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No wine in the Longchamp media marquee: no wonder coverage in Monday’s British newspapers was colourless, despite a British victory in the Arc and first Group Ones for Clive Cox (Abbaye) and Richard Fahey (Lagardere). It’s hard to get the best out of a British journalist without topping up his blood alcohol levels. And what with competition from the Ryder Cup golf which was on a knife edge, racing didn’t get much of a look in the day after another great Arc meeting. I’m sure my eyes didn’t deceive me, (having long since given up on official attendance figures) that Longchamp wasn’t the heaving hubbub of other years. The rush for navettes gratuites both before and after racing for once wasn’t a landlubber’s equivalent of the scrum for the Titanic’s lifeboats. Of course Ascot would settle now for a similar sized crowd for its Champions’ Day next October: at that time we’ll see whether the mantra “British racing is the best in the world” stands up to competition with the Arc. Ascot, struggling with the state of the track since ‘refurbishment’, will be hard pressed to provide conditions as attractive as Longchamp which has wider expanses better established turf.
Workforce and Wootton Bassett might well be back in Paris, 2011, the former in search of a second Arc, the latter for the Foret.
British Abbaye winner Gilt Edged Girl will be at stud as will the Queen of Longchamp, Goldikova. We will claim her as an honorary Brit when she races for the last time in next months Breeders’ Cup. After all she has won on both her visits to Britain – and to America. Her finale – hopefully a third Breeders Cup Mile triumph - is worth travelling, in anticipation, to America for. Paco Boy will bang his head against her for the fifth time. The Americans will only have eyes for their unbeaten mare Zenyatta – but she has never won outside her own territory.
I’m told there was greater animation in the Press Room at Newmarket on behalf of Rod Collet’s Sahpresa’s second successive victory in the Sun Chariot Stakes than in the equivalent zone at Longchamp (where there wasn't much). She was second favourite this time as opposed to being an outsider on the first.
When Sahpresa ran the race of her life in last year’s Rothschild she still couldn’t reach within five lengths of Goldikova – the distance between true greatness and the merely very talented. Her next run is in Japan where she ended her season last year.
The Japanese are on the march. Having bought Harbinger, the highest-rated horse in the world, one should pay homage to their fourth placing in the Arc, this time with runner-up Nakayama Festa who had occupied the same position in the Foy. The Arc is obviously something the Japanese covet and aren't going to rest until they succeed. “I ran out of gas,” said jockey Yoshitaka Ninomya without elaborating on whether the ‘empty’ sign was his or his mount’s.
Most observers thought the difference between victory and defeat was English champion Ryan Moore’s high octane finish. If only the travelling British journos had been similarly fuelled.
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Frogwatch, by Rolf Johnson 
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