His candidacy attracts as much as it challenges.
Persian King
, 4, 12 races, 8 wins, has won seven times over 1600 meters since the start of his career.
This afternoon, he tries to win the top of the world gallop for his first steps on the distance of 2400 meters.
A big gap that he must achieve a month after winning at the highest level over 1600 meters.
Possible?
This is one of the main questions before the start of this 99th edition of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
A bet that could be described as completely crazy if it was not tempted by André Fabre, his mentor.
Head of the list of French coaches for more than thirty years, eight times winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (the record) and five times its equivalent in jumps, the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris (four times as trainer and once as a jockey), the 74-year-old pro has dominated his profession for a long time and has nothing more to prove.
Except that it is extremely rare to win a thoroughbred at the highest level over 1600 meters and then over 2400 meters.
The unforgettable
Zarkava
achieved this in 2008.
Go France
too.
It was in 1973. This Sunday at ParisLongchamp,
Persian King
has a chance to write a new page in turf history and André Fabre to take up what is similar to his ultimate challenge.
400 m in just 22 seconds
Tall, both in size and talent,
Persian King
nonetheless possesses an explosiveness and a natural impulse that allow him to achieve feats.
This beautiful bay thoroughbred wears down his opponents, then strikes them down in a sprint.
As in his last victory, on September 6 at ParisLongchamp, when he galloped his last 400 meters in just 22 seconds.
Persian King
splashed his class on the stands of the racetracks when his mentor was conspicuous by his absence in the French media.
Do not count on André Fabre to provide an element of answer to our initial question.
The man has reserved his impressions for foreign media for years.
Fortunately, some archives give the floor to this great polo enthusiast: "Our job is almost completely mastered, when we manage to measure, to the nearest meter, the resistance capacities of each horse," he confided in 1984 in the columns of the Galop Informations magazine.
This potential, in most cases, is not a given that can be improved;
it is a hereditary asset over which training cannot do much.
"
Grandson of an Arc winner
In other words, the pedigree plays a major role in the results of each horse.
As such, the presence of
Dylan Thomas
in that of
Persian King
would tend to reassure us about the abilities of the prodigy to hold the 2400 meters of the course of the most prestigious event in the world.
Because the maternal grandfather of
Persian King,
named in memory of the Welsh poet who died at the age of 39, was an extremely resistant competitor to the effort and, above all, he is the winner of the 2007 edition of this Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Genetics aren't everything,
Persian King
has to show us a new side of his talent.
Because, to date, André Fabre has won eight Arcs with, each time, horses that had run and won over 2400 meters before being crowned on D-Day. Also because the terrain promises to be extremely difficult for the fifteen participants. .
"An idea behind the head"
Quadruple winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Thierry Jarnet (53) has not appeared on the programs for three seasons but keeps a watchful eye on French equestrian activity, and in particular on this event.
For him,
Persian King
"was born to hold", but "the challenge promises to be complicated before the blow".
"A racehorse is like an athlete who practices running," explains the former jockey who won two Arcs for André Fabre in the saddle on
Subotica
(1992) and
Carnegie
(1994) before achieve a historic double associated with Trêve (2013-2014).
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“Some are sprinters, others are more specialists in long distances.
When I was learning at Afasec (Association for training and social action of racing stables), we would run every two nights with a trainer, and I participated in half-marathons.
It was my specificity.
Speed wasn't my thing.
I think that depending on how far you are going, the muscles and fibers are not the same.
This also applies to horses.
Afterwards, it goes without saying that with age and work, trainers succeed in
lengthening
certain horses.
With
Persian King
, André Fabre certainly has an idea behind his mind.
"
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Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe: Enable has a date with history
Like his jockey, Pierre-Charles Boudot, who has been riding him since his beginnings, moreover.
On October 15, 2019, almost as soon as last year's Arc ran, already, the one that many nickname PC had dropped during an interview for the Equidia channel: "In 2020,
Enable
will return to try to have its third Arc , but maybe she'll
stumble
upon
Persian King
?
At the time, no one had picked up.
A year later, the names of the two cracks are written in black and white on the program.
And the appointment is fixed at 4:05 p.m.