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Ace Impact Retired to Haras de Beaumont

Ace Impact (Fr) (Cracksman {GB}), the brilliant winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and Prix du Jockey Club, will not race on and is set to take up stud duties at his part-owner Kamel Chehboub's Haras de Beaumont from 2024.

Speaking to TDN at Tattersalls, Chehboub said, “When we established Haras de Beaumont the idea was to target exceptional future stallions prospects. Ace Impact has won the French Derby, he's won the Arc, he's unbeaten. As we all know, to race on for another year is taking a risk for the horse, and a lot of breeders want to use him. He's a true champion; there is a demand for him. For France it is fantastic news, and from day one that was part of the project.”

Bred by Waltraut Spanner, Ace Impact was bought by his trainer Jean-Claude Rouget on behalf of owner Serge Stempniak for €75,000 at the Arqana August Sale. A member of the first crop of Cracksman, he is out of the winning miler Absolutly Me (Fr) (Anabaa Blue {GB}) who had already produced the Listed-placed multiple winners Alessandro (Fr) and Apollo Flight (Fr). He hails from the same family as Lord Derby's seven-time Group 1 and dual Classic winner Ouija Board (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}), who went on to produce the Derby winner Australia (GB).

Ace Impact started racing in January of this year at Cagnes-sur-Mer, where he made a winning debut over 10 furlongs before progressing through a conditions race in Bordeaux to the Listed Prix de Suresnes at Chantilly. There, on his next start, he handed out a sound beating to the favourite Big Rock (Fr) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}) in the Prix du Jockey Club. His Classic victory, completed in record time, was extraordinary not just for the winning margin of three and a half lengths but for his acceleration from the back of the 11-strong field to take charge in the final 400 metres with a devastating turn of foot.

Cristian Demuro, who rode Ace Impact in five of his six starts, said, “He's a horse from another planet. You only come across horses of this calibre every ten years. To win an Arc as a three-year-old, in which his powers of acceleration shone to the fore, while retaining his unbeaten record, is extraordinary.”

He won the Jockey Club in the colours of Stempniak and, following his part-sale, Ace Impact raced thereafter in the green-and-yellow silks of the Chehboub family's Gousserie Racing. These same colours were carried by by the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and Champion S winner Sealiway (Fr), who, earlier this year became an important new sire at Beaumont, France's newest stallion operation.

Following Ace Impact's wins in the G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano at Deauville in August, and ultimately the Arc, there was speculation that, even if retired this year, he could see out his career with a trip to the Japan Cup for a showdown with Japanese superstar Equinox (Jpn) (Kitasan Black {Jpn}).

Chehboub said, “We had a discussion with our partner and we felt that to go to Japan was a very long journey for him, although we'd have loved to take on Equinox. But he has delivered everything we have asked of him. We are obviously very proud to have him, and to retire him to our farm. It's a very exciting next step.”

Stempniak added, “Ace Impact is the horse of my lifetime. It's been an extraordinary experience.

“The colt's ability to quicken has made quite an impression on me, and I think it has made an impression on everyone. It invited comparisons with Dancing Brave's Arc.

“I hope he will become a great stallion, and [I know] we can count on the professionalism of the whole team at Haras de Beaumont when it comes to managing his new career.”

Haras de Beaumont manager Mathieu Alex was at Tattersalls with Cheboub during the week. He said, “Over this week in Newmarket we have met many people who are keen to use him. That's great to hear; he's a very important horse for France.”

He added, “Welcoming an athlete of Ace Impact's calibre to Haras de Beaumont is an extraordinary privilege. Now rated 133 by Timeform, he is the world champion three-year-old. His performances in the Prix du Jockey Club and the Arc de Triomphe were truly amazing and the way he can quicken makes him very special.

“We are very proud to be standing this champion in France and would like to take this opportunity to thank again Serge Stempniak to have allow us to partner in this horse and Jean-Claude Rouget for his success with this champion.”

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Continuous and Fantastic Moon Added to Arc Line-Up

The three-year-old colts Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) and Fantastic Moon (Ger) (Sea The Moon {Ger}), winners of the St Leger and Deutsches Derby respectively, have been supplemented for Sunday's Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Sixteen horses remain engaged for the weekend's €5 million showcase race at ParisLongchamp. Eleven of the potential field are already Group 1 winners, including another Classic-winning colt of 2023, the unbeaten Prix du Jockey Club hero Ace Impact (Ire) (Cracksman {GB}), who is currently favourite.

With Emily Dickinson (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) holding multiple entries at the Arc meeting, Continuous is likely to be the sole runner for Aidan O'Brien and the Coolmore team in the big race and will aim to build on his Classic success at Doncaster 15 days prior to the Arc.

Fantastic Moon, who was ruled out of an Arc bid only last week through fears of soft ground, will now travel to Paris from Munich and will be ridden by Rene Piechulek, who won the race two years ago aboard Torquator Tasso (Ger). Owned by the Liberty Racing 2021 syndicate, Fantastic Moon is set to remain in training next year.

