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Sottsass bows out in a blaze of glory
In an unusual renewal of the Arc de Triomphe, Sottsass gives victory to Peter Brant, the first US owner to win the race since Saumarez won for Bruce McNall in 1990, writes Jocelyn de Moubray
THE STRANGEST OF all Arc weekends took place in front of empty echoing stands, on the heaviest ground seen for at least 20 years, and with no runners trained by one of the O’Brien family.
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It is hard to say which of the three factors had the biggest influence on the spectacle the races provided, but nevertheless the Arc was of the highest standard and several horses put up performances to rank with those provided over recent decades.
White Birch Farm’s Sottsass won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe narrowly, but decisively, from In Swoop and Persian King. This was a first victory in the race for trainer Jean Claude Rouget and, as far as my records go, the first by a trainer in France not based at either Chantilly or Maisons Laffitte.
This would have been considered extraordinary in the 20th century, but like the fact that two of the three other Frenchtrained Group 1 winners at the weekend, Sealiway and Tiger Tanaka, came from Marseilles, nobody is surprised these days.
Rouget’s stable is split between Pau and Deauville, but Sottsass has spent most of his time in Deauville.
Peter Brant is the first US owner to win the race since Saumarez won in the colours of Bruce McNall in 1990 and Brant joins a select group, including Paul Mellon and Nelson Bunker Hunt, who won the race with Mill Reef and Vaguely Noble in the 1970s and 1960s.
Brant’s return to ownership in France and Europe has been a significant turning point for racing and breeding. He is, for the time being, about the most successful, but he is one of several American owners now showing an interest in buying, breeding and racing in Europe.
Brant currently has 15 horses in training with Rouget and has been a major player at auctions in France, Britain and Ireland in the four years since he returned to the world of bloodstock auctions at the Wildenstein Dispersal in 2016.
He has also purchased several highprofile horses-in-training, including Sottsass’s half-sister, the US champion filly Sistercharlie.
The boxes at Chantilly used to be full of horses belonging to Americans and Brant’s success may well encourage others to come to France.
François Boutin was convinced that the style and pace of French racing was the best preparation for going on to race in the US. Brant’s success in the US with horses who started their careers in France suggests that this may well still be the case.
Sottsass retires to stud at Coolmore the winner of six of his 12 starts, including three of the best Group 1s in Europe – the Prix du Jockey-Club, the Prix Ganay and the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
The son of Siyouni was unplaced on his seasonal debut at two, three and four, but was consistently top class on each of his other nine starts winning six, finishing third in the Arc at three, fourth in the Irish Champion Stakes at four and failing by only a neck to give 3ks to Skalleti at Deauville this August.
Sottsass’s winning time was the slowest in the Pric de l’Arc de Triomphe since Ivanjica won in 1976, it was 0.8 seconds slower than when Montjeu won on very heavy ground in 1999, and 1.6 seconds slower than Solemia’s win also on heavy ground in 2012.
It was 7.3sec slower than Waldgeist’s winning time last year when there was so much talk then about how soft the ground was.
This year the ground really was heavy, and with no O’Brien-trained horses to make the running, it was run at a steady early pace.
Pierre Charles Boudot is the leading jockey at ParisLongchamp these days and he logically took Persian King into the lead and tried to go as slowly in front as was possible in the hope of preserving his mount’s stamina.
The result was a race run in what is called “the French style” and, despite the ground and the distance covered, the first four home were sprinting through the final 400m.
SOTTSASS ran the final 400m 10 per cent faster than the race average, In Swoop, who was briefly out-speeded at the top of the straight, was still closing at the line and his last split was 11 per cent faster than his average. Persian King was accelerating, too, with his last 400m being eight per cent faster than his average for the race.
In 2019 Sottsass had run to a very similar rating when finishing third behind Waldgeist and Enable, in a race run at a break-neck pace from start to finish. Sottsass was simply a very high-class horse, who was able to adapt and shine in top races, however they were run.
The Arc de Triomphe is a very tough race and few three-year-old colts are able to compete successfully.
