3.05 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de

Triomphe (Group 1) 1m 4f

Ace Impact can maintain his blemish-free career record and prove himself the champion of Europe by landing a second Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for trainer Jean-Claude Rouget and jockey Cristian Demuro at ParisLongchamp on Sunday.

The battle-hardened British-trained older horses Hukum and Westover will be there to pick up the pieces if the fabulous three-year-old fails to fire, while the Japanese mare Through Seven Seas is a value outsider, but Ace Impact is the one member of the 15-strong field to have come up with a truly outstanding performance and will be nigh-on impossible to beat if he reproduces his best.

The peak of Ace Impact’s career so far came in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly in June, when he scorched the turf with a withering run from the rear to beat Big Rock by three and a half lengths.

That form looks gold-plated. While Big Rock has been beaten on both subsequent appearances, he has finished a fine second in a pair of all-aged mile Group 1 mile races, and the third, Feed The Flame, and eighth, Aidan O’Brien’s Continuous, who both reoppose on the same terms, have each gone on to grab Group 1 glory.

Spectacular

Ace Impact’s one outing since that Chantilly classic was another spectacular come-from-behind effort in the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano when any normal colt would have struggled to overcome the disadvantage of having sat a long way out of his ground in a race run at a steady gallop.

There would be doubts about Ace Impact’s ability to last out the mile and a half Arc distance if it were being staged on testing ground, but those worries are considerably less given the likelihood of a sound racing surface, and there is also no guarantee that the race will be run at a strong pace.

Continuous, the only Irish runner, is progressing well on the evidence of convincing victories in the Great Voltigeur Stakes and the St Leger, but it seems far-fetched to think that he will bridge the 15-length gap to Ace Impact from their previous meeting.

Hukum and Westover stamped themselves as top class animals when separated by just a head after fighting out a stirring duel in the Group 1 King George & Queen Elizabeth Stakes back in July, with over four lengths back to the rest. Yet the suspicion remains that they lack the dazzling ability displayed by most Arc winners.

Feed The Flame is the least experience member of the field, and hence is open to most improvement, but probably needs much softer ground to bring his staying prowess into play and will find it hard to overturn recent Prix Niel placings with the German Derby winner, Fantastic Moon.

Simca Mille will like the ground and makes some appeal after his easy Group 1 victory in Berlin but the best each-way prospect is Through Seven Seas, a late-maturing mare who suffered a troubled passage yet still only went down by a neck to the world’s highest-rated horse, Equinox, when last seen in a Group 1 in her homeland four months ago.

SELECTION: ACE IMPACT

Next Best: Through Seven Seas

1.15 Qatar Prix Jean-Luc

Lagardere (Group 1) 7f

The unbeaten Yann Barberot-trained Beauvatier has had this race as his target all season long and, although two Irish colts, three more from Britain and one from Germany take him on in a strong-looking field of 11, that is no reason to shy away from my long-held assertion that the son of Lope De Vega is the nap of the meeting.

Barberot may not be a household name even inside France, but the Deauville-based handler has been a regular big race competitor for a dozen years or more now and is in the midst of his best-ever season, currently sitting in sixth place in the French trainers’ championship.

Beauvatier has been the apple of his eye ever since he first set foot on a racecourse in early May and his form stands up to closest inspection: he beat the subsequent Prix Morny runner-up, Ramatuelle, on just his second start.

Aidan O’Brien’s strength in the juvenile division this season is pretty much unprecedented and his two runners, Unquestionable and Henry Adams, all have pattern race form to their names.

The unusually fast ground is also a big plus for the pick of the British contingent, Richard Hannon’s Rosallion, who seemed all at sea on soft in the Group 2 Champagne Stakes.

But the one to chase Beauvatier home could be another of the locals, Andre Fabre’s Evade, who got to within a length of him in the Group 3 Prix La Rochette over this course and distance four weeks ago and could repeat that feat.

SELECTION: BEAUVATIER

Next Best: Evade

1.50 Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac (Group 1) 1m

With the first crop of her sire Too Darn Hot doing so well at the moment and her trainer, Karl Burke, in red hot form, Darnation is likely to be a warm order for the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac following her comprehensive victories in the Group 3 Prestige Stakes and Group 2 May Hill Stakes.

But Burke insisted after her latest triumph that soft ground is important to her and, with the recent warm weather set to continue in Paris over the weekend, she is unlikely to be afforded those conditions.

Darnation’s nine opponents include three unbeaten local fillies in Rose Bloom, Ribaltagaia and Julica, who could all be anything, plus Freville, winner of the course and distance trial, the Group 3 Prix d’Aumale.

I will side with Aidan O’Brien’s runner, the Justify filly Opera Singer, who ran away with a Group 3 at the Curragh late last month and can become the third progeny of her Group 3-winning dam, Liscanna, to strike in Group 1 company as a two-year-old, following on from Brave Anna and Hit It A Bomb.

SELECTION: OPERA SINGER

Next Best: Freville

3.50 Prix de l’Opéra Longines (Group 1) 1m 2f

Young trainer Christopher Head is really putting his neck on the block in the Group 1 Qatar Prix de l’Opéra in allowing his dual classic winner Blue Rose Cen to take her chance.

Unlucky in-running when only fourth in the Nassau Stakes, she then weakened late when fifth in the mile and a half Prix Vermeille and, although a lack of stamina was a plausible explantion, a long, hard season was probably also partly to blame and most people did not expect to see her again until 2024.

Now here she is, just four weeks later, up against, among others, her Nassau conqueror Al Husn and Jannah Rose, who has won in Group 3, Group 2 and Group 1 company already this term.

Irish hopes are carried by Lumiere Rock and Jackie Oh, first and second in the Group 2 Blandford Stakes last time out when Lumiere Rock was aided by the application of cheekpieces. Joseph O’Brien’s Saxon Warrior filly had previously been touched off by Jannah Rose in the Group 2 Prix de la Nonette.

I’m prepared to back Head’s judgement and give Blue Rose Cen another chance, but it’s going to be an intriguing affair.

SELECTION: BLUE ROSE CEN

Next Best: Lumiere Rock

4.25 Prix de l’Abbaye de

Longchamp Longines (Group 1) 5f

The standing of Europe’s top sprinters seems to be at a drastically low level at present, and it’s probably just a matter of which member of a poor bunch gets the breaks and has his or her moment in the spotlight in an ultra-open 19-runner renewal of the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye.

Ken Condon’s Moss Tucker is riding the crest of a wave at present, while Highfield Princess has been suffering a spate of misfortunes and is drawn 14 here, but a tentative suggestion is to side with the Group 1 Flying Five runner-up, Get Ahead, from the Clive Cox yard.

SELECTION: Get Ahead

Next Best: Highfield Princess

5.00 Qatar Prix de la Foret (Group 1) 7f

The teak-tough Kingman filly Sauterne seems to thrive on hard work and she can follow up her recent Group 1 Prix du Moulin triumph and deny Kinross a second successive Group 1 Qatar Prix de la Foret victory.

SELECTION: SAUTERNE

Next Best: Kinross