Rouget: Jockey Club hero Sottsass 'better equipped' for Arc bid than Almanzor

The record-breaking Qipco Prix du Jockey Club winner Sottsass will be given a classic French preparation for the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in the autumn, with trainer Jean-Claude Rouget confident that a step up to a mile and a half will present few problems.

Rouget was forced to watch from a Paris hospital bed as Sottsass and Cristian Demuro surged past favourite Persian King to shave more than two and a half seconds off The Grey Gatsby's record, reviving memories of a similar performance from future dual Arc heroine Treve in the 2013 Prix de Diane Longines.

"I don't always like it when horses run really fast times because it can leave a mark, so the thing that really impressed me was how he has come out of the race," said Rouget.

"When you think of the heat on the day [32C] and how fast they went, plus the fact that he still lacks maturity, then my feeling is that he will be better again in the autumn. It was a super performance."

In the past Rouget has been wary of travelling Arc candidates up from his base in Pau for the trials card at Lonchamp three weeks prior to the big day, often preferring to use the Prix Guillaume d'Ornano over a mile and a quarter in August.

But the decision last July to set up a full-time satellite operation in Deauville, just two hours north of Paris, has brought immediate rewards, as Sottsass – a 12-1 chance for the Arc with William Hill, Bet Victor and Paddy Power – will contest the Prix Niel over the course and distance on September 15.

"Before it was really hard to run the Arc preps because an extra day's recuperation from the journey back to Pau is a lot when you only have 20 to play with," he said.

Almanzor and trainer Jean-Claude Rouget, who never asked his stable star to race beyond an extended mile and a quarterCredit: Edward Whitaker

Rouget surprised many in the autumn of 2016 when deciding not to send Almanzor to the Arc in the wake of his wildly impressive Irish Champion Stakes win.

Sottsass' sire Siyouni is a rapidly rising star of the French stallion ranks who has had few opportunities to prove he can be an influence for stamina, although his daughter Maqsad failed to get home in the Investec Oaks.

Still the trainer feels Sottsass is a better candidate for the Arc than his illustrious former stablemate.

Rouget said: "I think he is better equipped than Almanzor in terms of the trip and I think he will stay. What he did the other day was really something and well above what I could have imagined for him. Beating the horse who was thought to be the best in Europe by two lengths was some performance."

Sottsass - what's in the name?

Ettore Sottsass, Italian designer and the inspiration behind the naming of French Derby winner Sottsass

When Anthony Van Dyck powered to Derby glory it didn't take a student of 17th century art to decypher the origin of his distinguished name.

But when the French Derby fell to Sottsass 24 hours later, it's a fair bet that only those with a keen interest in 20th century architecture and design will have made the connection with Italian all-rounder Ettore Sottsass, who died in 2007.

Outside racing, owner Peter Brant is as well known for his patronage of the arts as for the bloodstock investments of his White Birch Farm, and is a board member of New York's Metropolitan Museum, hosts of a Sottsass retrospective in 2017.

Olivetti's Valentine portable typewriter, a 1960s classic designed by Ettore Sottsass.

Among a wide-ranging career that took in ceramics, furniture and architecture, Sottsass is perhaps best remebered for Olivetti's Valentine portable typewriter, an icon of late 1960s design.

Credit to Brant for finding a major figure from the art world not already claimed by Sue Magnier.

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