Ratings Update: Arc day 2017

Enable became the first three-year-old filly from Britain/Ireland to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and made it a fifth Group 1 win of the campaign in doing so. Her performance was every bit as striking as Treve’s first success as a three-year-old in 2013, and she is now Timeform rated 134 from 130p. Cloth of Stars (132 from 125) ran a massive career best to chase Enable home, having to pick his way through but unable to land any sort of blow on the winner once he got into the clear, while Ulysses – behind Enable in the King George earlier in the season – ran to his top-class best once again in third (remains rated 130), beating last year’s third Order of St George (remains on 128) into fourth. No plans have been announced for Enable next season, but hopefully she’ll be given the opportunity to emulate Treve and defend her title at Longchamp in 2018.

Enable was the second of four British-trained winners on the card, with the first being Wild Illusion (113p from 97+) in the Prix Marcel Boussac for Charlie Appleby and Godolphin. The market beforehand had the race as something of a match between Prix du Calvados winner Polydream (109 from 112p) and Moyglare second Magical (loses her ‘p’, now rated 115), but Wild Illusion showed much improved form – she was beaten in a Group 3 on her previous start – in first-time cheekpieces under a positive ride from James Doyle to beat the former. Out of a useful staying mare by Monsun, this trip may well prove sharp enough for her next season, but she is likely to improve over further, a potential Oaks filly. Polydream didn’t make the expected improvement that the market had expected, though she wasn’t ideally placed.

The first of two Aidan O’Brien-trained winners at Chantilly on Sunday came in the Grand Criterium, with Happily (remains on 115p) becoming the first filly to win the race since Danishkada in 1986. She’ll no doubt be 1000 Guineas bound next season, aiming to provide her dam with another Newmarket classic after Gleneagles' victory in the colts' equivalent in 2015. Jean-Claude Rouget’s Olmedo (115 from 104p) travelled best but was overhauled late by the winner having seen off British raider Masar (114 from 110p). O’Brien was at the double in the Prix de l’Opera, but it was the outsider of his pair of runners in that race, Rhododendron, who provided his second winner. Rhododendron (up 1 lb to 117) had been bridesmaid to both Winter and Enable in the fillies’ classics, but gained a deserved second Group 1 win, digging deep under pressure to hold off the Ryan Moore-ridden Hydrangea (remains on 116).

Enable had sparkled when winning the Arc, but the best performance on the day in ratings terms came in the Prix de l’Abbaye from Battaash (up 1 lb to 136), who returned to form to record a first Group 1 success in devastating fashion by four lengths from Nunthorpe winner Marsha (remains on 130). Battaash doubled the previous highest winning margin in the Abbaye this century (Benbaun in 2007), confirming his status as an outstanding sprinter. As a gelding, he’ll be around for a while yet, and looks in a position to potentially dominate the division for some time to come, provided his temperament can be kept in check (got too worked up in the preliminaries before the Nunthorpe and was below form).

Last year’s Prix de La Foret winner Limato was missing from the 2017 renewal due to the expected soft ground, which meant that Aclaim (123) didn’t have to improve on his very best form (namely his second in the Prix Maurice de Gheest) to land a first top-level success and provide Britain/Ireland with a clean-sweep of the main races on Arc day.