His trainer Sarah Steinberg said, “Fantastic Moon is in excellent form. He worked very well yesterday and handled the workout very well. We continue to hope for sunshine and good ground conditions in Paris for him to be able to call up his best form. We thought long and hard about which of the races would be the best for Fantastic Moon, and together with the owners we decided against a long trip to the US or Japan for Fantastic Moon this year.

“We will take advantage of the beautiful fall weather in Paris, the dried-up turf at Longchamp and a horse that has recovered very quickly after his last race. A trip to the Breeders' Cup at the beginning of November, or travelling to Japan at the end of November, places an enormous burden on three-year-old horses, which we do not want to expose Fantastic Moon to.

She added, “The horse has shown everyone that he is a real star, and we are looking forward to his last outing in 2023 on Sunday in ParisLongchamp. I hope that the German turf fans will keep their fingers crossed for our Derby winner, and I am looking forward to a very exciting race against internationally accomplished top opponents.”

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A Continuous Quest for New Frontiers

The Corinthian quest is finding life tough. These days romance is run off its legs by finance. Victory for Continuous in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, though, 15 days after his St Leger win, would make history of the most reassuring kind.

Each week frontiers in sport are crossed: stats shredded, records set, barriers smashed. With every new 'first' the surviving 'nevers' gain mystique. Racing still has a few. No horse has won the St Leger and the Arc in the same season. It was hard enough already with a three-week gap. This year Continuous could be squeezing it into a fortnight.

Enhancing the intrigue is the knowledge that Continuous's owners are not sentimental strategists. Stirring the public's imagination isn't the first job of an Aidan O'Brien horse in Coolmore colours. If it happens, all well and good. The priorities though are winning, prize-money and stud values.

Yet every now and then we see an illustrious O'Brien Thoroughbred chase something grander than commercial worth. Continuous is on that path. Before him, O'Brien's Camelot was appointed to become the first Triple Crown winner since Nijinsky in 1970. A three-quarter length defeat to the 25-1 shot Encke in the Leger was the resting place for that noble dream.

Avoidance is a modern reflex. In heavyweight boxing risk-aversion has addled the sport's marquee division. Real Madrid can't decline a Clasico fixture with Barcelona. But in racing horses can be confined to comfort zones. Derby winners may be chauffeured off to covering sheds to avert the possibility of defeat. In National Hunt racing last week the announcement that Constitution Hill would stick to hurdling this season was not well-received by armchair proponents of boldness. Their horse, their choice, is the riposte.

Victory in Paris would add lustre too to the St Leger in an age when the case for stamina as a glamorous attribute feels harder and harder to win

Yet 'the lads,' as O'Brien calls the Coolmore team, are sometimes true to Saul Bellow's line: “A man's life is not a business.” Their reaction to Camelot's defeat at Doncaster was not to give up on the Triple Crown. Only six months ago it was the target set for Auguste Rodin, who crashed out at stage one, in the 2,000 Guineas, but progressed nevertheless to stardom.

O'Brien's last four St Leger winners all tried their luck straight away at Longchamp. Kew Gardens (seventh), Capri (17th), Leading Light (12th) and Scorpion (10th) proceeded to Paris. None made it seem a good idea; but Continuous, you sense, would travel to France with more authority and a bigger chance.

“He's a hardy horse and he could back up,” O'Brien said after the seventh St Leger win of his training career. Continuous has speed to go with his stamina and the mark of an autumn horse. He began 2023 underwhelmingly with three defeats but now acts like the boss. Within days of his Doncaster win he had shortened from 12-1 to 8-1 for the Arc.

So, let's line up the historians by Longchamp's winning post? Maybe, but at their own risk of having an idle day. Ballymoss won the 1957 Leger and the 1958 Arc but had a year in between to think about it. The demands of a 1m 6f Classic for three-year-olds are distinct from an all-age European championship over a mile and a half. It's not an obvious progression, especially with the proliferation of big autumn targets, which were less numerous in Nijinsky's time.

By any measure the Arc is a gruelling race to win. And at the end of a hard campaign we enter the realm of the unknowable, unseeable vulnerabilities veiled by form. Eight horses have won the Arc twice but none has scored a treble. When Enable tried, many reasons could be found for thinking her brilliance would carry her. When she failed, it seemed strangely obvious that it was a mission too far. There is a reason why frontiers stay uncrossed. It's because they're beyond equine endurance, even with the best pedigrees, trainers and jockeys to call on, though Nijinsky's pomp was finally ended in 1970 not by fatigue so much as a narrow tactical defeat in the Arc.

O'Brien has harvested English and Irish Classics but could be said to have something of an itch, by his standards, at Longchamp. Most trainers would retire content with two Arc wins (Dylan Thomas in 2007 and Found in 2016). You might have a small bet however on O'Brien being desperate to bring his Arc record closer to his extraordinary tally of English and Irish Classic wins.

