U.S.-owned Sottsass wins Arc on home turf; Enable runs 6th
Enable’s bid for a record third Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) victory came up short Sunday as French 4-year-old Sottsass delivered a victory for his American ownership at ParisLongchamp, clinching a Breeders' Cup berth in the process.
Sottsass entered the day as a dual Group 1 winner who ran third in last year’s Arc behind winner Waldgeist and runner-up Enable. The half-brother to Eclipse Award-winning mare Sistercharlie was a 7-1 shot for trainer Jean-Claude Rouget.
Peter Brant is owner-breeder of Sottsass, running the horse under the White Birch Farm banner. Brant is a familiar name to U.S. racing fans as owner of prominent Chad Brown trainees such as Sistercharlie, Raging Bull and Dunbar Road.
With Sunday's victory, Sottsass clinched a "Win and You're In" berth to next month's Breeders' Cup Turf at Keeneland.
"It would seem logical," Michel Zerolo of Oceanic Bloodstock said of Sottsass making a trip across the Atlantic for that event. "If he came out of his race in good form, and the trainer and the owner are willing to go, that's the obvious way. That's only his fifth start. He's a fresh horse."
According to Oddschecker in Europe, Sottsass is 14-1 to win the Breeders' Cup Turf. Love remains the 3-2 favorite.
Persian King set the pace through the opening stages of the Arc, which went about 1½ miles over heavy turf. Under jockey Cristian Demuro, Sottsass settled into third place behind the leader and Chachnak.
Turning for home, Demuro waited behind Persian King before finding running room outside of him in the final two furlongs. Sottsass grinded his way by the pace setter and hit the wire a neck ahead of In Swoop, who was battling to his inside.
Finishing behind the top two were, from third through seventh, Persian King, Gold Trip, Raabihah, Enable and Stradivarius. The final time was 2:39.30, slowest for the Arc since 1976.
There was an inquiry into the race’s finish, but stewards kept Sottsass atop the board.
Enable, winner of the Arc in both 2017 and ’18, went off Sunday as the 4-5 favorite. The 6-year-old, who won the 2018 Breeders' Cup Turf at Churchill Downs, has a spot waiting for her in November's Championships if connections choose to extend her career beyond the Arc.
Lord Teddy Grimthorpe, racing manager for Prince Khalid's Juddmonte Farm, owner of Enable, addressed media following the mare's defeat.
"It won't be my decision," Grimthorpe said when asked about Enable possibly retiring. "What we will do of course is get her back home... with (trainer) John Gosden to be checked out and be sure she's in great shape. And then we'll discuss what might happen to her. Then Prince Khalid will say what he wants to do."
As for the Arc itself, Grimthorpe said, "She didn't handle the ground as well as we might have hoped. In racing we have to take these things."
The 2020 Arc took place without any of the four runners trainer Aidan O’Brien entered. He and son Joseph O’Brien had to withdraw their horses from Sunday’s ParisLongchamp stakes after failed drug tests that may have resulted from tainted feed.