Impact ready to jolt rivals
ROUGET’S ACE IS IN FINE FETTLE
JEAN-CLAUDE ROUGET shed tears of joy when his old friend Sir Mark Prescott won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe a year ago.
This time he hopes it will be the British crying into their beer as he unleashes France’s top three-yearold in Europe’s richest race.
With a five-out-of-five record, the unbeaten Ace Impact is France’s standout candidate to repel the annual cross-channel invasion in Paris-Longchamp’s £4.3m showpiece.
Champion trainer Rouget was content to stand in the second spot a year ago when Prescott’s Alpinista defeated Vadeni.
But his optimism is high that he can go one better with his French Derby winner three years after the trainer won the prize with
Sottsass.
“Why shouldn’t I be optimistic?” he said. “I’m coming in with a horse that’s unbeaten. We know in any race anything can happen and we’re coming to the end of the season, but he gets three kilos from the older horses, which is important. “I’m optimistic in the sense that he goes into the race unbeaten and has done everything we have asked him to so far.”
Ace Impact, who will be ridden by Italian Cristian Demuro, has taken an unorthodox route. He made his debut in January at the seaside track of Cagnes-SurMer, then ran at Bordeaux Le Bouscat in April, before being given his chance on France’s major tracks.
He landed the Prix du Jockey Club in devastating fashion, thrashing a field that included Arc rivals Feed The Flame and Continuous, but has not run since adding a Deauville Group Two in August, Rouget swerving both the Irish Champion Stakes and the Prix Niel on Arc Trials day.
“It’s very important that he stays a fresh horse because he started his season very early, which is not the usual start for a Classic horse,” he said.
“Obviously we can’t be certain he will stay 1m4f, but with the way he finishes his races and also the fact his sire was a winner over the distance gives us hope that he can stay. If the Prix du Jockey Club had been over a mile and a half, he would have won that.