A €120,000 supplementary fee four days before the Arc would buy him another ticket to ride, with a Japanese-bred horse by Heart's Cry. And victory in Paris would add lustre too to the St Leger in an age when the case for stamina as a glamorous attribute feels harder and harder to win.

It is the way of modern sport that people talk less these days of “making history,” except as a sardine tossed to the media, or with one eye on the financial rewards. But when racehorses make history, we sure as hell honour it. We remember the trailblazers more keenly – and with gratitude. They answer the heart's cry.

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Rausing Hails ‘Exceptional’ Alpinista as Arc Winner Retires

The six-time Group 1 winner and G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Alpinista (GB) (Frankel {GB}–Alwilda {GB}, by Hernando {Fr}) has been retired from racing after a “slight setback” and will not contest the G1 Japan Cup at the end of the month.

The 5-year-old, bred and owned by Kirsten Rausing and trained by Sir Mark Prescott, recorded her six top-level wins in consecutive starts in Germany, England and France in the last two seasons, taking her unbeaten stretch to eight races in 16 months. In total, she ran 15 times for 10 wins and two runner-up finishes, earning prize-money in excess of £3.3 million.

Following her emotional success at ParisLongchamp in early October, Alpinista had remained in training at Prescott's Heath House Stables in Newmarket with a possible swansong in Tokyo on the cards, but a decision was taken to retire her on Thursday morning after she sustained a minor injury.

Rausing, who was honoured with the Cartier/Daily Telepgraph Award of Merit at the Cartier Awards in London on Wednesday evening, said of her homebred, “She's exceptional. She is extra special to me and to anyone who has ever been around her. I feel guilty for wrenching her away from [rider/groom] Annabel Willis but, as I keep saying to Annabel, she is only going to be three miles up the road so she can come to see her any time.

“It will be great to have her home. She and her contemporary Albaflora (GB), who was twice Group 1-placed, will have pride of place here at Lanwades. They are two beauty queens and we will parade them at the stallion show during the December Sales.

“People ask me if she was my horse of a lifetime, and in many ways yes she is, but so was her grandaunt Alborada (GB), and so was Petoski (GB) before her. So, maybe every 25 or 30 years they come along, if you're lucky.”

Sir Mark Prescott, who also trained Alpinista's dam Alwilda (GB) (Hernando {Fr}) and treble Group 1-winning granddam Albanova (GB) (Alzao), said, “She had a bit of heat in her leg last night when I was at the Cartier Awards dinner. William [Butler, assistant trainer] looked round and thought there was heat in the leg. When I looked at her first thing this morning, I wasn't happy, so that's it–she retires.

“She has been marvellous and hasn't been beaten for two years, she won six Group 1s in three different countries. She has been fantastic. She will join a wonderful broodmare band at Miss Rausing's.”

On the scuppered plans for the Japan Cup, he added, “The other terrible thing is the Japanese have bent over backwards to help us and I feel very guilty. They have done absolutely everything they could to make things easy for us. I felt as guilty letting them know as I did poor Miss Rausing.

“She took it well. She never flinches. But when you are 5-2 to win six million [dollars], whoever you are, it is a blow. It would have been a big thrill to win. I think, for Miss Rausing, almost there is a tinge of relief, because the filly has done so well and it would have been so awful if something had gone wrong out there. It is never easy travelling that far and the thought of looking at her every morning over your garden fence is not a bad thought. If it is the highest-rated filly in the world outside your back door, it must give you tremendous satisfaction.

“So, it is a moderate morning. I won't find one as good as her–it has taken me 53 years to find this one.”

Alpinista is a fourth-generation descendant of the noted Lanwades matriarch Alruccaba (Ire) (Crystal Palace {Fr}), who was bought as a 3-year-old from her breeder the Aga Khan by Kirsten Rausing and Sonia Rogers. The identity of the stallion for her first mating next year has not yet been confirmed, though Rausing had previously hinted that she may visit the champion sire-elect, Dubawi (Ire), whose fee was announced yesterday as £350,000.

Reflecting on her Cartier Award of Merit, which is awarded annually to the person deemed to have “done the most for European racing and/or breeding either over their lifetime or within the past 12 months”, Rausing added, “I was totally taken aback by the whole thing. I really would like to see the video again because you're so overwhelmed you can't really take it all in.

“It has been an absolutely extraordinary year. It's all come together but as far as I'm concerned it is all down to my marvellous home team at the three studs–Lanwades, St Simon and Staffordstown–and their combined many hundreds of years of horsemanship. A lot of my people have been with me for 25 years or more, so I am very fortunate, and of course we have been joined by young Mr. Oxx as well.”

This year, Lanwades Stud has been represented by four Group 1-winning graduates, Alpinista being joined by the St Leger winner Eldar Eldarov (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and the Australian-trained duo of Zaaki (GB) (Leroidesanimaux {Brz}) and Durston (GB) (Sea The Moon {Ger}).

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