Top Five: Jaw-Dropping Arc Moments

The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp is the pinnacle of Europe’s autumn programme. This Sunday, Japan’s exciting trio Croix Du Nord, Alohi Alii and Byzantine Dream will take on the best the Europeans can muster in a wide open contest, including Cualificar and Sosie, the crack mares Aventure and Kalpana, and the star three-year-old filly Minnie Hauk.

The race has produced some of the sport’s most exciting contests and confirmed some of its great champions, but it has also had its share of shock outcomes and controversial happenings. Here, Idol Horse recalls five jaw-droppers.

5. Saint Crespin And Midnight Sun

The 1959 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe had pretty much everything: an odds-on favourite turned over, a five-horse blanket finish, a dead-heat and a sensational disqualification.

France’s star colt of that year, the Prix du Jockey Club winner Herbager, was the top pick for the Longchamp spectacular, but he ran a shocker, closing moderately from deep to place 10th.

Up front, Midnight Sun led the field but was joined in the home straight by Primera and Saint Crespin, and with a furlong to run, as Primera faded, it looked like Saint Crespin would go past the leader. But Midnight Sun rallied bravely and the pair passed the post in tandem, just holding off the fast-finishing Mi Carina and Le Loup Garou. Twelve tense minutes later, a dead-heat was announced.

There was more. Saint Crespin’s rider George Moore objected to Midnight Sun coming off the rail; Midnight Sun’s jockey Jean Fabre objected against Saint Crespin. Fabre was handed a suspension; Moore was awarded the race. It was the second time a horse won the Arc on a disqualification after the 1925 race went to Priori in the stewards’ room.

4. Sassafras Downs Nijinsky

The 1970 Arc was Nijinsky’s chance to cap a sensational season for the ages. The Vincent O’Brien-trained colt had dominated European racing that year, becoming the first Triple Crown winner in England for 35 years (and the latest), and had already beaten his elders in Europe’s other great mile and a half contest, the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Nijinsky’s stretch run at Longchamp under Lester Pigggott was a thrill a second. The Irish colt was bumped twice before shifting out and beginning his brilliant run down the outside, making up lengths on Sassafras ahead of him. Nijinsky’s class took him upsides Sassafras and then to a narrow lead, but with victory seemingly assured, he suddenly veered left, away from Piggott’s whip and his battling rival. Victory turned to defeat in those final strides: Sassafras won by a neck.

3. Orfevre Hands It So Solemnia

Another Triple Crown winner, this time Japan’s Yasutoshi Ikee-trained Orfevre, turned up at Longchamp in 2012 with an impressive record and a catalogue of quirks. The chestnut had thrown away the G2 Hanshin Daishoten in the spring when he cocked his jaw with half a mile to run and came to a virtual stop, then relented to run and was beaten only half a length.

But after winning the Takarazuka Kinen in June, he headed to France and was impressive when successful in the G2 Prix Foy over the Arc course and distance. Three weeks later, with two furlongs to go in the big race itself, Orfevre was tanking, his jockey Christophe Soumillon was perched confidently, his fans were buzzing expectantly.

With a furlong and a half remaining, Soumillon let Orfevre go and he powered to the lead with a quickening burst that had all the hallmarks of a brilliant victor. His fans began to celebrate, but then the quirks kicked in: 250m out, with the race at his mercy, Orfevre drifted wildly to his right, touched the inside rail and began to idle. Unluckily for him, the game mare Solemia, a 33/1 outsider, was running the race of her life and she was running true as she charged past for a neck victory. It ranks as one of Japan’s biggest Arc heartbreaks.

2. Deep Impact DQ

Orfevre’s moment of infamy was six years after Japan’s outstanding champion Deep Impact arrived at Longchamp with a nation’s expectations loaded onto his compact frame. Another Triple Crown-winning superstar from the Ikee stable – but trained by Yasutoshi’s father Yasuo – the bay ran a race of merit, taking the lead two furlongs out only to fade and place third behind the victorious Rail Link.

It was one of only two defeats in his stellar 14-race career that also included Group 1 wins in the Tenno Sho (Spring), Takarazuka Kinen, Japan Cup and Arima Kinen, the last two coming after his Paris reversal.  

But if defeat wasn’t deflating enough for his fans, shock followed. A mid-October announcement from France Galop revealed a routine post-race test had found that the son of Sunday Silence had ipratropium in his system, a banned substance used to treat respiratory problems. Then in mid-November the ruling came that Japan’s beloved superstar – the horse that would become its greatest stallion – had been disqualified from third place and Ikee fined €15,000.

1. Eddery Objects, Sagace Loses

A quarter century after Saint Crespin and Midnight Sun, the 1985 Arc gave us Rainbow Quest and Sagace and its third disqualification. Sagace was bidding to become the seventh two-time winner and when his pacemaker Heraldiste moved off the fence at the top of the straight, allowing the favourite to slip through to lead on the inner, all was going to plan.

But as Sagace forged on, Pat Eddery drove Rainbow Quest in pursuit and the two horses locked in a tough battle. Sagace rolled away from the fence as Rainbow Quest threatened to get his head in front; the two seemed to bump, though neither jockeys stopped riding. Sagace rallied and was a neck ahead at the winning post.

Eddery objected. The Longchamp stewards threw out the winner to the chagrin of French racing fans for many years after.

Honourable Mentions

Star Appeal won the Eclipse Stakes in 1975 but had lost three races after that when he faced off at Longchamp against the great Allez France, the defending champion, in that year’s Arc. The German horse became the longest-priced winner at jaw-dropping odds of 117/1.

Another German winner Torquator Tasso also landed the race at long odds, though not as big at 72/1, when he downed the 3/1 favourite Hurricane Lane and 13 others in 2021. And in 1967 Topyo saw off 29 rivals to scramble home in front at odds of 82/1. ∎

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