11 minute read
Torque of the town
Torquator Tasso’s Arc victory was not such a surprise to Jocelyn de Moubray
TORQUATOR TASSO created a huge surprise when winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for Gestüt Auenquelle, his young trainer Marcel Weiss, who is based in Mulheim, and jockey
The son of Adlerflug may have been sent off a 72-1 shot, but there was no fluke at all about his comfortable three-quarter length and short-head defeat of two of the race’s favourites Tarnawa and Hurricane Lane.
In many ways Torquator Tasso won a race which was not run to suit him – he won despite the slow early pace and being forced to race wide without cover from his draw in box 12. He won because at the end of the race he showed the best tactical speed – he ran the final 400m seven per cent faster than his race average and was able to hold the challenges of Tarnawa and Hurricane Lane, running the fastest of the entire field when covering the final 200m in 12.44s.
France Galop’s excellent tracking figures show that he ran further than any other runner – a full 3m further than Tarnawa and 2m further than Hurricane Lane.
If the race had gone his way Torquator Tasso would surely have won more even comfortably, and by further.
Those who read my column last month will not have been all that surprised as I pointed out then that Torquator Tasso has been a high-class performer for two seasons now. He came very close to beating last year’s Arc runner up In Swoop in the Deutsches Derby and on his previous start had beaten this year’s Derby winner Sisfahan to win the Grosser Preis von Baden in an excellent time, one which had only been bettered in recent years by Borgia, Pilsudski and Lando, all of whom were placed in the Arc on their subsequent start.
Torquator Tasso had an unblemished record as a four-year-old as, before Baden-Baden, he had looked very good indeed when winning a Group 2 in Hamburg by four and a half lengths on his second start of the year. He had finished second to Kirsten Rausing’s very high-class Frankel filly Alpinista in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Berlin with the subsequent Grade 1 winner Walton Street behind him in third.
The British racing press pays little or no attention to racing in Germany and so its dismissal of Torquator Tasso’s chance before the race was hardly a surprise. It is strange that the French racing world is almost equally oblivious and dismissive of racing on the other side of the Rhine.
Equidia shows German racing live on a fairly regular basis, it pays German racecourses to run early in the day to fit into their schedule, and German-trained horses have become a part of most days’ racing in France.
GERMAN-TRAINED HORSES have already won more than 180 races in France this year, as well as the Arc. If German horses are good enough to win races regularly in France – Listed races, big handicaps, two-year-old races and more or less every other type of race, too – it shouldn’t be all that surprising that the best German-trained horses are good enough to compete in the best races.
Torquator Tasso’s Arc was in several different ways an extension of long term trends in the race.
Of the 20 Arc winners in the 21st century he is, after Danedream, the second to be trained in Germany, while France has had nine winners, Britain five and Ireland four.
However, if you include Waldgeist, who is by Galileo and from a German female family –he is out of the Monsun mare Waldlerche from the famous ‘W’ family developed by Gestüt Ravensburg – this year’s winner is the third Arc winner with a strong German heritage from the last nine years.
This is surprising indeed when you compare the number of foals born each year in Germany, about 850, compared to the 20,000 born in France, England and Ireland, but then Germany is the last European country where more or less every breeder is trying to produce a horse to run over 1m4f.
The Arc is often won by outsiders. Enable is the only favourite to have won recently and other surprises have included Solemia at 33-1, Danedream at 20-1, Waldgeist at 13-1 and Treve 11-1.
If you go further back Urban Sea, the dam of Galileo and the Arc winner Sea The Stars, won the race at 37-1 back in 1993.
This makes it a difficult race to be sure about in advance, but those of us who follow German racing had the impression Torquator Tasso is a very good horse – but he could only prove that ability by taking on the best outside his own country.
The same is, of course, true of Godolphin’s pair Hurricane Lane and Adayar – they had looked very good when winning Classic races in England and Ireland, but still had to prove themselves against the best from further afield.
While the sectional time experts such as Simon Rowlands have shown that the Arc is not always run at a strong pace, it is always a competitive race and only the dual winners Treve and Enable have won by more than 2l in recent years.
The other trend highlighted again by this year’s race is how difficult this most competitive of races has become for threeyear-old colts. In recent years only Golden Horn and In Swoop have managed to finish first or second at three, and there is a long list of top class three-year-olds, starting with Hurricane Lane and Adayar, who tried and failed to do so.
When the Prix du Jockey-Club was still run over 1m4f, the French-trained threeyear-old colts used to win regularly, horses such as Dalakhani, Montjeu, Peintre Celebre, but since then the only one to do so was Rail Link back in 2006.
Hurricane Lane is the first winner of the Grand Prix de Paris in July to play any role in the finish of the same year’s Arc since Rail Link won both races in 2006. For a three-year-old to have a chance of winning the Arc it has, it appears, to run in a Classic race over 1m4f beforehand, and the Grand Prix de Paris has not been able to take on the role the Jockey-Club used to have.
In England and Ireland the 1m4f Classic races are just not as competitive as they were even just ten years ago. The only Frenchtrained three-year-old colt to finish in the first two in the Arc recently was In Swoop, who had run in a Classic race over 1m4f when narrowly defeating Torquator Tasso in the Deutsches Derby in Hamburg.
Space Blues: interesting stallion prospect
Not every race on Arc day was slowly run as, despite the heavy ground, Space Blues and, to some degree, Pearls Galore and the Japanese-trained Entscheiden, put up a spectacular time in the Group 1 Prix de la Forêt over 7f.
