OLIVIER TWIST
Menuisier may turn to Peslier for Langtry heroine’s Arc bid
DAVID MENUISIER will use a French jockey when Wonderful Tonight bids for Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe glory at ParisLongchamp on October 3.
Wonderful Tonight’s owner, former Chrysalis Records boss Chris Wright, declined to name names when outlining his riding plans for the filly following her win at Glorious Goodwood yesterday – but four-time Arc victor Olivier Peslier is sure to be high on the list.
After unsuitably fast terrain ruled the daughter of Le Havre out of last Saturday’s King George VI And Queen Elizabeth
Stakes, connections re-routed to the Group 2 Qatar Lillie Langtry Stakes as Goodwood’s five-day fixture came to a conclusion.
Ridden by William Buick – who will partner either Adayar or Hurricane Lane for Charlie Appleby and Godolphin in Europe’s middle-distance championship – Wonderful Tonight justified 4-5 favouritism in the one-mile, six-furlong test by a comfortable two lengths.
“Unfortunately, it’s unlikely we’ll get William in France but we do have ideas of French jockeys for the Arc,” said Wright.
Peslier, who captured the Arc aboard Helissio (1996), Peintre Celebre (1997), Sagamix (1998) and Solemia (2012), scored aboard Wonderful Tonight at Saint-Cloud in 2019, while compatriot Tony Piccone rode her four times, including two successes, in France last season.
Wonderful Tonight’s routine win – a seventh at the meeting for Buick, who took Goodwood’s top jockey crown – prompted Paddy Power to trim her Arc odds from 8-1 to 7-1.
Now Menuisier plans to give his stable star – a dual Group 1 heroine last season – two more races before what will very likely be her career swansong.
The big betting race of the fixture, the Unibet Stewards’ Cup, went to the Michael Dodstrained 10-1 chance, Commanche Falls.
Winning jockey Connor Beasley, who suffered a broken back and fractured skull in a horror fall at Wolverhampton in 2015, said: “There were no doubts about coming back – I always had it in my mind that I would get back where I wanted to be.”