Raiders ready to shoot at the Sun on a dazzling day

Arc weekend usually inspires thoughts of British attempts to plunder French coffers. But with Britain's biggest and best boxed up and heading overseas, runners from Ireland, France, Jersey, Norway and South Africa have launched a preemptive invasion.

Great heists are often accompanied by some misdirection, and with Chantilly's 11 Group races this weekend demanding most of the attention Ascot, Redcar and Newmarket are the landing sites for a coup that at the very least looks almost certain to result in a £141,775 payday for one of the intrepid visitors.

Indeed, with Ireland's Alice Springs, France's Ervedya, Volta and Siyoushake, and South Africa's Smart Call accounting for five of the first seven in the market for a race that pays out down to sixth, all but £3,375 of the Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot Stakes entire £250,000 pot could go west. Or south.