Trainer Jean-Claude Rouget may have only won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe once before, but he could hold the ‘ace’ to another Longchamp success on Sunday in the shape of Prix du Jockey Club winner Ace Impact.
A solid favourite for the Arc since his runaway success in the Prix du Jockey Club back in June, Ace Impact is aiming to be the first three-year-old to win the race since Enable in 2018. In fact, only two other three-year-olds have achieved Arc glory since 2012 – Treve in 2013 and Golden Horn in 2015.
Rouget has been wary of over-racing his stable star, who will only be having his sixth racecourse start at Longchamp on Sunday: "It's very important that he stays a fresh horse because he started his season very early, which is not the usual start for a Classic horse.
"I didn't want to run him last year in November, I wanted to wait and he then ran in January, so after he ran in Deauville I preferred to not run him again so that he has some freshness going into the Arc."
Ace Impact made his racecourse debut back in January on the all-weather at Cagnes-sur-Mer, which would not be considered the traditional route for a future Arc contender. An easy three-and-a-half length winner of a ten furlong debutantes race, the colt was kept off the track until April, where he registered a Class One conditions success on the turf at Bordeaux le Bouscat.
The son of Cracksman took the step up in class in his stride when winning the Listed Prix de Suresnes at Chantilly on his third run and went into the Prix du Jockey Club with an unblemished reputation. He faced a competitive field of ten other colts, including Poule d'Essai des Poulains hero Marhaba Ya Sanafi and the two-time Group 3 winning Big Rock, who started favourite for the French Classic.
Jockey Cristian Demuro had an easy task in the end, moving Ace impact to the outside of the field at the two furlong marker before unleashing the colt's explosive turn of foot. He had plenty of ground to make up on Big Rock going into the final furlong but continued to accelerate past the leader, recording a comfortable three-and-a-half length victory.
Although the Grand Prix de Paris, run over the same course and distance as the 'Arc', could have been an option, Rouget was reluctant to send Ace Impact to Longchamp.
"It is very rare I run a horse in the Grand Prix de Paris and after that there was just the Prix Niel, which didn't hold any interest for me.
"I'm not worried about the course, he's an easy horse once he's settled in his race and there are plenty of horses that have won the Arc that also hadn't run at Longchamp before.
"There was just no opportunity to do so, but it's not something that bothers me."
Instead, the colt remained over ten furlongs for the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano at Deauville and demonstrated his customary turn of foot in the closing stages to win by three-quarters of a length ahead of Al Riffa.
It will be Ace Impact's first attempt over twelve furlongs on Sunday and the first time the colt has encountered older rivals, but this has not dampened the optimism of Rouget.
"Why shouldn't I be optimistic? I'm coming in with a horse that's unbeaten.
"We know in any race anything can happen and we're coming to the end of the season, but he gets three kilos from the older horses, which is important.
"I'm optimistic in the sense that he goes into the race unbeaten and has done everything we have asked him to so far."
"Obviously we can't be certain, but with the way he finishes his races and also the fact his sire was a winner over the distance gives us hope that he can stay."
