Yet France’s eternal champion trainer, seven Arcs already, including the last two, has no runner in Sunday’s renewal after yesterday’s forfeit stage which left 15 possibles.
Rail Link, last year’s victor, and Manduro, have succumbed to injury.
Local hopes rest on Jonathan Pease (Sagara) and Alain de Royer-Dupre (Mandesha) who have both trained Arc winners and Zambezi Sun, representing last year’s winning owner Khalid Abdulla and Chantilly-trained by Pascal Bary.
The Arc is a glaring omission from Aidan O’Brien’s cv. The Ballydoyle maestro has seven left in with his Irish Derbywinner Soldier Of Fortune due to meet Peter Chapple-Hyam’s Vodafone Derby winner Authorized for the first time.
Numbers are hardly likely to concern Authorized who has defeated 19 challengers from Ballydoyle in his career so far.
But even Frankie Dettori, three-time Arc winner for Godolphin, feels the pressure – increased, according to Authorized’s partner, by the blazing newspaper headlines, “I’m on the winner”.
Dettori said: “I’m seeking an apology. I don’t question my horse’s ability but it is achampionship race and you need that bit of luck. I wasmisquoted.”