing conditions, Sakhee started favourite in a field of 17 which was without the likes of Galileo, Fantastic Light, Nayef and Morshdi. Still, the runners included the two best mile-and-a-half fillies in France, Aquarelliste and Diamilina; the previous year’s runner-up Egyptband; the 2000 Guineas winner Golan; the St Leger winner Milan; the last two winners of the Prix du Jockey Club, Holding Court and Anabaa Blue; and one of the best older horses in France, Hightori.
Not a vintage Arc perhaps, but the paying public were treated to a vintage performance in a race in which there were few hard-luck stories and no convincing ones. Sakhee had no difficulty travelling strongly, close to the pace, and he moved through readily to lead soon after entering the straight and proceeded to leave the others for dead, passing the post, pushed out, six lengths clear of Aquarelliste, who hadn't enjoyed an entirely smooth passage but still got clear in time to catch Sakhee if good enough. Three-year-old Sagacity, putting up his best performance, was a further length back in third, followed by Golan and Milan.
It was the first time in eight years the race had not been won by a three-year-old colt. Few championship races, let alone the Arc, are as good as over so far out or are won by as much as six lengths. Sakhee's margin matched the official ones for Ribot in 1956 and Sea Bird II in 1965, while Helissio's official five in 1996 was actually six, but, whichever way one looks at it, this was a magnificent display by a well-above-average Arc winner.
3= Sinndar (2000) – Timeform rating 134
The 2000 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe featured a much-publicised showdown between the Derby and Irish Derby winner Sinndar and the defending champion Montjeu. Both horses had been in action on Longchamp's day of Arc trials in September where it was Sinndar's eight-length demolition of his field in the Prix Niel which really took the eye. It was clear that Montjeu was going to have to be at his very best to keep Sinndar at bay.
With the likelihood of a much smaller field than usual in the Arc (for the first time since 1963 there were no British-trained runners), Sinndar's connections paid 400,000 francs to supplement Raypour as a pacemaker. It looked virtually a two-horse race – Montjeu started at 5/4-on, Sinndar at 6/4 coupled with his pacemaker – and it attracted only 10 runners, the smallest field since the race was elevated to a position of worldwide prominence by a sharp rise in its value in 1949.
In the event, however, the big clash failed to materialise as Montjeu produced a performance well below his best. Three-year-olds dominated the finish, Sinndar being rousted into the lead on the home turn after his pacemaker, recovering from a tardy start, had done his job. Sinndar kept on under firm handling to beat the Prix de Diane winner Egyptband by a length and a half, with another filly, Prix Vermeille winner Volvoreta, three lengths back in third. Montjeu, under conditions vastly different to the previous year, never looked like getting to grips with the winner in the home straight, finishing fourth, beaten a further two and a half lengths.
Still, it wasn’t Sinndar's fault that he had a relatively weak field to cope with, showing top-class form despite that to confirm his position as the season's top three-year-old, ahead of the spectacular 2000 Guineas winner King's Best and the prodigious Giant's Causeway. He also became just the fourth horse in the modern era to complete the Derby/Arc double after Sea Bird II, Mill Reef and Lammtarra, a feat trainer John Oxx repeated nine years later with Sea The Stars.
3= Hurricane Run (2005) – Timeform rating 134
The eighty-fourth running of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe brought together a fascinating mix of the classic generation and the older brigade. The principal three-year-old contenders included the Derby winner Motivator; Hurricane Run, the winner of the Irish equivalent and the Prix Neil; Scorpion, who had won the Grand Prix de Paris and the St Leger since chasing home Hurricane Run in the Irish Derby; and the Irish Oaks and Prix Vermeille winner Shawanda.
There were 15 in all in the line-up following the late withdrawal of Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud winner Alkaased with a cut leg. Azamour and Grey Swallow were other notable absentees among the older horses, as was the filly Ouija Board (third in 2004). The previous year's winner Bago was back in a field that looked a little stronger than in 2004, while Gold Cup winner Westerner and Alkaased's conqueror in the Prix Foy, the mare Pride, and the third in that trial, Hurricane Run's stable-companion Shirocco, were others representing the older generation.
The pacemakers for Shawanda and Westerner ensured a truly-run contest, which was run in a heavy shower, and, with the field five short of the maximum, there were fewer hard-luck stories afterwards than there sometimes are. Hurricane Run stamped himself the best middle-distance colt in Europe with a two-length win, but the manner of his victory was eventful.