There are those who persist in believing that weight-for-age favours three-year-olds, but in the Arc this is clearly not the case.
In Swoop joins Golden Horn as one of only two three-year-old colts to finish in the first two in the last ten years.
Sottsass, New Bay, Intello and Masterstroke finished third in the same time period.
t was the slowest Arc since 1976 and 7.6sec slower than 2019, but in line with other heavy-ground Arcs
The Arc was only the fifth career start for Gestut Schlenderhan’s son of Adlerflug and the Francis Graffard-trained colt would have been to be the most likely winner of the 2021 Arc today.
On his second career start In Swoop finished third in a Group 2 at Lyon, only a length and a neck behind Gold Trip, who was an excellent fourth in the Arc.
In the Deutsches Derby, on his third start, he came from well off a very strong early pace to win what has turned out to have been an excellent edition – those he beat included the subsequent Group 1 winner Torquator Tasso and the Group 1 performers Kaspar and Dicaprio.
In Swoop then finished second to Mogul in the Grand Prix de Paris (G1) in September, finishing just ahead of Gold Trip. The pair may well have both improved on this on the softer ground in the Arc itself. The Arc was not the only major race at the weekend which developed into a sprint.
The Alain de Royer Dupre-trained filly ran her last 400m 15 per cent faster than the race average.
The same owner’s Tarnawa quickened even more impressively to win the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera, coming from miles off a slow early pace to beat the Group 1 winners Alpine Star, Audarya and Tawkeel.
The Dermot Weld-trained daughter of Shamardal is unbeaten in three starts at four and completed the rare double of the Prix Vermeille in September and the Opera three weeks later.
Tarnawa would surely have been competitive in the Arc itself as her finishing kick was most impressive.
She had eight fillies, including all of her serious rivals, in front of her at the halfway point of the race and yet her jockey Christophe Soumillon’s confidence was easily justified as she came with a run – her final 400m were 14 per cent faster than the race average, to win comfortably, if narrowly, from her top-class rivals.
Valia is the second foal of her dam Veda, who was second in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and comes from the prolific ‘V’ family of Vazira, Vadamos, Valixir and many others.
Tarnawa is the first foal of her dam Tarana who was a Listed winner and Group placed at four in Ireland. She is by far the best horse this family has produced for two generations.
A fine performance by Skalleti
The other significant race which turned into a finishing sprint was the Group 2 Prix Dollar won with another brilliant run from well off a slow pace by Jean Claude Seroul’s Kendargent gelding Skalleti.
Tarnawa (Shamardal) and Christophe Soumillon win the Prix de l Opera from Alpine Star and Audarya
Trained in Marseilles by Jerome Reynier Skalleti has now won 11 of his 14 starts. Bred by Guy Pariente at Haras de Colleville, he is the second of three full-brothers out of the Muhaymin mare Skallet, who was a Listed winner and Group-placed in Pariente’s colours after being bought out of a claimer for €42,100.
The three full-brothers have won 25 races and more than a €1 million in prize-money and premiums and are all still racing. Skalleti had defeated Sottsass on his previous start and is surely now ready to step up to Group 1 races.
He ran the last 400m in 24.26sec and made up some 4l on the Group 1-placed Patrick Sarsfield, who finished second.
A Wonderful day for Menuisier
The other major races at the weekend were run differently with a strong or even early pace. On Saturday, Wonderful Tonight, a daughter of Le Havre owned by Chris Wright and trained by David Menuisier, proved herself to be among the best of her generation in Europe by racing close to a strong early pace, but still having the reserves to repel the late challenge of Pista to win the Group 1 Prix de Royallieu over 2800m.
The early leaders Miss Yoda and Manuela De Vega returned the fastest splits of any horse at the weekend outside the Prix de l’Abbaye, and not surprisingly were well beaten by the time they reached the straight.
Wonderful Tonight had not been far off this pace, but on soft ground she looks to have limitless stamina and great speed.
