Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe

Header is a photo of Parth in his victory during the 4th Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe

Before writing about the new scenario, I figured it’d be easier to first focus on the race it all revolves around.

Often known just as the “Arc” or “L’Arc”, it is the fifth most rich turf race in the whole world (behind Australia’s The Everest, the Dubai World Cup, North America’s Breeder’s Cup Classic, and The Saudi Cup), and importantly, it’s also a race open to horses of any age (reminder: races like the Satsuki Sho can only be run by horses in their Classic Year for example) and any country (reminder 2: races like the Nihon Derby are only open to Japan-born horses).

This wasn’t always the case, however. But let’s take it from the top.

You see, France had a history of hunting in horses and dressage (a competition that can be best described as dancing with horses), but it was relatively underdeveloped when it came to horse racing specifically. At least until the 17th Century when “English-style” horse racing was introduced. And since it involved gambling it soon rose to even more popularity when all the French nobles. Even in the 18th century lots and lots of horses were being purchased from England for these purposes.

Some of you might be wondering how that whole thing called the French Revolution affected this if the heads of all those nobles throwing money around were divorced from the rest of their bodies.

Great question!

For one, it’s hard to import horses from the British when you’re being governed by the guy the Napoleonic Wars were named after. And for another, in that post-war environment the only horses people cared about where heavy duty horses for farming. “Government-sponsored” races were attempted in an effort to revitalize the interest in the sport, but on top of the previous factors the prize money was low and the public’s participation even more so.

It wasn’t until 1833, after relationships had been smoothened enough, that a proper attempt alongside the British was made again. This was the year where the French Society for the Promotion of Horse Breeding was formed with the Very British Sir Henry Seymour-Conway, as chairman. These efforts resulted in horse races being held in the Champ de Mars (the military park where the Eiffel Tower is at) and in Chantilly.

Three years later, in 1836, the Prix du Jockey Club was officially formed in Chantilly. This race is also known as the French Derby because it’s so similar to the Derby Stakes, a British race. For those curious, yeah, the Nihon Derby (official name Tokyo Yushun) does get its nickname from being similar to the Derby Stakes.

Seven years after that, in 1843, the Prix Diane started to be held in Chantilly too. This race has the nickname of “French Oaks” due to being similar to the Oaks Stakes race the British run. And for those curious, yes, the Oaks you can run in the game (official name Yushun Himba) does indeed take its nickname after the British one too.

So the Chantilly Racecourse was doing great! But the Champ de Mars was starting to be a problem, the quality of the soil wasn’t good between horses AND training troops running through it and it was just not well equipped for crowds, so the Longchamp Racecourse was finished in 1857. In an effort to both attract more competition AND promote better breeding of horses, races were held with the then-record prize of 100.000 francs (provided by both Paris and railway companies) and a work of art by the imperial family.

Thus, six years after the Longchamp Course was finished (in 1863), the Grand Prix de Paris was created. Up until then, most races were limited to just French horses, so the Grand Prix de Paris was an effort to allow for horses from any other country to participate. In this case it was only for three year old horses. The intent was mainly to collaborate with the British but that opened the possibilities for horses from any country to participate.

Around 30 years later (1893) a second race of such type was added, the Prix du Conseil Municipal. This one had the interesting quality of weights being added or removed depending on the racer’s previous performance (which contributed to this race not being as popular despite being well received). I should also note that both of these race are still being run nowadays, with the Grand Prix de Paris being a G1 by the current grading system, while the Prix du Conseil Municipal is a G2.

Notably, it was in the eve of the Prix du Conseil Municipal that the Parimutuel betting system (where odds for winners determine the payout and the issuers take a cut of the pool regardless of results) was implemented. Centralizing the betting of horse racing to one method approved and governed by a singular entity (and making betting outside of it illegal) resulted in more earnings coming to horse racing, resulting in bigger prizes for the winners thus incentivizing more competition.

The Arc is the third Longchamp race to be suggested, it was founded in 1920, one year after World War 1 ended, and the name was suggested because the Arc of Triumph was where a parade by the Allies after the war ended took place. The name had apparently been used for a minor event in the past in the Longchamp Racecourse.

