'Fresh horses win the Arc' - Jean-Claude Rouget sweet on unbeaten Ace Impact after favourite comes through final workout

Jean-Claude Rouget believes the unbeaten Ace Impact will head to Sunday’s Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe “at the top of his game” and says he has no regrets about the unconventional schedule the horse has followed in the run-up to Europe’s middle-distance championship.

Big-race jockey Cristian Demuro eased Ace Impact past his lead horse at the end of a strong canter around Deauville racecourse on Monday morning, as co-owners Serge Stempniak and Gousserie Racing’s Kamel and Pauline Chehboub watched their Prix du Jockey Club hero click through the gears.

Rouget seemed in relaxed mood six days out from the Prix du Jockey Club winner’s ultimate test, which he will head to off the back of a comeback defeat of Al Riffa and Birr Castle in mid-August which did not convince every observer.