Prix de la Foret (4.40pm) result
1 Ramatuelle 7/2
2 Kinross 7/4f
3 Beauvatier 20/1

Prix de la Foret (4.40pm) preview

Despite the best efforts of the course executives at York and Goodwood, among others, to boost the status of their top seven-furlong events, this race is still the only Group One at the trip in Europe, and thus an automatic target for every decent seven-furlong specialist around. Kelina and Kinross, separated by half a length at the end of last year’s renewal, are both in the field again, and this will in fact be Kinross’s fourth run in the race – he won in 2022 and finished fourth in 2021. Kelina, a 25-1 chance 12 months ago, has failed to add to last year’s success in four subsequent races and is a relative outsider again, but Kinross is the likely favourite and may have most to fear from Christopher Head’s Ramatuelle, who looked as if she might appreciate a drop back to seven furlongs when finishing third in both the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot and the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket in May.

SELECTION: RAMATUELLE

Prix de l’Opera (4.05pm) result
1 Friendly Soul 9/1
2 Running Lion 28/1
3 Sparkling Plenty 3/1 f

• Prix de l’Opera (4.05pm) betting

• Sparkling Plenty 7/2

• Fallen Angel 4/1

• Content 9/2

• Ylang Ylang 6/1

• Friendly Soul 7/1

• Hanalia 12/1

• American Sonja 16/1

• 28/1 BAR – 11 Runners

• Full betting here via Oddschecker

Nice live shots of an ecstatic winning rider Rossa Ryan and Bluestocking coming into the winner’s enclosure after their victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

There was quite some trip down to the ceremony after the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for the winning trophy there at Longchamp!

Prix de l’Opera (4.05pm) preview

A big run from Bluestocking, Aventure or both in the preceding Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe will be a positive for Sparkling Plenty, the Prix de Diane (French Oaks) winner here, as she was a creditable sixth in the Prix Vermeille last time having been given a bizarrely unambitious ride until halfway down the straight. She is vying for favouritism with Karl Burke’s Fallen Angel, the runner-up in the Matron Stakes last time out with Ylang Ylang just behind in fourth, while Ylang Ylang’s stable-companion at the Aidan O’Brien yard, Content, is another leading contender on her winning form in the Yorkshire Oaksalthough this drop back to 10 furlongs is not entirely certain to suit. The Group Two Blandford Stakes, won by Hanalia with American Sonja back in fifth, could be worth a second look too.

SELECTION: SPARKLING PLENTY

Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (3.20pm) result
1 Bluestocking 5/1
2 Aventure 17/2
3 Los Angeles 6/1

• Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe betting

• Sosie 4/1

• Los Angeles 11/2

• Bluestocking 7/1

• Al Riffa 8/1

• Look De Vega 17/2

• Shin Emperor 11/1

• Delius 18/1

• Mqse De Sevigne 28/1

• Continuous 28/1

• Fantastic Moon 33/1

• 40/1 bar – 16 Runners

• Full betting here via Oddschecker

News update: Fantastic Moon WILL run in the Arc de Triomphe. Apparently the owners would be fined €55k if they didn’t give a good enough reason to pull out so they haven’t done so and the horse will run with the Longchamp stewards telling all concerned that “the horse must run on its merits.” That is they will be watching closely in case the horse is given an easy time of it. Bravo!

The French get their priorities right at the races …

This horse (Batwan geddit) earns the best-turned out horse at Longchamp today!

Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (3.20pm) preview

The 103^rd Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is, as I may already have mentioned once or twice, a pin-sticker’s delight. I can’t see Haya Zark or Survie playing any kind of a role in the finish, but that leaves 14 to choose from and the ratings suggest that at their best, there is precious little between them. Zarakem, for instance, is a 50-1 shot with the bookies, but he was a close second behind Auguste Rodin in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot just two runs ago, and fellow outsiders like Sevenna’s Knight, Sunway, Continuous andFantastic Moon all have something in their back-catalogue that gives them a squeak. The key pieces of form among the market leaders include the Prix Niel (Sosie beat Delius and Look De Vega), the Irish Champion Stakes – watch Shin Emperor finishing fast into third after struggling for running room with Los Angeles just behind in fourth - and the Grosser Preis von Berlin, which has the recent Arc winners Torquator Tasso and Alpinista on its roll of honour and was won this year by Al Riffa. The Prix Vermeille, where Bluestocking beat Aventure, is also worth a look before coming to any firm decisions, and while I’m happy enough to row in with Al Riffa and Yutaka Take, there is almost no possible outcome that would entirely surprise.

SELECTION: AL RIFFA

Prix de l’Abbaye (2.05pm) result
1 Makarova 14/1
2 Bradsell 6/4f
3 Believing 7/2

News … Fantastic Moon will not run in the Arc de Triomphe.

• Prix de l’Abbaye (2.05pm) betting

• Bradsell 2/1

• Believing 4/1

• Starlust 15/2

• Kerdos 14/1

• Grand Grey 16/1

• Makarova 16/1

• No Half Measures 18/1

• Desperate Hero 25/1

• Washington Heights 25/1

• BAR 28/1 – 16 Runners

• Full odds via Oddschecker here

Prix de l’Abbaye (2.05pm) preview

If there is a Group One race on the Arc weekend schedule that is all but certain to go to an overseas-trained runner, it is undoubtedly this five-furlong sprint, which has gone abroad 13 times in the last 15 years.

