The Arc: will it be the French boys who stand up to Enable?

Last week we took an in-depth look at the home challenge for the Arc among the older horses in the wake of Zarak's Group 1 breakthrough in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

This week it is the turn of the Classic generation to come under the microscope, an apt moment given the demonstration put on by Enable in the Darley Irish Oaks at the weekend.

There can be no doubting that John Gosden has another very smart filly on his hands and Frankie Dettori's comments at Maisons-Laffitte 24 hours later confirmed what those watching will have felt: that her Curragh performance was a step forward on her Investec Oaks victory at Epsom.

Enable is general favourite for the Arc but will need be supplementedCredit: Alain Barr

Two things ought to be born in mind with regard to the Arc and Enable.

Firstly, the daughter of Nathaniel is not actually entered and will need to be supplemented at a fee of €120,000. While that would appear to be a formality - Gosden won the Arc with the supplemented Golden Horn two years ago - it is still a fact worth highlighting.

The second factor is the degree to which perceptions of Enable are coloured by a potentially negative view of the British and Irish crop of middle distance three-year-old colts.

With Wings Of Eagles sadly retired, Cracksman seen as a project for next year and the likes of Capri and Cliffs Of Moher lacking consistency, it is only natural to take a closer look at the fillies, especially given the exploits of Zarkava, Danedream and Treve in the last decade.

So what does the half-term report say about the Classic generation in France?

French Derby due to deliver?

The Qipco Prix du Jockey Club has achieved plenty of the aims laid out when authorities chose to shave 300 metres from its historic trip 12 years ago.

The race has produced several notable stallions, has averaged a much bigger field size and has crowned three colts that have doubled-up from the Poule d'Essai des Poulains.

The most recent of those is Brametot, whose official international rating of 121 (the French handicapper actually gave him 122) was earned in the Poule d'Essai, not the Jockey Club.

What supporters of the shorter Jockey Club will be fervently hoping is that he can become the first to win over the that trip at Chantilly in June and then go on to Arc glory in October.

Jean-Claude Rouget is often loathe to run his top horses at the three-week intervals favoured by most of his confreres and thus rarely troubles the Arc trials card.

Brametot's extraordinary will to win has persuaded Rouget to make an exception and, after prepping in the Prix Guillaume d'Ornano on August 15, the son of Rajsaman will head to the Qipco Irish Champion Stakes, just 22 days before the Arc.

Brametot has already produced two hard-won Classic victories three weeks apart but he is a horse who doesn't appear to know how to spare himself a hard race.

Jockey Club runner-up Waldgeist had the opportunity to put down a clear marker for the French colts over their Irish and British counterparts at the Curragh but could only manage fourth, a result which further clouds the picture.

It would be wrong to imagine that is the limit of his potential development this season and you can be sure that whatever he shows in the Prix Niel the day after the Irish Champion, trainer Andre Fabre will have left plenty to work on.

Grand Prix hero Shakeel late to the party

While some choose to write off the Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris year after year as failing to attract the top colts, that is rather to miss the point of its place in the programme.

In recent years only 2011 Jockey Club winner Reliable Man has attempted to double up in the Grand Prix and generally the race acts as a way of promoting the claims of middle-distance three-year-olds, who may not be up to the challenge of the shortened Derby in early June, but who benefit from both the extra yardage and the extra month.

Shakeel is a perfect example of the type of horse the Grand Prix is designed to throw up and the historic portents are not too bad.

While Rail Link (2006) was the last horse to win both the Grand Prix and the Arc, Behkabad (fourth in 2010) and Flintshire (eighth on unsuitably soft ground in 2013 but a dual runner-up subsequently) have upheld the race's place as a decent Arc trial, a record which might easily have been further enhanced had 2008 winner Montmartre not suffered a career-ending injury.

Alain de Royer-Dupre believes the strong pace in the Grand Prix de Paris was a help to ShakeelCredit: Patrick McCann

Alain de Royer-Dupre's comments after Shakeel had defied Permian were also instructive: this was a horse that enjoyed having a proper pace to run at, something that had not been the case in his previous attempts at Group 3 and Group 2 level.

The son of Dalakhani was given an initial mark of 116 by the French handicapper and undoubtedly a good deal more will be required to win an Arc. But Shakeel is that potent combination of a strong stayer who showed a smart turn of foot to surge up the rail at Saint-Cloud and further improvement seems more rather than less likely.

Diane Dilemma

Senga (white blaze, white cap) finishes strongly in the Prix de DianeCredit: Scoopdyga

As noted earlier, three-year-old fillies have an enviable record in the Arc over the last decade and, even allowing or the reduction by a pound in the weight-for-age allowance this season, Enable's contemporaries are worthy of further examination.

The Prix de Diane Longines produced a fine winner in Senga, who had proved the head of the class in France last term when a fast-finishing fourth in the Prix Marcel Boussac behind a trio of visitors.

Having been campaigned as a miler up until a fortnight before the Diane, her emergence as a middle distance filly may have slightly caught out even those closest to her and it remains to be seen whether they will elect to try and stretch her out over even further, given her origins.

Runner-up Sistercharlie was on the plane to the United States a matter of days after her heroic effort in the Diane, and was able to run New Money Honey to a neck for trainer Chad Brown in the Belmont Oaks just three weeks after her Chantilly effort.

A boost for the form then, but little use in the search for an Arc heroine.

Third-placed Terrakova has always shaped like a filly who will stay much further than her celebrated dam, Goldikova.

Freddy Head was looking at a mile and a half in the immediate wake of the Diane and it would be no great surprise if he were to aim her at the Prix Vermeille, though she is yet to win above Group 2 level

She could meet Godolphin's upwardly mobile Strathspey, who struck in the Group 2 Prix de Malleret on only her third lifetime start.

Finche: a Frankel in the mix?

The recent three-year-old shakedown was completed on Sunday when Finche stretched out impressively to get the better of Afandem in the Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam over 1m2f at Maisons-Laffitte on only his third start.

His half-brother by Peintre Celebre, Byword, won a Prince of Wales's Stakes over the same intermediate trip at four and it remains to be seen whether Andre Fabre and Khalid Abdullah stick to ten furlongs or roll the dice over a mile and a half for this exciting colt.

Either way it looks likely to be Group 1s from hereon.