Blast From The Past: 2008 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe

Just like this year, a three-year-old filly was hot favourite for the 2008 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Zarkava, owned by the Aga Khan, trained by Alain de Royer Dupre and ridden by Christophe Soumillon, was even money at Longchamp to keep her unbeaten record in a field of sixteen. Recent Arc history was against her, though, as it had been twenty-six years since the last filly from the classic generation had been successful in the race – that was Akiyda, she too owned by the Aga Khan.

Zarkava had been the best of her age and sex in France at two, winning the Prix Marcel Boussac on Arc day in 2007, and had won all six of her races prior to the Arc, notably the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, Prix de Diane and Prix Vermeille. In the French equivalents of both the Guineas and Oaks she beat another top-class filly, though it was only later in her much longer racing career than Zarkava’s that Goldikova really made a name for herself. While Goldikova specialised at a mile, Zarkava was stepped up to middle-distances and completed her Arc preparation when showing an impressive turn of foot to win the Vermeille despite losing a dozen lengths when caught napping as the stalls opened.

Zarkava’s trainer reckoned that it was her ‘capacity to change gear in just a couple of strides [that] sets her apart’, but, he added, ‘like a genius in any field, she has a strong spirit which must be managed carefully.’ The quirks he was alluding to were evident again in the Arc itself when Zarkava was once more left with plenty to do after ducking right immediately leaving the stalls, but as Racehorses described, Soumillon rode her full of confidence and didn’t even need to go for the whip:

‘Taking the gaps as they appeared in the home straight, and twice narrowly avoiding interference, Zarkava swept past the leaders near the finish to win going away by two lengths and half a length from the previous year’s runner-up Youmzain and dead-heaters Soldier of Fortune and the German-trained outsider It’s Gino. [Prix du Jockey Club winner] Vision d’Etat was the first three-year-old colt to finish, back in fifth, while the King George winner Duke of Marmalade plugged on for seventh.’

Whilst it may not have been the strongest of Arc fields, the winner, who was retired to stud afterwards, impressed the Timeform writers and clearly made a big impression too on her jockey:

‘…the manner of Zarkava’s success – the twelfth in the Arc for her sex in the sixty years – left no doubt about that she was fully deserving of a place among the best of her sex in Timeform’s experience. Soumillon’s victory celebrations this time included hurling his riding helmet and whip into the crowd and launching himself into a flying dismount in the winner’s circle!’

Soumillon, incidentally, predicted that it would be another twenty-five or thirty years before a filly of Zarkava’s quality would come along again in the Arc. However, five of the eight Arcs since Zarkava’s have also gone to fillies, two of those won by another top-notcher in Treve, while Enable could be another this weekend.

Among Enable’s rivals on Sunday will be Zarak, representing the same connections as Zarkava and the only one of her foals to date to have reached the track. Arc-winning fillies actually have a good record in the race when represented by their offspring; 1980 winner Detroit produced the 1994 winner Carnegie, while 2009 winner Sea The Stars was out of the 1993 winner Urban Sea.