The fiasco that was Sunday Irish Derby has helped, along with the upset of Soldier of Fortune in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. To the book for the Prix de lArc de Triomphe.
Beaten by last years Arc runner-up Youmzain into second at Saint-Cloud, Soldier of Fortune has fallen into a three-way tie for Arc favoritism with Irish bookies Paddy Power and is now the 5-1 co-special with Epsom Derby sensation New Approch and French Oaks winner Zarkava. New Approach missed the Irish Derby due to in his left hind leg and coach Jim Bolger has not set a timetable for his earnings. A Galileo 3-year-old, New Approach has time on his side, nevertheless, as many of the principal Arc will have only one autumn prep for the big race at Longchamp on Oct. 5.
Youmzain, 8-1 with Paddy Power for the Arc, and Soldier of Fortune are probable to recommence their competitiveness at Ascot on July 26 in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, while Zarkava, the Aga Khans cutting-edge outstanding filly, is fascinating the time-honored French summer retreat and wont be seen until she has her course and expanse Arc prep in the Prix Vermeille on Sept. 14.
That is the date Steve Asmussen is for Curlins first European getaway in the Prix Foy. The customary course and space Arc prep for big make an perfect Arc trial for Curlin, but Asmussen is having trouble sentence an American send-off for his Dubai World Cup success as neither New York, home of Belmonts Man o War Stakes, nor Illinois, the site of the Arlington Handicap, will set a limit Curlin to run because the pony is part-owned by relatives who, for legitimate explanations, cannot be licensed as owners in two states. Curlins Arc worth at Paddy Power is 14-1.
If he it to Longchamp on the first Sunday in October, Curlin be allied by extra long-void traveler in Meisho Samson. Trained in Japan by Shigetada Takahashi, he is a 5-year-old son of Opera House who broken off a very good another in the 1 3/8-mile Grade 1 Takarazuka Kinen at Hanshin on Sunday, circling the field to come from last of 14 to be trodden only a head by Eishin Deputy. That he did so on a soft turf course Meisho Samson, the 2006 Japanese Derby conqueror, in good stead for what is not once in a while softish crushed at Longchamp on Arc Day.
The Irish Derby left a bad smell in the air as the Aidan OBrien-trained German-bred Frozen Fire a two-interval victory in the 1 1/2-mile unforgettable, in large part because his OBrien-trained Alessandro Volta wiped out Tartan Bearer and Curtain Call at the eighth pole. In countries where parimutuel documentation hold sway, Frozen Fire, one of five horses in the Derby owned by diverse combinations of the Magnier/Tabor/Smith conglomerate, would have been coupled with Alessandro Volta and so been disqualified with him, thus construction runner-up Casual Conquest the victor.
Of course if Alessandro Volta had not interfered with Tartan Bearer and Curtain Call, either one one of them strength have won. Gang Coolmore knows that if one of their added charger, none of fresh OBrien-trained stablemates will writhe as a consequence. It is an ongoing unruly with European .
In any case, Paddy Power has introduced Frozen Fire into the Arc betting at 14-1. The firm also offer the OBrien-trained Prince of Wales champion Duke of Marmalade at 7-1. Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud fifth Getaway is pegged at a sparing 12-1, while Irish Derby runner-up Casual Conquest is 16-1. French Derby frontrunner Vision dEtat, on leave for the summer prior to an foreseeable return in the Prix Niel on Sept. 14, is 14-1 with Ladbrokes.
Strong Oaks depending
In what may be the last American Oaks ever run at Hollywood Park on Sunday, administrator Martin Panza has four European-based fillies to run in the 1 1/4-mile Grade 1 contest. Two of them, Carribean Sunset and Satans Circus, be deskbound on big races.
A daughter of the fine Danehill sire Danehill Dancer, Carribean Sunset is trained by Dermot Weld, the Irishman who Dimitrovas 2003 American Oaks coup. A Group 3 sure thing this vault going seven furlongs and a mile, Carribean Sunset was an ominous third in an Irish 1000 Guineas that was won by Halfway to Heaven, a she had flattened by a head in one of her Group 3 scores. She ran on the mend than ever when in the Group 1 Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot on June 20, an power that well for her first try beyond a mile, as that uphill Ascot mile is a test of stamina, one that had better set a pony up attractively for a try at an American 1 1/4 miles. Carribean Sunset will have her fixed specification Pat Smullen aboard.
Ten will pose no tricky for Satans Circus. The success of a 1 5/16-mile listed race at Toulouse two back, Satans Circus in California a more or less vigorous mount with only one race since April 25, that a fifth-place finish in the Prix de Diane, or French Oaks. That struggle is restored than it looks on piece, as the 1 5/16-mile Oaks was won by a filly from any more planet in Zarkava. Subtract her three-measurement room of victory and Satans Circus was 4 1/4 lengths behind what have been a standard French Oaks cert. Ioritz Mendizabal, hit of this years French Derby aboard Vision d’Etat, will fly in to ride Satans Circus. Trained by French country leading Jean-Claude Rouget, Satans Circus, a Gone West half-related to Gulfstreams 1 1/16-mile Group 3 Honey Fox Handicap champion Delmonico Cat, was not long ago sold by Edmund Gann to Martin Schwartz and is slated to keep on in America after the Oaks.
Annie Skates closed like a shot to get succeeding in last Octobers Epitome Stakes, one of the supplementary on Monmouth Parks Breeder Cup Friday undercard. She has, in spite of this, abortive to recognize herself back in England this leap for guide Jane Chapple-Hyam. As a notoriously slow meze, her probability look compromised.
Tom Dascombe is all but unspecified in America but in the Anbaa Zaskar he will a warm longshot. Zaskar won a at the Oaks vastness at the new British Polytrack course Great Leighs two back and was following in a 1 7/16-mile registered race at Le Lion dAngers on June 13. An improving type, she could be on the trot late.