The locals, in fact, almost seem to have given up trying, and just three of the 16 runners are from French stables. It will take just under a minute to watch the key race as far as recent form goes, as the first six home in the Flying Five at the Curragh last month – Bradsell, Believing, Makarova, Kerdos, Washington Heights and Desperate Hero – are all in today’s field. Bradsell and Hollie Doyle were convincing winners there but this is a race where a high draw is generally fairly terminal for a runner’s chance and all five of the re-opposers are drawn lower. The main local trial is the Prix du Petit Couvert over track and trip three weeks ago, when the field included another half-dozen of today’s runners, and the one to take out of the race is probably Richard Hughes’s No Half Measures, who was beaten less than half a length in sixth despite being forced wide. She has a difficult draw again though in stall 12. I’ll probably have a few euros on Kerdos from an excellent pitch in stall three, although Desperate Hero, who posted an exceptional time when hosing up in a Hamilton handicap four runs ago, also makes some appeal from six.

SELECTION: KERDOS

Prix Jean-Luc Lagadere (1.30pm) result
1 Camille Pissarro 10/1
2 Rashabar 8/1
3 Misunderstood 11/2

• Prix Jean-Luc Lagadere (1.30pm) betting

• Henri Matisse 7/4

• Field of Gold 7/2

• Misunderstood 13/2

• Rashabar 13/2

• Houquetot 12/1

• Cowardofthecounty 18/1

• Camille Pissarro 20/1

• Heybetil 33/1

• Full betting via Oddschecker here

Prix Jean-Luc Lagadere (1.30pm) preview

Like the preceding race, the juvenile colts’ Group One features an Aidan O’Brien runner on something of a retrieval mission, as Henri Matisse was unbeaten and odds-on for last month’s Group One National Stakes at the Curragh but finished only second behind Scorthy Champ having wandered alarmingly inside the final furlong. There is less obvious opposition from the home-trained contingent, however, as Field Of Gold, John Gosden’s Solario Stakes winner, and Brian Meehan’s Rashabar, the runner-up behind Whistlejacket in the Prix Morny in August, are next best on ratings, with Mario Baratti’s unbeaten Misunderstood, a four-and-a-half length winner of the Group Three Prix des Chenes last time, likely to offer the biggest threat from the locals.

SELECTION: FIELD OF GOLD

Prix Marcel Boussac (12.55pm) result
1 Vertical Blue 100-1
2 Zarigana 4/7 f
3 Exactly 7/1

Fantastic Moon is now a doubtful runner in the Arc de Triomphe at 3.20pm after so much rain in the period running up to the race today, the Racing Post are reporting.

• Prix Marcel Boussac (12.55pm) betting

• Zarigana 4/5

• Bedtime Story 11/4

• Simmering 9/1

• Exactly 9/1

• Lhakpa 28/1

• La Guapisima 80/1

• Vertical Blue 100/1

• Inhebhaa 300/1

• La Ferretcapienne 300/1

• Full beting here via Oddschecker

Your non-runners today … cross this lot off your list of horses due to line up because they’e not going to.

12.55 No 5: Longchamp Rose Salve
1.30 No 5: Revolutionairre
4.40 No 16: Flora Of Bermuda

Prix Marcel Boussac (12.55pm) preview

A fascinating contest between three hugely-promising two-year-old fillies to open the Group One action on Arc day. Francis Graffard’s Zarigana, a grand-daughter of the brilliant, unbeaten Arc winner Zarkava, is the likely favourite, having won her first two startsby a combined seven lengths, but she faces stern opposition from Aidan O’Brien’s Bedtime Story, whose unbeaten record went west when she finished fifth and last in the Moyglare Stud Stakes last time. She was subsequently found to be lame, however, and had set off at odds-on in a race that was won by her stable companion, Lake Victoria, the easy winner of last week’s Group One Cheveley Park Stakes. Ollie Sangster’s Simmering, meanwhile, also deserves close consideration, having finished a length-and-a-quarter behind Lake Victoria in the same event.

SELECTION: ZARIGANA

“Punters are increasingly happy to take on those at the front of the betting”, the BestofBets.com folk remind me in their press release which has just landed. “In the last 24 hours, we’ve seen support for outsiders who ran in the ace last year like Continuous and Fantastic Moon, both of which are now 25-1.”

One very fascinating aspects of this year’s Arc is that it is genuinely wide-open. Sky Sports Racing presenter Alex Hammond just asked who will go off favourite and answered her own question by saying: “We still don’t know”. Sosie and Los Angeles are current market leaders at 9-2 and the betting reads like a sprint handicap rather than a Group One contest of this calibre with a mature betting market.

Good morning all. It’s still a bit damp and drizzly in Paris but the Arc de Triomphe has been a glittering day in the European racing calendar since it became the target for the greatest horses on the continent and beyond in the post-War era. The forecast is for the precipitation to stop and we’re in for a fabulous day’s action on the track this afternoon.