While there was no taking it away from the big race of the day, the Prix De l’Arc de Triomphe, today will not go down as one of the best days in the history of French horse racing. In full view of a worldwide audience one of the sprint races prior to the Arc had to be rerun in comical fashion after one of the starting gates failed to open, leaving one horse penned in.
To make matters worse there rest of the field had to see out the full 5f course before returning to find the race was to be re-run later in the day. However, the Arc was one of the best races in the history of the event and saw Zarkava literally come from last to first in the closing stages with a brave ride by Christophe Soumillon.
Zarkava was the first horse since 1964 to win the race from the dreaded stall one and showed every inch of the class the owners thought she had. Unfortunately it was a bad day for the UK entrants with very little in the way of silverware to show for a trip over the sea. Irish hopefully Soldier of Fortune, which had been mentioned as a possible winner in some circles, came in third after the judges were unable to separate the horse from It’s Gino – second in the race was last years runner up Youmzain.
While there was no taking it away from the big race of the day, the Prix De l’Arc de Triomphe, today will not go down as one of the best days in the history of French horse racing. In full view of a worldwide audience one of the sprint races prior to the Arc had to be rerun in comical fashion after one of the starting gates failed to open, leaving one horse penned in.