Snowfall drops out of the Arc reckoning

SNOWFALL is out to 6-1 for next month’s Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp after a shock defeat at the Paris track yesterday. The filly, trained by Aidan O’Brien, went into the Prix Vermeille the 7-4 Arc favourite and 1-5 to make it five unbeaten runs this season. But Snowfall looked one-paced under Frankie Dettori (below) as she was beaten by 11-1 shot Teona. Third was her pace-making stablemate La Joconde, ridden by Hollie Doyle. Dettori offered Snowfall supporters comfort when he said that the English and Irish Oaks winner had not been supplied with the strong pace she likes, saying Doyle had not gone fast enough on La Joconde. ‘The race turned into a sprint,’ he said. But it was still a disappointing result. Teona has always been highly rated by trainer Roger Varian but has taken time to get her act together. She holds an Arc entry but Varian warned he would not run her on soft ground, adding: ‘The sun will need to keep shining for the next few weeks.’ Charlie Appleby’s Derby winner Adayar is now the 10-3 Arc favourite, with Hurricane Lane, who won the St Leger at Doncaster on Saturday, 9-2. They are split by Dermot Weld’s filly Tarnawa (7-2), second in Saturday’s Irish Champion Stakes. Appleby’s Native Trail looked special when he won the Group One National Stakes at the Curragh yesterday while the Irish Leger was won by Johnny Murtagh-trained Sonnyboyliston. l ANDy STEWART, the jumps owner whose colours were most memorably carried by four-time Cheltenham Stayers’ Hurdle winner Big Buck’s, has died aged 70.

NORWICH CITY’S highlyrated business and project director Zoe Ward has been appointed to the FA Council. It is to be hoped that Ward, who has also worked for Liverpool, Fulham and the Premier League during more than 20 years in the game, will bring some much-needed freshness and dynamism to the blazer brigade.