THE ground and pace had an effect on more than just the Arc at Longchamp last weekend.

Saturday’s card took place on ground about as testing as likely to be seen at the course, and the Group 1 Qatar Prix du Cadran at nearly two and a half miles – with Alkuin setting a strong pace – proved far too much for most.

But not for Princess Zoe, who responded gamely all the way up the home straight to overhaul the leader and score a memorable success for connections.

Her finishing speed was around 97%, but Alkuin’s was just 94% in a thoroughly attritional contest: I have them rated 114 and 116 respectively after this, though with a slight caveat regarding the extreme nature of this test.

Wonderful Tonight was the other Group 1 winner on the Saturday card, in a well-run Qatar Prix de Royallieu in which she held Pista by a length and a quarter, with daylight back to the rest. Time-based ratings of 110 and 108 suggest the pair have a way to go to be considered up with the very best, but they have both been improving up to this point.

There were Group 2 wins for Valia (106 sectional rating in Prix Chaudenay), Skalleti (116, Prix Dollar) and The Revenant (115, Prix Daniel Wildenstein), though the last-named can have his 119 from finishing second in last year’s Queen Elizabeth II Stakes reinstated.

Good case

The Arc may have been slightly underwhelming, but the race which followed it on Sunday – the Prix de l’Opera Longines – was anything other than that.

Indeed, there is a good case to be made that Tarnawa (119 on sectionals here) might have won the big one with her sex allowance, after she ran down Alpine Star (118) close home.

Audarya (114), Tawkeel (113) and Ambition (113), in third, fourth and fifth, give the form a strong look, even though it was a rather messy contest which might have counted against Alpine Star, who was lit up early at this longer trip.

The Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye was a rather substandard event in the absence of Battaash, and one or two others. Wooded may have been helped by the draw, and was certainly helped by soft ground and a strong pace kept to the minimum trip, in beating last year’s winner Glass Slippers. Figures of 115 and 110 respectively are a rung down from the top sprinting tier.

Enable might not have managed three wins in the Arc, but another six-year-old mare in One Master pulled off the feat in the Group 1 Qatar Prix de la Foret later that afternoon.

This appeared to be a well-run race (winner’s finishing speed was 102%), but the time compares unfavourably with Sealiway in the Jean-Luc Lagardere, dealt with elsewhere.

Nonetheless, One Master can be credited with a 112 rating and runner-up Earthlight with 115, in a race in which one or two longshots finished a bit too close for comfort.