Sport

O'Brien leaves six in Prix de l'Arc

ANTE-POST favourite Sarafina and last year’s winner Workforce feature among a list of 19 entries for Sunday’s Qatar Prix de l…

Wed Sept 28 2011 - 01:00

ANTE-POST favourite Sarafina and last year’s winner Workforce feature among a list of 19 entries for Sunday’s Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Alain de Royer-Dupre’s Sarafina is the market leader to exact her revenge on the Michael Stoute-trained British raider having finished a luckless third in Europe’s premier middle-distance prize a year ago.

Workforce needs to bounce back having been beaten in the King George at Ascot on his latest appearance, but he was a big disappointment in the same race in 2010 before going on to claim Longchamp glory.

So You Think heads a team of six horses from the Aidan O’Brien stable in the race. St Nicholas Abbey, Treasure Beach, Regent Street, Seville and Wonder Of Wonders are the others from the Ballydoyle yard.

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All the other major initial entries have stood their ground, including Ed Dunlop’s star filly Snow Fairy, but Godolphin do not intend to run Casamento, who went some way to repairing his reputation when successful at the track earlier this month.

Sarafina’s trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre has a strong hand with Reliable Man and Shareta also in the mix, while Japanese raiders Hiruno D’Amour and Nakayama Festa are other intriguing contenders.

There is still the chance for horses to be supplemented for the race, but connections of those runners will have to stump up €100,000 by tomorrow. Andre Fabre’s Meandre and John Gosden’s King George hero Nathaniel fall into this bracket.

The Newmarket handler’s racing secretary, Peter Shoemark, said: “If Nathaniel is going to run he’ll have to be supplemented on Thursday, but we’re monitoring the weather.”

Even if Nathaniel does not take his chance, Gosden could still be represented by Arctic Cosmos, who has not been seen since winning last year’s St Leger. Shoemark added: “He’s been left in at this stage. We want to have a look at it. He’s in the Arc and also in the Cumberland Lodge at Ascot on Saturday, so hopefully he runs somewhere this weekend.”

Freddie Head has decided Goldikova will not be joined by her stable companion Moonlight Cloud in Sunday’s Prix de la Foret at Longchamp. Fourteen-time Group One-winning mare Goldikova will be bidding for back-to-back victories in the seven-furlong prize before heading back to America, where she will go for a fourth victory in the Breeders’ Cup Mile.

The three-year-old Moonlight Cloud showed her class with a scintillating performance in the Prix Maurice de Gheest on her latest appearance but while the Foret was mentioned as a possible target, she will instead head to Ascot on October 15th to contest the Champions Sprint Stakes.

“Goldikova is very well and the plan is still for her to run in the Foret on Sunday,” said Head. “I am very happy with her at the moment and the ground looks like it will be on the fast side of good, which will suit her. We’ve decided Moonlight Cloud will not be going and she will instead wait to Ascot and run in the sprint.”

Another filly who will be lining up in the Foret this weekend is the Charles O’Brien’s Bewitched. She bounced back from a no-show in the Betfred Sprint Cup at Haydock with victory in a Curragh Group Three earlier this month.

O’Brien said: “We’ve discussed it with the owners and we’ve decided to let her run. She never got a run at Haydock, but we were delighted with her last time.

“She goes on any ground so that isn’t a concern and we’ll see how she gets on in what is going to be a very good race with Goldikova and Dream Ahead in there.”