Ace Impact: all you need to know about the Arc favourite

It’s 20 years since Dalakhani became the last colt to complete the double of the Prix du Jockey Club and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the same year. That was when ‘the French Derby’ was a better description of the Prix du Jockey Club than it is nowadays as it was still run over a mile and a half; Dalakhani won the penultimate running over its traditional distance before it was reduced by a furlong and a half in 2005.

That was a controversial move at the time, but the race in its new format is currently enjoying a purple patch of high-class winners, with the latest Jockey Club winner, Ace Impact, bidding to follow in the footsteps of the previous four winners Sottsass, Mishriff, St Mark’s Basilica and Vadeni who all went on to further success at Group 1 level.

Ace Impact therefore became Jean-Claude Rouget’s third winner of the Jockey Club in the last five renewals and his sixth all told. Sottsass was the first Jockey Club winner to go on to win the Arc since Dalakhani, though he did so as a four-year-old in 2020 – a first Arc winner for Rouget – having finished third behind older rivals Waldgeist and Enable the year before. Vadeni went very close to giving Rouget another Arc winner last year, beaten half a length into second behind five-year-old mare Alpinista.

Although he had won all three of his races prior to the Prix du Jockey Club, Ace Impact’s form left him with plenty more improvement to find at Chantilly. Unraced at two, he’d started off winning a newcomers race on the all-weather at Cagnes-sur-Mer at the end of January, followed up in a minor event at Bordeaux in April and completed his hat-trick when keeping on well to win a listed race at Chantilly in May, the same one which Sottsass had won prior to his Jockey Club.

But much like Sottsass and Vadeni, Ace Impact proved a revelation on the big day at Chantilly, producing a high-class performance to leave the ‘form horses’ Big Rock and Marhaba Ya Sanafi trailing in his wake. Big Rock was sent off favourite after winning his last four, while Marhaba Ya Sanafi was bidding for a classic double after winning the Poule d’Essai des Poulains. Big Rock set out to make all as usual but had no answer when the patiently-ridden Ace Impact flew past him well inside the final furlong to win by three and a half lengths, in the process breaking the track record which Sottsass had set four years earlier.

Big Rock has since finished runner-up in two more Group 1 contests back at a mile, while Ace Impact had some big future winners – and potential Arc rivals - further back in the field behind him at Chantilly, with Feed The Flame in fourth going on to win the Grand Prix de Paris and Continuous, who was only eighth, a much better colt now after winning the Great Voltigeur and St Leger.

Form-wise, Ace Impact is best judged on that high-class performance at Chantilly rather than his latest success at Deauville last month which didn’t require him to run to anything like the same level. He accomplished his task readily, though, in a race where he had the services of a pacemaker and won the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano with three quarters of a length to spare from the Joseph O’Brien-trained Al Riffa, winner of last season’s National Stakes. Ace Impact has therefore had a similar build-up to the Arc as stablemate Al Hakeem last year, who ran a career-best race to finish fourth at Longchamp, having filled the same position in the Jockey Club between wins in the listed race at Chantilly which Ace Impact won and the Guillaume d’Ornano.

While there seems to be a general assumption every year in racing that ‘it’ll be soft ground for the Arc’, that’s certainly not the case every time, and with a largely warm and sunny forecast up to and including next weekend, conditions in Paris ought to be ideal for Ace Impact who bounced off going firm enough to produce a track record at Chantilly, as we said. For the record, his Bordeaux win came on soft ground, though that looks like proving academic if the forecast is right.

Ace Impact has raced only at around a mile and a quarter so far but gives the impression that he’ll have no problem staying the Arc trip, particularly under conditions not expected to tax stamina. There’s every encouragement on that score from his breeding too. He’s the stand-out performer from the first crop of dual Champion Stakes winner Cracksman whose wins over a mile and a half included an Arc trial, the Prix Niel, while Ace Impact’s dam is by Anabaa Blue, another who won the Prix du Jockey Club when it was still run over a mile and a half.

There are some very good middle-distances horses further back in Ace Impact’s family, including Derby winner Australia whose dam Ouija Board was a fine third in her Arc bid as a three-year-old.

Three other French-trained horses to note over Arc weekend

BELBEK

Last year’s Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Belbek has largely struggled to make an impact so far this season but showed definite signs of peaking again for the Arc meeting last time. Andre Fabre has him in the Prix Daniel Wildenstein on Saturday and the Prix de la Foret on Sunday, and the former race makes the more appeal as he would escape a penalty in the Group 2 contest over a mile.

Belbek seemed to appreciate the rather belated step up to that trip on his latest start in the Prix du Moulin at Longchamp earlier this month where he caught the eye in staying on for fifth behind Sauterne, recording the fastest last three furlongs in the field and faring best of those held up. That was much the best effort of his career and a repeat of that would give him leading claims back down in grade.

BEAUVATIER

Two-year-old colt Beauvatier is unbeaten in four starts for Yann Barberot and looks a very interesting runner in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. He’s been going through the grades, with his last couple of wins coming in a listed race at Deauville and a Group 3 over the Lagardere course and distance.

There’s been plenty to like about the style of Beauvatier’s last couple of wins, where he’s shown an impressive turn of foot to put those races to bed, even if the form has been nothing to write home about, though Deauville runner-up Zabiari has won a Group 3 himself since.

But there was more substance in Beauvatier’s earlier beating of top French two-year-old filly Ramatuelle in a minor event at Saint-Cloud; the runner-up, who goes for the Cheveley Park Stakes on Saturday, has shown smart form since, her only other defeat coming against another unbeaten colt Vandeek in the Prix Morny, and Beauvatier surely has a bigger performance in him when the occasion demands it.

SAUTERNE

Kinross will doubtless be a popular choice to win the Prix de la Foret for the second year running but he won a substandard renewal last year and will have more to do this time if Sauterne, who’s by the same sire, Kingman, is anywhere near her best.

Patrice Cottier’s three-year-old filly has done nothing but thrive all year, starting out on the all-weather in the winter and winning a listed race over the Foret course and distance in the spring before progressing with virtually every run since in better company.

After three Group 1 placings, it seemed she had found her ceiling at the top level, but she took another step forward to land the Prix du Moulin at Longchamp earlier this month. Showing no signs of her arduous campaign catching up with her, Sauterne, who often makes her own running, was able to get a lead from Big Rock on this occasion and then found plenty in the closing stages to beat the favourite a length. The drop back to seven furlongs shouldn’t trouble her.

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