Saturday’s other Group 1, the Prix du Cadran, over the marathon trip of 4000m was run at a furious pace.
Alkuin and Windstoss set off so fast that they covered the first 3000m faster than Valia did when winning her Group 2!
Windstoss was legless with 600m to run, but Alkuin was still more or less maintaining the same pace, while Princess Zoe, a five-year-old Jukebox Jury mare trained by Anthony Mullins, was slowly making ground from the rear having been some 8l behind with 1000m to run.
Princess Zoe had an official rating of only 64 when she moved to Mullins’ stable from Germany in March this year, but came into the French race off four consecutive wins in Ireland.
She had never raced over further than two miles before but saw out the trip well and managed to pass Alkuin in the final strides to win by a half length.
The remaining Group 1s for older horses saw a third Prix de la Forêt in a row for Lael Stables’ Fastnet Rock mare One Master.
Godolphin’s three-year-old Earthlight set a very fast pace and, while none of the principals were accelerating at the end of the race, One Master was able to come from behind and catch the leader in the final 50m to win by a neck.
Al Shaqab’s Wooded, a three-year-old son of Wootton Bassett trained by Francis Graffard, was a narrow winner of the Prix de l’Abbaye having been with the leaders more or less from the start and holding the late run of previous winner Glass Slipper.
It was not the best Abbaye of all time on the ratings, but it is rare for a three-yearold colt to win this race and Wooded was making only his second ever start at this distance.
Anthony Mullins with the elegant Princess Zoe
One Master: is out of a Pivotal mare and by Fastnet Rock, who is sire of 297 stakes performers, 29 Group 1 winners, 102 Group winners and 57 Listed winners
Two-year-old Group1s won by son of Galiway and daughter of Clodovil
THE TWO-YEAR-OLD Group 1s were both won by horses trained in Marseilles – Sealiway, the son of Galiway trained by Frederic Rossi, won the Prix Jean Luc Lagardère brilliantly by 8l, while Tiger Tanaka, a daughter of Clodovil trained by Charely Rossi, held the challenge of Tasmania to win the Marcel Boussac by three-quarters of a length.
Both races were run at a strong pace, Sealiway set an even faster pace than Earthlight did over the same distance later in the day and, if he was slowing down in the final 200m, his rivals were all well beaten by that stage.
Sealiway had looked good when winning on his debut in the first twoyear-old race after lockdown at the beginning of May and is clearly well suited to a fast pace or making his own running and enjoys soft ground.
He was bred and is part-owned by Guy Pariente and is from the second crop of the Haras de Colleville’s Galiway, a son of Galileo.
She stayed the 1600m well off a strong pace and never looked likely to be passed.
Tiger Tanaka was helped by the interference several of her main rivals suffered in the straight, but she is a filly who continues to surprise everybody.
Good as Tiger Tanaka is she is not the highest-rated two-year-old filly in France as Alain Jathiere’s Plainchant, a daughter of Gregorian trained at La Teste in the west of France by Italian ex-patriot Maurizio Guarnieri, is rated a pound higher.
Plainchant was a far cheaper purchase than Tiger Tanaka as she was bought as a yearling by Frederico Barberini for €4,000 at the Arqana October Sale.
She has won four of her six starts and on the last two looked to be an outstanding two-year-old.
On good to soft ground she won the Group 3 Prix Eclipse over 1200m in September by an easy 5l and followed up with another win in October on heavy ground in the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons Laffitte, run now at Chantilly.
In the Criterium she was pushed by the colt Go Athletico who finished within three-quarters of a length, but as the son of Goken had beaten Sealiway to win a Group 3 on his previous start this was still a fine performance.
On good ground, Plainchant has a great deal of speed and, if 1200m seemed to be her limit on heavy ground, she may be able to stay further in better conditions.
Goken has been the stallion revelation of the French season and the son of Kendargent has now had 13 winners from only 30 runners and in Go Athletico he has the third highest-rated colt in France.
The Sealiway team at ParisLongchamp: the son of Galiway is the sire’s first Group 1 winner
