Away from all the hype at Paris Longchamp, there was much to saviour from this weekends racing. Raising Sand - who has been a horse to follow should he get his desirable soft ground, took full advantage of those conditions when bolting up at Ascot on Saturday. If we didn’t know already, then we now know the sheer brilliance of the Karl Burke trained Laurens, who recorded her fifth Group One of the season at Newmarket on Saturday. The red-hot Keith Dalgleish struck once again, this time with one of his juveniles as Summer Daydream took the Racing UK 2yo Trophy at Redcar, a listed contest over just short of six furlongs.
However, all the focus will be on the Group One Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and what we saw at the new course at Longchamp, just outside the French Capital, was equine brilliance. Once again, we were reminded that we live at a time amongst one of the greatest fillies ever - Enable.
Any horse whose preparation consists of just the one run; with that being on the All Weather at Kempton is something special - and that’s just what Enable is. This daughter of Nathaniel was really forced to knuckle down and work hard in the final furlong when she pressed all the way by William Haggas trained Sea of Class. Sea of Class who has been a revelation for connections over such a short time, ran a mighty race, and on Monday we received a positive update that she will stay in training as a 4yo, and go for the Arc once more.
Other stories from the weekend include outsider Emily Goldfinch unlikely success in the big sprint at Newmarket before Klassique eventually sent favourite backers home happy at Newmarket.
Sunday also saw the return of Lil Rockerfeller for his debut over obstacles - having taken advantage of his low flat rating to score in the summer at Goodwood. He won on his first start over fences for Neil King.