Godolphin’s Charlie Appleby-trained son of Dubawi came from well off the pace to catch Pearls Galore and Entscheiden, who had been with the leaders from the start, to win by 2l in a time of 1m22.97, faster than three of the previous four runnings of the race.
All three were slowing down and ran the final 200m slower than their race average, but it is remarkable they were still travelling as fast as they were, and none of the others who had waited behind were ever able to get into the race at all.
The five-year-old Space Blues had looked very good when winning the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest in Deauville last year in a similar come-from-behind style.
Space Blues will be a very interesting stallion prospect when the time comes as, aside from his looks and ability, he is more or less an outcross as he has no Danzig or Sadler’s Wells in his pedigree. He is also inbred to Shirley Heights, as are many of Dubawi’s best progeny.
Space Blues winning the Forêt with William Buick having come from behind off a fast pace
First Group 1 win for Territories
The 1m2f Group 1 Prix de l’Opera for fillies and mares was another of the championship races to attract a full, international and competitive field and, against the run of results, the finish was contested by the French-trained fillies Rougir and Grand Glory.
This was a race run at a modest pace and yet the first three all came from well off the pace with Rougir running the final 400m seven per cent faster than her race average and getting up in the final stride under Maxime Guyon to defeat Grand Glory and Lanfranco Dettori.
Rougir, a daughter of Territories trained in Marseilles by Cedric Rossi for the Haras de la Gousserie, was winning her first race of the year but had gone close or looked unlucky on more or less all of her previous six starts.
Rougir had finished third in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac a year before and is the only one of the fillies who contested the finish that day to be still competing successfully at the highest level.
The Gianluca Bietolini-trained Grand Glory has been similarly tough and consistent coming back to her very best at five after being beaten less than a length into third in the Prix de Diane as a three-year-old.
Rougir (nearside) under Maxime Guyon, who is keeping a close eye on his opponents as he times his run successfully
A Case Of You gets up on the line
There was another win in the last stride in the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye when A Case Of You, a three-year-old son of Hot Streak, caught the huge outsider Air de Valse, who had looked sure to win for most of the race, to win by a short head and give his trainer Adrian McGuiness a first Group 1 winner (see pages 61-64).
Marcel-Boussac bossed by French fillies
French-trained fillies dominated the finish of the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac after two of the favourites, the Andre Fabre-trained Fleur D’Iris and the Joseph O’Brien-trained Agartha, went off too fast in front.
Fabre’s other runner, the Wootton Bassett filly Zellie, was given the most patient ride of all and came late under Oisin Murphy to win impressively by a length and three-quarters from the Zarak filly Times Square, who had looked like the winner when going into the lead with 200m to run.
This pair finished clear and are probably both high-class fillies for the future. Zellie gave her remarkable sire Wootton Bassett a fifth Group 1 winner from five crops of racing age, and her dam Sarai is the first daughter of Nathaniel to produce a Group 1 winner.
The future looks bright for Bleu
The Group 1 Prix Jean Luc Lagardère was run immediately after the Marcel Boussac and, having gone too fast too soon on Fleur D’Idris, Mickael Barzalona decided to holdup the Fabre-trained Ancient Rome well off the early pace.
By the time Ancient Rome was allowed to make his run the race was over as Angel Bleu and Noble Truth had already taken a decisive lead.
Dettori and Angel Bleu went past Noble Truth in the final 200m to win well by three-quarters of a length with Ancient Rome finishing best of another threequarters length behind in third.
Angel Bleu is his sire Dark Angel’s first juvenile Group 1 winner, and yet another top horse out of a Galileo mare.
He was sold for €100,000 by the Haras des Monceaux at the Arqana September Sale in 2020. This was his seventh start of the year for trainer Ralph Beckett has he had made his debut at Leicester in April.
It was a muddling race and not the strongest, but this race has become an excellent guide to the future as its recent winners include the top stallions Siyouni and Wootton Bassett, who won in 2009 and 2010.
Juvenile success: above, Angel Bleu’s trainer Ralph Beckett with jockey Frankie Dettori after the son of Dark Angel won the Lagardère, and, below, Oisin Murphy with Zellie (Wootton Bassett) after Boussac success. Both victories broke new ground for their sires and broodmare sires
New Bay success in Germany
Germany’s best race for two-year-old colts was won in a brilliant style by Gestüt Winterhauch’s Sea Bay, who raced 9l clear of his rivals on soft ground to win unchallenged.
Unfortunately, the son of New Bay came out of the race with a hairline fracture and had to be operated on immediately.
Sea Bay was certainly favoured by a fine tactical decision from his trainer Henk Grewe and jockey Adrie de Vries, who had agreed beforehand to race on the far side of the track coming out of the stalls and then to come up the stands’ side in the straight.
Sea Bay was bred by Gestüt Etzean and this valuable victory assures the stud of the title of champion breeder in Germany, a championship which is keenly followed and appreciated by the principal rivals.
Run by Ralf Kredel for the Weill family, Etzean has bred the winners of 21 races in Germany this year, including Sea Bay and the Preis der Diana winner Palmas.
Sea Bay was sold as a yearling for €155,000 at the BBAG September Sale.
Sea Bay is the fourth Group winner from the first two crops of Ballylinch Stud’s promising sire New Bay, a son of Dubawi who managed to finish third in the Arc as a three-year-old. Sea Bay is also, like many of the best Dubawi’s, inbred to Shirley Heights.
