John Ingles assesses the main French hopes for Sunday's big race, including Aventure and Sosie who made the frame last year.
Aventure
Last year’s runner-up Aventure looks to be France’s best chance of keeping the prize at home. She has already gone one better than last year when winning her trial, the Prix Vermeille, having finished runner-up to Bluestocking in that race, as well as in the Arc, last autumn. With Whirl trailing home last of the six runners, the Vermeille took less winning than expected and Aventure didn’t need to be at her best, but she quickened well to land her first Group 1 and, in showing her wellbeing after a ten-week break, it was a highly satisfactory trial.
Christophe Ferland has built her whole campaign around a second Arc bid, starting with straightforward tasks against other older fillies in the Prix Allez France and Prix Corrida in the spring before she came up against Calandagan in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. He would surely have been Arc favourite himself had he been eligible to run. Not the least of Aventure’s assets is her consistency. She has only once finished out of the first two in her dozen starts and even then was beaten less a length into fourth in last season’s Prix de Diane. She’s evidently versatile in terms of ground, handling firmer conditions last time than she has faced before.
Cualificar
In an Arc field set to be light on European three-year-old colts, Cualificar takes his chance for Fabre and Godolphin, though has something to find on form despite prominent showings in the Prix du Jockey Club and Prix Niel. Out of Oaks winner Qualify, Cualificar won a couple of Group 3 contests, the Prix La Force and Prix de Guiche, before taking his chance in a big field for the Jockey Club where he showed improved form, challenging through the final two furlongs and keeping on to go down by half a length to Camille Pissarro.
As a result, Cualificar was sent off odds on for the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano at Deauville in August but didn’t have the pace to trouble the Arc-bound Japanese winner Alohi Alii and finished only third after taking a good hold. But stepping up to a mile and a half for the first time and with William Buick back on board, who had ridden him at Chantilly, Cualificar did well to land the Prix Niel, finding the gaps in time to get up for a short-neck win over Bay City Roller. However, with most of the field finishing in a heap, it looks a lesser renewal than the one Sosie had won last year, and while Cualificar was Fabre’s thirteenth winner of the Niel, more will be needed if he’s to become his trainer’s ninth winner of the Arc.
Daryz
Barring his run in the Juddmonte International when he was eventually eased off to finish last of the six behind Ombudsman, Daryz has done nothing but improve since making his debut at Longchamp in April and he’s a very interesting runner for Francis-Henri Graffard in the colours of the late Aga Khan in what will be his first try at a mile and a half. He’s very much bred to be suited by the extra distance, though, as he’s by Arc winner Sea The Stars – like Aventure and Sosie – and out of the very smart filly Daryakana who won the Prix de Royallieu at the Arc meeting as well as the Hong Kong Vase.
Daryz went rapidly through the grades in the spring and early-summer, winning his first four starts, notably when showing a turn of foot to beat Bay City Roller in a steadily-run Prix Eugene Adam at Saint-Cloud. After losing his unbeaten record at York, Daryz wasted no time resuming his progress in the Prix du Prince d’Orange back at Longchamp. While he failed by only a short head against the Japanese Derby winner Croix du Nord, he didn’t get the run of the race, having to switch from behind a wall of horses to deliver his challenge out wide and finishing well. Clearly still progressing and with the longer trip expected to suit, he could well outrun his odds.
Gezora
Francis-Henri Graffard is enjoying an excellent season, registering his tenth Group 1 success of the year in Germany last weekend, and being the best part of €2.5m clear of perennial champion Andre Fabre in the French trainers’ title. But as geldings, neither of his high-class mile and a half performers Calandagan nor Goliath can contest the Arc which leaves him relying instead on three-year-olds Daryz and the Prix de Diane winner Gezora who is also entered in the Prix de l’Opera. Gezora did well at two when trained by Nicolas Le Roch, winning the Prix des Reservoirs on heavy ground at Deauville on her final start last year.
She has improved further this year and emulated her dam Germance when winning the Prix Saint-Alary at Longchamp in May. Gezora then went one better than her dam by following up in the Diane when tongue tied for the first time. She wasn’t entered for the Arc, but her Diane win earned her an automatic entry and the way she stayed on to lead well inside the final furlong suggested she would stay a mile and a half. She proved as much with a good second to Aventure in the Prix Vermeille when given a considerate ride returning from nearly three months off. Gezora will need to improve a good deal more to have a say in the Arc but she’s generally progressive and unexposed at the trip.
Sosie
Sosie gives his owners Wertheimer et Frere a second leading contender alongside Aventure, just like last year when he was sent off favourite and beaten just over four lengths into fourth. Unlike last year, when he went into the Arc after winning the Prix Niel, he was beaten in another of the trials, the Prix Foy, this time but his form has improved a little this year. Indeed, he returned with a couple of Group 1 wins at Longchamp in the spring in the Prix Ganay and Prix d’Ispahan before an unsuccessful Eclipse bid. That run at Sandown is best ignored as he departed from usual tactics in setting out to make all but finished last of the six behind Delacroix.
However, he soon put that behind him in the Prix Foy at the beginning of September which turned out to be the strongest of the three Arc trials, leading briefly inside the final furlong before going down by half a length to the Japanese colt Byzantine Dream. Andre Fabre’s trial runners regularly take a step forward in the Arc, so Sosie shouldn’t be far away again. Jockey bookings will be interesting as Maxime Guyon has ridden Sosie in all his races to date but he might find it harder to part with Aventure (ridden by Stephane Pasquier in last year’s Arc) this time.
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