`Arc` trials at Longchamp

An excellent card at Longchamp today, with the three "Arc" trials taking all the headlines. Except for Dylan Thomas last year, all recent "Arc" winners ran at this meeting and this is likely to be the case again, with the Aga Khan´s Zarkava (Alain de Royer-Dupré/ Christophe Soumillon) taking pride of place. The filly, unbeaten in 5 starts and highly impressive every time, will start at very short odds for the Group One Prix Vermeille for fillies and mares at 15.25 CET. She has not run since easily defeating Gagnoa (runs again today) very easily in the French Oaks, and is tackling this distance for the first time, and it will be a major shock if she is beaten, even though there were reports that she had not worked well earlier this week. Apart from Gagnoa (Olivier Peslier), André Fabre saddles the smart Treat Gently (Stephane Pasquier); both he and Aidan O´Brien have 3 runners in the field of 12, but for once the O´Brien entries are all outsiders. More dangerous could be the 2 Briish runners Folk Opera (Saeed bin Suroor/ Frankie Dettori) and Dar re Mi (John Gosden/ Christophe Lemaire), whose dam won this race. German challenger Baila me (Wernr Baltromei/ Dominique Boeuf) is easily the best outsider; she ran very green when third in the German Oaks and will be much better suited by this track. Another 3yo unbeaten in 5 starts is Vision d´Etat (Eric Libaud/ Ioritz Mendizibal), wh has not been seen since winning the French Derby in early June. Although he is reported as needing the race, he should have too many guns in the Prix Niel at 16.00 for the opposition, headed by Prospect Wells (Fabre/ Peslier), best when coming late off a strong pace, which looks unlikely here, and King of Rome (O´Brien/ Colm O´Donoghue), outclassed in the Irish Champion last week, but who followed his 6th place in the German Derby with two good wins in Ireland. There will be plenty of German interest in the Prix Foy at 16.30, like all these trials run over the "Arc" distan ce of 2400 metres. This race sees the comeback of 2006 German Derby winner Schiaparelli (Saeed bin Suroor/ Dettori) who has not been out since winning the Gran Premio del Jockey Club at Milan almost a year ago. After that race he left Peter Schiergen´s stable and now runs in the colours of Godolphin. At his best he would have an outstanding chance here, but the Godolphin stable form remains very worrying. Another German runner here is Freddie Head´s Avanti Polonia (Davy Bonilla) bur the Khalid Abdullah pair of Crossharbour (Fabre/ Johan Victoire), a half-brother to Arc winner Rail Link, and Zambezi Sun (Pascal Bary/ Pasquier) look the big dangers.

Betting forecast:
1.Race: Copperbeech - Bagutta Sun - Pure Joy
2.Race: Naaqoos - Theoricienne - Dianeva
3.Race: Gentoo - Men Alemarat - Jotestamax
4.Race: Zarkava - Cagnoa - Baila Me
5.Race: Vision D`Etat - Prospect Wells - King Of Rome
6.Race: Zambezi Sun - Schiaparelli - Crossharbour
7.Race: Raja - Stern Opinion - Derison
8.Race: Tungsten Strike - High Maintenance - Kasbah Bliss
9.Race: Divorce Me - Touch Of Rheinberg - Mission Apollo