The theming of the race as being about “Victory” (more the general ideal of Victory rather than just Winning) seems to be a recurrent element. The other suggested name for the race was apparently “Prix de la Victoire” and whenever we get to the actual in-game version we’ll see more of that and the other underlying mission of “proving French Horses’ superiority”.

Thus the first Arc was held and…! There were only two foreign horses. Comrade from England and Nouvel An from Spain. You see, that first world war that the cup is named after sorta kinda destroyed the French railways a little bit so long travel was a bit of a big ask.

The second one did have more of a foreign participation and indeed French favorite Ksar defeated the British Lemonora. Ksar would then win the next Arc after that yet again. That second ever Arc was, interestingly, attended by Emperor Showa while he was still crown prince Hirohito.

The fourth was won by a british horse named Parth, but Parth wasn’t actually the favorite British horse that year, the actual favorite, Papyrus, decided instead to challenge North America.

All of this detail is there to illustrate that despite its lofty goals, the Arc was having some growing pains to do, in fact, for the 5th and 6th Arcs there weren’t any foreign horses.

And the downturn would continue because in 1930 things like a global economic downturn and the Spanish Civil War had an ill effect on French economy which obviously had an effect on everything from the participants to the prize money to the people willing to bet money for entertainment.

Oh yeah, then World War 2 happened.

The Chantilly racecourse was used as an air field, about 100 racehorses were abandoned and starved to death and Faris, the last big French Racehorse before it all went down was taken by the Germans.

An Arc was held in 1941 during the German occupation and it is said that the French tried their best to keep the high class of the race even if they had to make dresses out of curtains and shoes out of wood.

The Germans saw the value in horse racing as a means to keep the populace calm and the morale up and pushed for it to continue despite all the rationing making things more and more difficult. This resulted in an uptick in participation and bets for the Prix Sablon… and it was THEN that the Americans bombed the Longchamp racecourse, killing 7 civilians in the process. The race kept on one hour later, however. But that year’s Arc was held elsewhere.

In 1944 as liberation efforts redoubled, casualties included both horse trainers and racehorses, like Corrida who had won the Arc in 1936 and 1937. The Chantilly racecourse was repeatedly bombed in the process (reminder: it was being used as an German airforce base) but by September after the liberation ended it had been fixed. The Longchamp racecourse, however, was used as an American Garrison and the Arc had to be held elsewhere.

As you might imagine, so many deaths both human and horse, so much post-war damage, and all the rebuilding efforts resulted in the Arc having a hard time getting back on its feet… and if all of that wasn’t enough, in 1946 the King George VI Stakes were opened up in England really close to when the Arc took place, taking away the interest of many of France’s top horses in the process.

It didn’t help that then winners of the Arc would go on to lose in the Derby Stakes, making the value of a winner of the Arc seem like less.

In an effort to push things in the right direction again, negotiations with the National Lottery resulted in the announcement in 1949 that the Arc’s prize would be 25 million francs, totalling about 30 million after registration and production fees.

The result? About 120 candidates from all over the world were aiming for it. America, Great Britain, Belgium, Ireland, and even Argentina. It wasn’t just colts (male horses) but Fillies (females) too, like Empeñosa from Argentina.

This had an interesting chain effect. Suddenly other organizations saw the benefit to this type of high prestige international race. The British merged the King George VI (the race taking participants away from the Arc) and Queen Elizabeth Stakes into the creatively named King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes, which became the premier European summer race meaning it has no conflicts with the Arc.

And this one, in turn, inspired the creation of the Washington DC International in the fall on 1952.

From here the prestige of the race grew more and more, the point that not even a riot in 1953 from an accident in the last corner stopped the momentum of the race.

For now, let’s skip to 1969. This year was when the first Japanese racehorse attempted to run. It was Speed Symboli, who lost in 10th place.

Speed Symboli, by the way, is Symboli Rudolf’s granddad.

