Enable odds-on to repeat in Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe

The Breeders’ Cup has a turf race restricted to fillies and mares. In France, the female set needs no such restriction.

A filly has won the richest race in Europe, the Group 1, $5.77 million Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, in six of the past seven years, a trend that bettors, at least, expect to continue Sunday at Longchamp.

The 4-year-old filly Enable was priced at just more than even-money in antepost wagering Friday and figures to be a similar price on the North American toteboard Sunday. No horse won two straight Arcs between 1978, when Alleged repeated, and 2014, when Treve won her second straight, but Enable is widely expected to follow in the hoofprints of Treve, who also captured Arcs in her 3- and 4-year-old seasons.

Enable’s breeder and owner, Khalid Abdullah, has won the Arc with five different horses dating all the way back to Rainbow Quest in 1985. Trainer John Gosden got his first Arc win three years ago with Golden Horn and now has won two of the last three. Enable’s jockey, Frankie Dettori, rode both of Gosden’s recent winners.

If not the 4-year-old Englandbased filly Enable, then quite possibly the 3-year-old Englandbased filly Sea of Class, the Arc’s solid second choice. Sea of Class marks just the second Arc starter for trainer William Haggas, who thinks enough of his horse that she was supplemented to the race Wednesday at a cost of more than $138,000.

Three-year-old fillies carry just 121 pounds (Sea of Class’s impost includes jockey James Doyle), 10 pounds fewer than older males and seven fewer than older fillies. Sea of Class was supplemented after it became apparent that the going at Longchamp would be firm enough for her liking, and while the Enable camp would not mind rain, Haggas is hoping for good-to-firm going. The course was watered during the week and as of Friday was listed as good-to-soft.

The Arc is contested around one long right-handed bend over 1 1/2 miles and is back at Longchamp after two years at Chantilly while its traditional home was reconstructed. The race is one of seven on a dazzling Sunday program that includes six Group 1 races and starts at 8:20 a.m. Eastern. The Arc is the third race and has a scheduled post time of 10:05 a.m.

Enable’s heavy favoritism comes despite a starkly truncated campaign that includes one lonely run, a win going 1 1/2 miles over the all-weather surface at Kempton Park in the Group 3 September Stakes on Sept. 8. There, Enable got an easy lead going a slow pace while facing only three rivals, and while the good horse Crystal Ocean chased her home, it’s fair to wonder (especially considering Enable’s short price) if she is all the way back to her 2017 best.

Enable has a good draw in post 6 and put herself into a perfect position in winning this race a year ago, but lacking value with the favorite, players might dig a little deeper.

The Arc begins with a turn, and outside draws like Sea of Class’s post 15 are undesirable, but Sea of Class and her light weight can overcome it. She only debuted in April and didn’t run in a group-level race until July, but she enters the Arc after Group 1 wins in the Irish Oaks and the Yorkshire Oaks. Sea of Class is a hold-up horse and will need plenty of luck to wend her way to victory in a 19-horse field.

Waldgeist is considered the leading older-horse hope and would be trainer Andre Fabre’s eighth Arc winner should he prevail under Pierre CharlesBoudot. Fabre hasn’t won an Arc since Rail Link captured the 2006 edition, but he did send Cloth of Stars – who runs Sunday – to a second-place finish last season.

Cloth of Stars has not been the same horse this year, and while Waldgeist enters in peak form and won his Arc prep, the Prix Foy, with speed to spare, his lone Group 1 success, in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, came over competition suspect for the level.

Kew Gardens, one of five entrants trained by Aidan O’Brien, is the only other horse priced at less than 25-1 as of Friday. A general 10-1 chance, the 3-year-old Kew Gardens was a course-and-distance winner in July when he captured the age-restricted Grand Prix de Paris, but while he enters following a decisive score in the St. Leger at Doncaster, that race rewarded Kew Gardens’s stamina more than the Arc will.

He – and the rest of the males – might be at the fillies’ mercy Sunday.