British trainers bagging five of the six Group 1 races at Longchamp on Sunday
Enable winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triumph for the second year running, coming back from a long lay-off having gone lame, with a prep race on Kempton’s all-weather, since when a further set-back interrupted her training schedule, to reward John Gosden for an amazing training feat
Sea Of Class coming home from a poor draw with a scintillating run to have the line arrive a stride or two too soon and going down to Enable by a short neck – her trainer William Haggas lost nothing in defeat, and her time will come
Mabs Cross providing more than ample compensation for being narrowly beaten by Alpha Delphini in York’s Nunthorpe by winning the Prix de l’Abbaye by a head for trainer Michael Dods with Gerald Mosse on board – the day before the Dobs trained Intense Romance was another sprint winner in a Listed race at Ascot
One Master getting home by a short-head in the Prix de la Foret for William Haggas not long after he’d seen Sea of Class go down by not dissimilar margin in the Arc but this time having a wide draw which did not contribute to defeat
Godolphin’s blue colours claiming a Group 1 double with Wild Illusion trained by Charlie Appleby taking the Prix de l’Opera with William Buick up, and Royal Marine first past the post in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere, this time for Saeed Bin Suroor with Oisin Murphy the pilot
Laurens notching up her fifth Group 1 win in Newmarket’s Sun Chariot Stakes
Winx adding race number 28 to her unbeaten record, possibly putting in her best performance at Flemington when short of space but still powering home when the gap opened late on, with unbelievable acceleration
Jamie Osborne bagging three winners at Ascot’s two-day meeting with Raising Sand winning the biggest prize of £112,000 in the Ascot Challenge Cup heritage handicap, which gave apprentice Nicola Currie her 92nd win, just three away from losing her allowance
ITV Racing attracting a peak audience of over 910,000 for its coverage of the Arc, compared to 829,000 last year
The ceremony announcing the Grant National weights moving from London, where it has suffered a number of technical hitches, to its rightful home of Liverpool in a year which marks the 100th anniversary of the race returning from Gatwick to Liverpool following the First World War
STEWARDS ROOM
…and what hasn’t been so good
ParisLongchamp receiving heavy criticism from racegoers on Arc day, with much dissatisfaction levelled at food and drink service, food running out, insufficient PMU kiosks and long toilet queues – see more at http://www.theracinghub.com/of-course/lessons-longchamp-will-learn/
Silvestre de Sousa getting a four-day ban for careless riding and being referred to the BHA for a whip offence at Lingfield
Magic Pulse wrongly announced as being withdrawn from a race at Nottingham due to miscommunication – the horse that should have been withdrawn was Operative who was unruly at the start, but once a public announcement had been made that it was Magic Pulse, subsequently corrected, local stewards were uncomfortable about allowing Magic Pulse to run, so neither took part
Tramore racecourse losing two temporary stable blocks in a fire – the temporary facilities were being used whilst the stable yard is being refurbished
