Traditionally run on the first Sunday in October, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe has been contested over 2,400 metres, or approximately a mile and a half, at Longchamp Racecourse in Paris, France since 1920. Nowadays, the ‘Arc’ boasts total prize money of €5,000,000, making it the most valuable race run in Europe.
At the time of writing, no horse has won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe more than twice, although the latest of the back-to-back winners, Enable, came closer than most. Owned by the late Khaled Abdullah, trained by John Gosden at Clarehaven Stables in Newmarket and ridden, in all bar two of her 16 starts, by Lanfranco ‘Frankie’ Dettori, Enable had the distinction of starting short-priced favourite for the Bois de Boulogne spectacle four years running. She justified her market position in 2017, when the race was run at Chantilly, and 2018, before finishing second in 2019 and sixth in 2020.
Aside from Enable, seven other horses have recorded back-to-back victories in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The first of them was the domestically-trained Ksar (1921, 1922) and he was followed by Motrico (1930, 1932), Corrida (1936, 1937) and Tantieme (1950, 1951), all of whom were also saddled by French handlers. The prolific Ribot (1955, 1956), trained in Italy by Ugo Penco, became the fifth dual winner overall and the first from outside ‘La Republique’ and two decades later Alleged (1977, 1978) doubled up for the legendary trio of Robert Sangster, Vincent O’Brien and Lester Piggott. It would be another four decades later that Treve (2013, 2014), trained by Criquette Head, did likewise; like Enable, the Motivator mare failed in her hat-trick bid, albeit finishing a creditable fourth behind Golden Horn in 2015.