IT IS repetitively observed that Sir Michael Stoute has never won a St Leger, but to a trainer of his global stature it may be more irksome that he is yet to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
The superb Pilsudski twice finished second for him, to Helissio in 1996 and Peintre Celebre in 1997. This year, he may be doubly represented: by Derby hero North Light and St Leger runner-up Quiff.
But, if a successful Arc preparation can be reduced to patterning, the omens are poor for both horses. A mid-season break is advantageous, if not crucial, to an Arc campaign: all of the past 16 winners benefited from at least one whole month off the track. It is a practice honed by French trainers, admired and copied by the likes of John Oxx, who gave Sinndar August off after winning the 2000 Irish Derby and then prepped him in the Prix Niel.
However, none was off games for as long as North Light will have been if he makes his October 3 date in Paris. He hasn’t run since Grey Swallow beat him in the Irish Derby on June 27. Lammtarra, the 1995 Arc victor, enjoyed the longest pre-Longchamp break of the past 16 years, but that stretched only from late July.
Quiff did not race in July, but none of the past 16 winners had contested the St Leger — although Alleged compensated for his Doncaster defeat with the first of his consecutive Arc triumphs back in 1977.
Advertisement
What’s more, only two of the past 16 Arc winners had been defeated on their previous start: Subotica by Magic Night in the Prix Foy Escada in 1992 and Peintre Celebre — whose thwarted passage prompted cries of deliberate foul from jockey Olivier Peslier and trainer André Fabre against connections of also-ran Ithaki — by Rajpoute in the 1997 Niel.