Longchamp a mixture of good and good to soft with uncertain outlook

Were the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe to have taken place this Sunday rather than next then racing would have started on a decent surface, with a GoingStick measurement of good, good to soft in places.

Northern France has been basking in high temperatures for most of September, but the forecast for the week running up to Europe's premier Flat race is for the mercury to drop back into the mid-teens.

Of more concern will be how dry it stays in the Bois de Boulogne – there were a couple of pretty sharp showers in Paris on Sunday afternoon – and meteorologists have revised their timings for any significant rainfall from midweek backwards to the Saturday and Sunday of the meeting itself.

The last two Arcs have been run in very testing conditions, and while the weather is out of France Galop's hands, every effort has been taken to avoid really attritional deep ground for next Sunday, with a 12-metre strip of the straight (and a minimum of six metres down the back and round the turn) kept fresh since July having been extensively decompacted and drained.

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