There are those big moments in horse racing where the sport’s immortals show up on the biggest stage and attempt to further etch themselves in the history books. The 2019 Prix de l’Arc de Triomph certainly qualifies as just that type of moment as champion Enable tries to become the only three-time winner in the race’s illustrious history.
It helps, of course, that Enable is female.
Fillies and mares aren't suppposed to be able to do what she's done racing at the highest levels of the sport.
When the starting gate opens Saturday, Oct. 5 at Longchamp, Enable will be chasing history as much are her 15 rivals. Check out these bonus opportunities at top racebooks offering Arc wagering. Bovada has always great bonuses!
These are the latest Grand Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe Odds for the 2019 race:
While it's hard to compare international horses competing in different years on different surfaces against different competition, it doesn't take much creativity to draw parallels between Saturday's Arc favorite and American great Zenyatta.
Queen Z entered the 2011 Breeders' Cup Classic a perfect 19 for 19 in her race career, with most of those wins coming in Grade 1 competition. She remains the only female to ever win a Breeders' Cup Classic, and was attempting to do it twice.
Her run came up short by an agonizing nose to eventual winner Blame, perhaps even further solidifying her status as the best American filly/mare to look through a bridle.
Enable will be making her own run at history in the 2019 Arc and unlike Zenyatta, is an overwhelming favorite to do it.
It all makes sense on paper. Enable is the best horse, she's in great form, and has already shown a penchant for historically unprecedented accomplishments in becoming the only horse to win the Arc and Breeders' Cup Turf in the same year - a feat she completed just last fall.
Again, on paper, this year's Arc looks like it will corronate a racing Queen. Enable has superior Time Form ratings and has no visible chinks in the armor. That said, Enable has won four of her last five races by less than a length.
She clearly knows how to get to the wire first, but will she finally cut it too close?
Enable has one 13 of 14 career starts, including her last 12. Even more amazingly, 10 of those have been at the Group 1 level.
Still, I can't blame handicappers who see a short price and recognize the invaluable and recursive lesson this sport teaches its participants about the difficulty in pulling off historical feats.
As the maxim goes, "keep leading em' over there and they'll eventually get beat." While this aporism is certainly not without merit, it begs the logical question, of "who beats her?"
A look at the Grand Prix de L'Arc de Triomphe odds reveals that just about everyone else is a fair price.
Japan is the top choice to spring the upset at +600 and there is certainly good reason.
The rapidly-improving three year-old is trained by the legendary Aidan O'Brien, who is no stranger to winning this race. He's taken 5 of 8 career starts, including each of his last three (two against Group 1 company).
If the Arc has any proven historical angles, it's bias towards younger runners is noteworthy. Only 8 horses aged 5 and up have ever won an Arc. Enable is 5. A horse like Japan, teeming with upside could be a very strong play at this price.
Trainer Andre Fabre has won the Arc more than anyone else -7 times. He's done it with favorites and he's done it with upsetters. Speaking of upsetters, Fabre famously won the Breeders' Cup Classic in 1993 with Arcangues at 133/1.
It might take an upset of the same magnitude for Fabre to win the 2019 Arc, but he's got two shots with Waldgeist and Musis Amica. The former has been close enough to Enable (about a length) in previous attempts, and the latter seems to be improving at the right time.
A bettor looking to upset the apple cart could certainly do worse than taking a flier on either of Fabre's runners at +1600 on Waldgeist and a whopping +4000 on Musis America.
Call me a sucker, sentimental or unimaginative, but I'm going to eat the chalk in this race and take Enable. If she goes down, it won't be without a fight, and someone else had better have their running shoes on.
There are times to question the horse with literally all the pre-race hype, but Enable deserves every word, sentence and paragraph of what's been written here and other outlets around the world.
Don't miss the action and be sure to check out these top places to bet the 2019 Arc.
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