The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is Europe’s richest Flat race. It is one of the most highly anticipated races in the worldwide racing calendar, with its prestige, value and history attracting fans and competitors from around the world to ParisLongchamp.
In time honoured fashion I’ve whittled this year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe field down to what I feel is a strong quintet of runners, several of whom I have personally backed at ante-post prices, so the proof will finally be in the pudding on Sunday 1st October at Longchamp. Bon chance!
Simca Mille (NAP)
Everything has fallen perfectly into place for Simca Mille’s Arc bid this season.
Ideal weather conditions, great form figures, a top jockey, plus a fantastic record at Longchamp make up an enviable checklist of reasons as to why Stephane Wattel’s four-year-old colt can lift Europe’s greatest horse race.
Simca Mille entered the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe picture with a decisive victory in the Westminster 133rd Grosser Preis von Berlin at Hoppegarten.
The German Group 1 has been used as a stepping stone on route to Longchamp in the past, with 2021 Arc hero Torquator Tasso being the most recent graduate of the German/French double.
I cannot for the life of me see why Simca Mille shouldn’t finish on the podium at the very least.
Place Du Carrousel (NB)
Andre Fabre has won the Arc eight times but never with a filly/mare.
That could well change this year because his Lope De Vega-filly Place Du Carrousel is turning out to be the real deal and has proved that last year’s Prix de l’Opera result was no fluke.
The four-year-old confirmed she stays 12 furlongs well by landing the Prix Foy from the very useful Iresine at Longchamp on Trials Day.
That form has a really solid look about it and she looks versatile in terms of the ground. She can run well at a generous starting price.
Hukum
No six-year-old has ever won the Arc which will sound alarm bells for many but records are there to be broken right?
That statistic aside, Hukum does arrive in Paris in peak fitness and his King George victory is up there with some of the best form on show.
All that remains now is whether he can defy the 64-day gap between his Ascot success and his Longchamp assignment on October 1st.
Continuous
The problem with Continuous is that he’s a St Leger winner and no horse has ever done the Leger/Arc double.
However this Leger winner didn’t have a hard race in the slightest at Doncaster and looked all over the winner from some way out, as he also did prior to the Classic in the Great Voltigeur at York.
This Heart’s Cry-colt may just go and break the long time Leger hoodoo that many before him have suffered.
Onesto
Fourth over a mile in the Prix Jacques le Marois but highly disappointing in the Irish Champion Stakes, it will take a leap of faith to side with Onesto in the Arc, but he is just the type to bounce right back.
The Frankel-colt had the beating of Simca Mille and Eldar Eldarov in last year’s Grand Prix de Paris which is top notch form in anyone’s book.
He definitely has dark horse credentials about him in our online horse racing betting market.
*If you’re eagerly waiting for the flat season to end and the new jumps season to start, then why not have an early bet on Cheltenham in our ante-post markets*
2023 Prix de l'Arc De Triomphe Odds:
As of 27th September 2023, the Prix de L'arc De Triomphe betting market looks like this:
- Ace Impact - 3/1
- Hukum - 9/2
- Continuous - 6/1
- Westover - 6/1
- Feed The Flame - 8/1
- Fantastic Moon - 9/1
- Bay Bridge - 12/1
- Bar - 16/1