In 1970 where a British horse named Nijinsky entered the race. Nijinsky was a British Triple Crown winner and such a menace on the field that compared to the 100+ entries of past years, this year only had 15 entries because not everyone wanted to test their luck against Nijinsky. And yet, Nijinsky still lost against a French horse named Sassafras by a tight margin.

Nijinsky, by the way, is Maruzensky‘s dad.

Then in 1971 another British horse called Mill Reef actually managed what Nijinsky couldn’t and won! A second year run was attempted ut Mill Reef had broken his leg in four parts… and by some miracle managed to recover just retiring.

Mill Reef, by the way, is the ancestor of Mihono Bourbon (via Magnitude) and Inari One (via Rinden Lily).

In 1972 the Japanese finally attempted in earnest with three entries to the Arc. The first, Hard To Beat, was Irish-bred and French-trained but was owned by businessman Junzo Kashiyama by the time it participated in the Arc. The second, Erimo Hawk, was a notorious stayer (long distance runner) that wasn’t popular in the race because the Arc was too short for what he usually ran. And the third one was Mejiro Musashi, winner of the 1971 Tenno Sho and Takarazuka Kinen.

None of them won. Instead it was French Horse Sansan that took the prize.

In terms of legacy, aside from the Mejiro name, this race also had a participation by a horse named Roberto that’s Rice Shower’s grandfather.

In 1974 the Queen of England showed up with her horse Highclere. Highclere didn’t win but it was notable because, in a situation I’ve written about twice in the past, despite England going through a really rough economic period the british cheered and bet on Highclere as if no economic issues were happening.

Highclere is also the Great Grandma of Japanese Grandsire Deep Impact.

In 1988 a horse named Dancing Brave trounced the international competition, including Britain’s Sharahstani, France’s Bering, West Germany’s Acatenango, Ireland’s Triptych, and Japan’s Sirius Symboli. This victory cemented Dancing Brave as Europe’s strongest horse.

Dancing Brave, by the by, is King Halo’s dad.

1988’s Winner Tony Bin, meanwhile is the dad of Air Groove, Winning Ticket and Jungle Pocket (thus Tousen Jordan’s grandfather).

In 1999 El Condor Pasa was the closest that a Japanese racehorse had come to winning the Arc, but they lost second to Montjeau.

In 2002 Manhattan Cafe lost in 13th place to Marienbard.

In 2004 Tap Dance City lost 17th to Bago.

Remember Deep Impact? In 2006 he caused a Nijinsky-like effect where only a handful of horses felt like taking a chance. He got in third but was then disqualified from suspicious substances in his system. No, it wasn’t doping, it was the use of Ipratropium, a drug for breathing conditions that’s perfectly legal, but in France it’s not allowed for a horse to race while it remains in their system.

In 2010 Nakayama Festa was the second ever Japanese horse to reach second place in a story that’s honestly best left for a Nakayama post in detail. Nakayama made a second attempt in 2011 but ended 11th place.

Orfevre is another famous Japanese horse, and he reached second place TWICE in 2012 and 2013.

In 2014 Gold Ship lost 14th to a Filly named Treve, who also won against Orfevre the year before.

Treve, by the way, is Montjeau’s granddaughter.

Finally (for the sake of referring to the game because participation has remained constant), In 2017, Satono Diamond lost 15th.

There’s many reasons quoted and theorized for the underperformance of Japanese horses all in all. Some quote the difference in soil, others the stress of moving a horse across the continent, or maybe French horses are just actually a cut above the rest as the Arc tried to prove as the thesis behind its creation.

It sure would be poetic justice after all the struggles in the start, wouldn’t it? Like the monument it’s named after it has seen the world change so much and yet it has remained through wars and crisis. Perhaps just being able to remain like that is a victory unto itself.

And in that same frame of reference, who’s to say second place is that bad? El Condor Pasa, Nakayama Festa, and Orfevre might’ve ended at just second, but they’re also etched in history as the only non European horses to make it that high up in the over 100 years that the Arc has existed.

Why do so many people aim for its prestige specifically? Is that sacrifice worth it in the face of not knowing if you’ll be able to win?

THAT is where Reach for the stars – Project L’arc begins.