Hurricane Run tended to run in snatches in the first part of the race and turned for home still among the backmarkers, being niggled along by Kieren Fallon. Having made a wide run in the Irish Derby, Fallon stuck to the inside in the Arc. Hurricane Run enjoying a relatively clear passage – squeezing his way through on the home turn – and quickened impressively once fully opened out. Switched inside Motivator, who had led halfway up the straight, as that horse came off the rail over a furlong out, Hurricane Run cut down the always prominent Westerner and won going away in the style of a top-notcher.
3= Treve (2013) – Timeform rating 134
There was drama in the build up to the 2013 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe as one of its main contenders, the King George winner Novellist, was ruled out the day before due to a fever. Frankie Dettori was also forced to miss the race after suffering a season-ending injury in a fall at Nottingham earlier in the week, with the plum ride on the unbeaten Prix de Diane and Prix Vermeille winner Treve instead going to Thierry Jarnet, who had won Arcs on Subotica and Carnegie in the ’nineties and had ridden Treve to her first three wins.
Treve was drawn 15 of 18, and, perhaps because she was the least experienced in the field, Jarnet steered a wide course, instead of easing her back and crossing to the inside, and she was without cover for much of the race, not really settling properly as rank outsider Joshua Tree dictated no more than a fair pace in the absence of any pacemakers or natural front runners.
Treve joined issue early in the straight, already looking the likely winner, and shot clear over a furlong out. She eventually won by an official margin of five lengths, beating the Japanese-trained favourite Orfevre, who filled the runner-up spot for the second year in a row. The Prix du Jockey Club winner Intello was a neck behind Orfevre in third, with another Japanese raider, Kizuna, keeping on for fourth, a further two lengths back.
Trained by Criquette Head-Maarek, who was winning her second Arc after the victory of Three Troikas in 1979, Treve was quite simply in a league of her own as she became the third consecutive filly to win the race after just one in the previous 17 renewals. Treve bettered the effort of the 2008 winner Zarkava to put up one of the best Arc-winning performances by a three-year-old filly – even if her winning margin was more like four lengths than the official five – and the best seen by one of her age/sex since Habibti's Prix de l'Abbaye success on the same card 30 years earlier.
3= Enable (2017) – Timeform rating 134
The 2017 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was hosted by Chantilly for the second year running while the redevelopment was completed at Longchamp. Chantilly’s track is tighter than that at Longchamp and John Gosden, trainer of the red-hot favourite in the shape of brilliant three-year-old filly Enable, felt that “things could well go wrong in an 18-runner field and I’d feel a lot more confident if the race was at Longchamp.”
Gosden need not have worried. Everything went like clockwork for Enable, with jockey Frankie Dettori keen not to end up trapped on the rail, from a potentially awkward draw in stall two, and quickly securing an ideal spot. Enable was settled behind a couple of the Ballydoyle runners, Idaho and Order of St George, as they set the pace, travelling with all her usual enthusiasm. She was sent to the front two furlongs out, soon bursting clear and then sustaining her run to win smoothly by two and a half lengths, well on top in the closing stages.
The Arc form had a solid look to it with Enable’s top-class performance matching that of Treve in the race at the same age. The Prix Ganay winner Cloth of Stars produced a career best to finish second, but he never looked like making any impression on the winner. Eclipse and Juddmonte International winner Ulysses came a creditable third, a further length and a quarter behind Cloth of Stars and a little closer to Enable than he had been in the King George at Ascot.
The Arc was Enable’s fifth Group One success on the bounce in a tough campaign – she’d already completed an Oaks treble as well as winning the King George – and her first Arc win was arguably her best ever performance as she put herself in the history books as the first three-year-old filly from Britain or Ireland to win Europe's richest race.
Other Arc winners this century ranked by Timeform rating:
133 – Dalakhani (2003)
132 – Rail Link (2006), Zarkava (2008), Workforce (2010), Golden Horn (2015), Waldgeist (2019)
131 – Danedream (2011)
130 – Bago (2004)
129 – Marienbard (2002), Treve (2014), Found (2016)
128 – Torquator Tasso (2021)
127 – Dylan Thomas (2007), Sottsass (2020)
126 – Enable (2018)
123 – Solemia (2012)
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