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#1
09-11-2006, 01:04 PM
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#3
09-11-2006, 10:47 PM
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I'm assuming you mean Deep Impact..... is that right? (Love DI but not my pick, for the record). 
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#4
09-11-2006, 11:24 PM
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i think he is tremendous and has a real shot to be the first ever non euro to win. it won't be easy and it will be a stern test, but i love the story that it would be. i also applaud the Japanese for going over to take a shot. If they wanted to play it safe and just make money it would make more sense to have stayed in Japan because of the purses that he could have easily taken down over there. oh yeah, i know that he wouldn't be your pick. and that pick would be...? HR? Pride maybe?
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#5
09-12-2006, 12:20 AM
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Deep Impact by 5+
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#6
09-12-2006, 09:05 AM
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Arc: Pride in good shape but no decision yet on Mandesha
by Desmond Stoneham (Racing post) PRIDE was on Monday reported to be in good form after her third in Sunday’s Prix Foy, but no decision has yet been reached about a Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe bid for her stablemate Mandesha (pic). The Arc is still very much on the agenda for Pride after her effort behind Shirocco and Hurricane Run at the weekend, but Mandesha – who was quoted as low as 8-1 for the big race after her impressive win in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille on Sunday’s card – would need to be supplemented at a cost of €60,000 by her owner Princess Zahra Aga Khan. Alain Royer-Dupre, who trains the pair, said on Monday: “Pride has come out of the race in very good form, but the ground was a bit fast for her on Sunday as she prefers to get her feet in.” “Mandesha did not have a hard race at all in the Vermeille and we now have the option of either the Prix de l’Opera or the Arc. We won’t decide yet whether she will be supplemented into the Arc and I wouldn’t want to run her if the ground came up testing. It is difficult for younger horses to show their best on such a surface, but older ones like it.” Pat Downes, racing manager for the Aga Khan, confirmed that if Mandesha does run in the Arc, retained jockey Christophe Soumillon would be required to ride her, meaning the mount on leading contender Shirocco would be up for grabs. Downes said: “We were delighted “There is no decision yet on whether she will be supplemented for the Arc. We'll take a few days to see how she is and think about it. If she were to run in the Arc, Christophe would be riding her.”
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#7
09-13-2006, 01:02 AM
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* * * Sir Percy update..... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...355367,00.html
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#8
09-13-2006, 09:04 AM
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Deep Impact wins this for fun. The fact that they took the extra effort to bring over his food AND water from Japan... that says something. This horse is a monster. I can hardly wait!
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#9
09-13-2006, 12:24 PM
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from one of the top racingpost writers, James Willoughby
IN THREE weeks' time, the distance between the start and the finish at Longchamp will be bridged by an explosion of equine talent. In prospect is a highly charged line-up that could spark one of the great middle-distance races of recent times. That is the thought that flows from the Arc trials at Longchamp yesterday, when the key players came through their final test before Europe's greatest race. Perfectly primed for the arrival of the Japanese superstar Deep Impact are two horses who themselves are on the verge of a world championship. Yesterday's clash between Hurricane Run and Shirocco promised to be something special in the Prix Foy. But with the anticipation came the uneasy feeling that here were two horses with the same trainer in what was only a trial. In the event, neither was fully extended. But the point at which they were unleashed at the top of the straight still provided one of those moments that is normally the reserve of hypothesis: like an argument about which of two superlatives conveys the stronger meaning. Yesterday, the Andre Fabretrained pair were only sparring. The fact that third-placed Pride closed down on them was partly down to the fact that neither Christophe Soumillon, on the winner, nor Kieren Fallon, on the runner-up, was inclined to go for everything. It should also be remembered that sectionals show Pride has a wicked turn of foot off the kind of steady pace that prevailed in the Foy, while the other two are much stronger stayers. AFTER Fallon's exceptionally heady ride on Dylan Thomas in the Irish Champion Stakes on Saturday, it is tempting to think that nothing is outside his powers. He kept his hands firmly on Hurricane Run's neck throughout the closing stages, leaving the impression that reversing the form with Shirocco will be readily achieved in the Arc. The problem is that so too was his rival at less than full throttle. The remarkable thing about racehorses is that even at 99 per cent of the energy levels they would expend at championship pace, their respective merits cannot be judged definitively. With two human athletes, we could see on their faces and interpret from their body language the extent to which the winner was the superior. With horses, the same level of information is just not possible. The chances are that the better of the two in the Arc will be the one who has the better preparation, feels the better on the day and gets the trip better. If it is Hurricane Run, everyone will say it was obvious that he was only out for a run in the Foy' if it is Shirocco, then they will say he had been idling in front. How about the real truth? Any clash between these two depends on circumstance and will never provide a final answer. If Hurricane Run and Shirocco are maybe the best two horses on the planet, it is only maybe because of Deep Impact. People question the strengths of the fields which he has beaten in the East, but this is far less important than the impression he creates at the speed we know that he is running' the fact is that horses capable of middle-moves on the bridle while travelling at around 40mph come along once every Sea-Bird and Ribot. Seeing a horse to even touch this Godlike pair is the dream of anyone who has ever became entangled with the sport at a spiritual level. People talk about great races like that between Ouija Board and Alexander Goldrun as elevating because of the excitement engendered by the uncertain outcome and the unworldly effort expended by the combatants towards an aim that means less to them than us. There is, however, something beyond that. There is the chance to see a horse who does not depend on being perceived as a 'trier' to gain admirers' who will be talked about as long as the sport' who can do something like Dancing Brave did to an extremely strong field in the 1986 Arc. We don't know for sure that we will ever see anything to quite match that, but every now and then it seems that the circumstances are coming together. Now is that time. Horses come along and win the Arc in spectacular style around once a decade, but they are often not lucky enough to have a rival of similar talent with which to define them. The point about this year's race is that three horses will take the field who have proven talent to put a 130 up on the board, and there are a couple more bubbling under who may just do the same. In other years, a colt like the Prix Niel winner Rail Link would be sitting on top of the ante-post market with nobody saying he didn't deserve to be there. He came through his trial in similar style to many previous Arc winners of his age group, giving the same impression he would thrive in the more heated environment of a championship race. But there he is at around 8-1, freely available for anyone to take this morning, and the chances are he will still be the same price this afternoon. THEN there is Mandesha, nothing short of brilliant in the Vermeille, now a Group 1 winner at both 1m and a 1m4f. Are we missing something here? Her connections say they want to look at the sectional times before committing the filly. They will not be disappointed. The three Arc trials were run at similar tempo, with the exception of a mid-race lull in the Foy in which the principals fell around a second and a half behind the Vermeille and the Niel. Yet Mandesha's single-furlong acceleration was probably the best of the day until she tired a bit and was eased close home. It is just that she has nothing like the same improvement in her as Hurricane Run, Shirocco or Rail Link. There are three weeks to go before the Arc, and injuries could crop up or heavy ground could arrive to spoil the integrity of the test. All things being well, however, an extraordinary array of middle-distance talent will come together on October 1.
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