Crack not ready for an attack on the Arc
CRACKSMAN’S Arc odds were cut after a convincing win in yesterday’s Prix Niel, but owner Anthony Oppenheimer seems determined not to take the colt back to Chantilly in three weeks’ time.
Coral have made Cracksman, who was third in the Derby, 5-1 for France’s most prestigious race after he beat Avilius by three and a half lengths over the same course and distance that the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe will be run in just under three weeks.
Only John Gosden- trained stablemate Enable (evens) is shorter in the betting, with Frankie Dettori committed to the filly which has four Group One wins this season.
Oppenheimer is thinking long term with Cracksman, the son of Frankel, who compares favourably with his brilliant 2015 Derby and Arc winner Golden Horn.
Oppenheimer said: ‘He is not far off being as good as Golden Horn. As far as the Arc goes, Dettori will be riding another horse and I don’t think that Cracksman would like to be ridden by anyone else. There are a lot of good jockeys, but there’s only one Frankie.
‘The objective is to preserve Cracksman for his four-year-old season. To give him a hard race this year would compromise that. To not run in the Arc this year is a risk, but it is a risk that I am willing to take.’
Elsewhere on the card, Ribchester grabbed a third Group One win of the season in the Prix du Moulin to bounce back from his defeat in the Sussex Stakes. Afterwards, trainer Richard Fahey spoke of challenges for both the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on Champions Day at Ascot and the Breeders’ Cup Mile in America.
Irish Champions weekend at the Curragh was not quite dominated by Aidan O’Brien as some predicted but he walked away with three Group One wins thanks to Hydrangea (Matron Stakes), Happily (Moyglare Stud Stakes) and the impressive Order Of St George (Irish St Leger).
Jim Bolger’s Verbal Dexterity, decisive winner of yesterday’s Group One National Stakes, will run next in Newmarket’s Dewhurst Stakes, a race the trainer has won five times.