O’Brien puts faith in Continuous to claim a third Arc
WHEN Aidan O’Brien turns 54 on October 16, he might raise a cup of tea to acknowledge a year that saw him saddle his 400th Group or Grade One winner, and 4,000th winner worldwide. He may just have a third Arc on his star-spangled CV by then too.
O’Brien’s body of work since Thats My Man won his first Grade One, the Royal Bond Hurdle at Fairyhouse in December 1995, has been simply seismic.
The Wexford native is the Pep Guardiola of horse racing, a master of his profession and a relentless big-game hunter.
Build a big race and he will come.
There are few bigger than this afternoon’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp (3.05) and O’Brien will be there. He’s been going for over 25 years and has found the Bois de Boulogne code difficult to crack, with just two winners from 55 Arc runners – Dylan Thomas (2007) and the filly Found (2016), who famously led home a 1-2-3 for O’Brien when the race was run at Chantilly.
O’Brien is not the only Irish trainer to be left empty-handed on Arc Sunday, after an all-age duel that draws a global field of elite thoroughbreds and is run on turf that is often strength-sapping.
Since Vincent O’Brien sent out Ballymoss in 1958 as the first Irishtrained winner, only Alleged (1977 and ’78), Sindaar (2000) and Sea The Stars (2009) have won, apart from the younger O’Brien’s duo.
Today, O’Brien saddles a sole runner, Continuous, who was supplemented on Wednesday for a hefty £120,000, while Jessica Harrington, never afraid to take aim at a big pot, puts forward the outsider Sprewell.
Backed into third favourite, Continuous will have to buck the wretched Arc trend of English St Leger winners. Even the great Nijinsky fell agonisingly short in 1970, beaten a head by Sassafras after being baulked in running.
A further concern is the record of
O’Brien’s three-year-olds in the race. Of the 32 prior to Continuous, none have finished higher than High Chaparral’s third in the 2002 running.
Another question mark is the rerouting of Continuous to the Arc. Unlike his rivals, who have been mapped out for today all season, Continuous wasn’t campaigned to peak in Paris.
Instead, his wins in the Great Voltigeur Stakes at York in August and the St Leger at Doncaster a fortnight ago gave O’Brien cause to change tack.
Even so, no-one will underestimate the softlyspoken Irishman behind the dark glasses in the parade ring today.
If O’Brien believes Continuous deserves to run, that there is improvement to come, then his conviction can’t be overlooked.
‘When he won the Voltigeur, with the way he did it there it was always a strong possibility that if he ran well in Doncaster, or came forward like we thought he might have, that he could end up being supplemented for the Arc.
‘We didn’t enter too many and our policy with the Arc is to only enter the really obvious ones because it’s expensive, but with that policy we are always happy
to supplement,’ said O’Brien, who has been pleased with the horse’s work since Doncaster.
‘I think the lads always had it in their heads that this was one that was going to be supplemented.’
There’s a certain symmetry to the 102nd running of the Arc. The distance is 2,400 metres and the first prize is €2.77m, which makes it the world’s fifth richest race on turf.
Open to horses of all ages, the Arc has drawn the usual cosmopolitan mix, featuring challengers from France, Britain, Ireland, Germany and Japan. Japanese horses are 0 from 30 in the race but Through Seven Seas has every chance and is second favourite to the unbeaten
If O’Brien feels Continuous should run, his conviction can’t be overlooked
French Derby winner, Ace Impact.
Whichever horse lights up the Longchamp straight is destined for greatness as all Arc winners get to enjoy legendary status.
For this, as French racing fans are keen to point out, is ‘not a race, it’s a monument’.
Ksar, a dual winner in 1921 and 1922, was famously acclaimed in a short story by Ernest Hemingway
‘This Ksar is a great big yellow horse that looks like just nothing but run. I never saw such a horse. He was being led around the paddocks with his head down and when he went by me, I felt all hollow inside he was so beautiful,’ he wrote.
Should Continuous win for ‘the lads’, as O’Brien so disarmingly refers to the multi-millionaires who buttress Ballydoyle with bluebloods, one of their number, John Magnier, might say of the trainer: ‘That’s my man.’
His success has been continuous and he remains hungry for more.