2017 Prix De l'Arc de Triomphe

[atakante]

I\'m planning to go see, what is supposedly the best race in Europe.  Does TG provide sheets for The Arc?  Any others planning a trip?  Thanks in advance.

[kevb]

Europe\'s premier middle distance race. It\'s being run at Chantilly again this year. I\'m sure it will be a memorable trip. Wish I was going too. Have a blast.

Nice website: http://www.prixarcdetriomphe.com/?lang=en

[kevb]

Check out this video of the training facilities at Chantilly. I had no idea it was like this. Jaw dropping beautiful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjfEP4540X0

[atakante]

Figures to be interesting as we seem to have a Filly as the early favorite:
http://www.horseracingnation.com/horse/Enable_1#

[richiebee]

Thanks for posting that. No doubt L\'Homme de Jus would not be welcome there.

[TempletonPeck]

Will not be attending this year, sadly, but went the last two years.

A few words of advice:

1) Get your return train ticket in advance! If you stay for the last race on Arc day, or even the last G1 (IIRC, the arc will be 5th or 6th race of 9 or so, with 1-2 G1\'s after it), you\'re going to be hard pressed to buy a ticket and make the train. This will likely leave you waiting 2-2.5 hours to get the next train (or, I am told that some people just jumped on the train last year, sans billet of course I cannot comment personally on that!). So, buy your return ticket in advance. Also, don\'t count on being able to get a taxi from Chantilly back to Paris, unless you\'ve booked that in advance. We were able to find one Saturday, but not Sunday.

2) Chantilly is phenomenally beautiful. If you pictured Saratoga, but 500 years older, and French, you\'d be starting to get the sense of it. I\'d urge you to go for both days, Saturday is also a really great day of racing (5-6 G2\'s and G3\'s IIRC), and will allow you to figure out where there\'s a bathroom and a beer/wine stand close to your seat, and play with the betting terminals a bit, because on Arc day the English-speaking tellers see *huge* lineups. 2016 Arc at Chantilly, I lined up to bet the Arc at 25MTP, and only got half my tickets in (that was at a French language automated terminal, in other words, the shortest lineup on the grounds).

3) If you haven\'t bought tickets yet, remember that it\'s going to be fall in Paris, so it isn\'t impossible to see some rain. It drizzled a small amount both years I went. You\'ll have to decide whether covered seats are worth the spend for you.

Please let me know if you have any questions I\'d be very happy to help however I could.

[kevb]

richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Thanks for posting that. No doubt L\'Homme de Jus
> would not be welcome the

He would be like a fly on a wedding cake.

[atakante]

Since I lack the royal connections, glad to have found out about the round trip train ticket tip in advance.  Otherwise, I wouldn\'t mind overnighting in the summer enclave of the House of Bourbons

[dsipes]

Is there going to be ANY discussion or analysis of the Arc horse\'s Thoro-Graph figures by an \"expert\" on here?  C\'mon guys, let\'s get in the weeds on this stuff.

[TempletonPeck]

I appreciate your eagerness to get into the weeds, but if you look in the store you\'ll see there is no data available for the Arc.

So, not much to discuss.

[kevb]

We do have our man, atakante, onsite though. Maybe he\'ll volunteer to do the groundwork for the 18 horses this year. It\'s only one turn! The variant might be a little tough, though.

[atakante]

* Harder to handicap with European PPs I\'m not used to, but from what I could glean it will be a wet day which doesn\'t help Ulysses -- otherwise a fast horse..even more than the favorite Enable.  

* Capri is fast but a bounce candidate w. 2 weeks rest.  Can stay well though.

* Order of St.George was 3rd last year but lost R. Moore to the filly Winter. Still a contender and must be included in exotics.

* Enable is a deserving favorite having won her last 5 G1 races some in emphatic fashion.  The question mark is her not having faced as deep a field as this one...but she drew well in box #2 so an easy lead is expected, which may point out to another wire to wire victory.  At even money, not a great bet though.

* Doha Dream said to stay well, may get a piece of this.

* Cloth of Stars one of many from the local Baffert Fabre and is said to do well on wetter conditions.

* Local-bred Zarak has quality but drew post #18.

* Another local champ Brametot has distance doubts and has gone off form in his last race.

* Others don\'t seem fast enough...including German and Japanese invaders.

For now I fancy Order of St. George and Cloth of Stars as the better value plays in the dangerous game of trying to beat a special favorite in Enable.

Good luck...