A crowd of about 4,500 fans stayed late into Sunday night at Tokyo Racecourse to watch the live screening of the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but their hopes fell flat as the British mare Bluestocking galloped across the autumnal Longchamp turf well ahead of Japan’s Shin Emperor and Yutaka Take’s mount, Al Riffa.
With the last trains having departed from Fuchukeibaseimon-Mae Station, as well as station’s nearby, defeat made for a long night for Tokyo’s hardcore faithful. It was another year of disappointment: Take’s frustrating Arc odyssey now runs to 11 attempts spanning 20 years, and Shin Emperor joins a long list of down-the-field also-rans from Japan that includes the likes of Victoire Pisa, Just A Way, Makahiki, Do Deuce, Chrono Genesis, Harp Star, Gold Ship et al.
There was not even the painful thrill of a close-run effort, like El Condor Pasa, Nakayama Festa, and Orfevre served up.
As it was, Bluestocking finished 11 lengths and 12 lengths ahead of Al Riffa and Shin Emperor, and a length and a quarter in front of the runner-up Aventure in a result that confirmed the pre-race belief that the race was lacking star power in the absence of City Of Troy and Goliath.
The market-heading Sosie and his Irish-Derby-winning peer Los Angeles were fourth and third, adding fuel also to the view that this year’s batch of European three-year-old colts isn’t ‘first quality’ as Sosie’s trainer Andre Fabre put it to Idol Horse earlier in the week.
Nonetheless, Bluestocking’s win was worthy, and a potentially career-defining triumph for jockey Rossa Ryan, 24, and trainer Ralph Beckett: the filly had provided the emerging Ryan with two of his previous three Group 1 scores, while Beckett, a 53-year-old Classic-winning trainer approaching the cusp of even bigger things, gained recompense for Westover’s second place behind Ace Impact 12 months ago.
“This is our best ever day, it has to be, for sure,” Beckett said.
Bluestocking was supported in the market on what was a wet afternoon in Paris, not close to as wet as when Alpinista sluiced to victory two years ago, but enough that hooves were cutting a flurry of flying, damp sods. The filly broke from gate three and box-seated the Aidan O’Brien-trained and Ryan Moore-ridden pace-setter Los Angeles: she took the lead early in the straight and galloped to a career-best performance.
“The draw helped, all of that helped, (Rossa) got her into the right place, everything went to plan and he was able to pull it off. Westover hit the front a furlong down last year, so I was looking for something to come and get her, but what a day,” Beckett continued.
“It’s a tribute to her constitution more than anything else. It’s extraordinary to have a horse start in May, dance all those dances – the King George, the Juddmonte – get beat, come back and then come here and do that, after only three weeks ago (having) what looked like a tough race in the Vermeille, she’s extraordinary.”
Bluestocking had found Goliath much too good when second in Europe’s other weight-for-age mile and a half major, the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, and was then fourth behind City Of Troy in the G1 Juddmonte International Stakes. The absence of both of those talented old rivals watered down the field and raised up hopes for Bluestocking as well as the Japanese contingent.
If truth be told, a good many horses with better race records than Shin Emperor have failed for Japan, but this ‘open year’ was supposed to have created a favourable scenario for the colt to perhaps become Japan’s first ever winner of the great race. Shin Emperor’s French roots, being the brother to 2020 Arc winner Sotsass, combined with an eye-catching third in the G1 Irish Champion Stakes three weeks ago, had raised expectations.
Shin Emperor broke in the front rank and was soon racing fifth, three off the fence, but by the time the field entered the false straight he was vying for seventh. When Ryusai Sakai began to push his mount off the home turn, the Yoshito Yahagi-trained chestnut found little to nothing and plugged home 12th, one place behind Al Riffa. Neither colt ran close to their form.
Al Riffa should have relished the ground, but Take’s hopes of a long-sought first Arc victory, boosted by the colt’s emphatic last-start win in Berlin, wilted quickly as Joseph O’Brien’s charge failed to quicken off the home turn.
While the Tokyo crowd’s faith was dashed, Beckett’s and that of the filly’s owner, Juddmonte, was rewarded. Juddmonte had paid €120,000 to supplement Bluestocking off the back of her victory in the G1 Prix Vermeille two weeks ago, in which Aventure was also second.
The win, a seventh for Juddmonte, means the late Khalid Abdullah’s mighty breeding and racing empire outpoints the mid-Twentieth Century titan Marcel Boussac as the most successful owner: Bluestocking follows Rainbow Quest (1985), Dancing Brave (1986), Rail Link (2006), Workforce (2010) and Enable (2017, 2018).
With a one-two for the girls, it was also a return to the recent trend of fillies and mares prevailing in the Arc. Fillies and mares have won the race nine times since 2011.
But, as the late watchers at Tokyo Racecourse figured out how to get home, or where to lay their heads for the night, ‘Team Japan’ was again left contemplating how and when it might finally crack the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe challenge.