a century of the prix de l'arc de Triomphe.

​For his book ‘Celebrating A Century of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Malcolm Pannett paid homage to the format of Reg Green’s 1987 masterly history of the Grand National. The two books are composed of an identical pattern: introduction, though Pannett wrote his own introduction, whilst Desmond Lynam graced Green’s book, followed, after the all-important acknowledgements, by a brief history of horse racing in France prior to the establishment of the race the author describes as ‘the greatest horse race in France – arguably the world’ and a short gallop across the history of Longchamp and a timeline of events that led to the first running in 1920 of what is undeniably the most prestigious race across the flat in, well at least, the whole of Europe. Others, non-Europeans, may have their own views on which flat race is the most prestigious or greatest. I’m ambivalent on the matter.
I bought the book from the Racing Post so that I would have a bedtime read through the Christmas festivities. I would normally, have I done since, bought a couple of books from the National Equestrian Book Shop but for a months now their website has taken against me, accusing me of not knowing my own post-code. The problem, I am relieved to announce, is now resolved and three books that came from this route await my choice on the bedside cabinet.
As with all ‘histories’ of sporting accounts, as soon as the book is on the bookshelves it is outdated. By the time I opened the first page Sottsass had won an Arc beyond the timescale of Pannett’s book. It was, of course, the same with Reg Green’s history of The Grand National, one of my favourite racing books. There is a major difference between the Arc and the Grand National and that is the Arc has barely altered in its one-hundred-years, whereas the Grand National Green wrote about is a very different beast to the race Tiger Roll has won these past two renewals. There was, of course, the two-years the Arc was run at Chantilly because of the knocking down and rebuilding of Longchamp or ParisLongchamp as it has, needlessly, been renamed. But essentially the Arc is unaltered apart from the use of starting stalls and the ever-increasing prize money.
Whereas, at least formally, you find romance and the cruelty of fate in Green’s book, there is very little racing romance to discover in any of the 101 Arc’s. The race is very much a bun-fight for those owners, trainers and jockeys at the pinnacle of the sport. For instance, the winning-most trainer in Arc history is Andre Fabre, the most-winning owner is shared by Marcel Boussac and the late lamented Khalid Abdullah. The most successful jockey, of course, is Frankie Dettori. To be involved in an Arc you must be of the elite. There is no buying the winner of a seller in the provinces and going on to triumph in the Arc. You couldn’t write a ‘National Velvet’ type story centred on the Arc as it would be just too fanciful.
And that is why watching the Arc is not the be-all and end-all of my day as it would be for Aintree, Cheltenham or even Royal Ascot. I did get caught-up in the Enable fever and desperately wanted her to win her third Arc, as I did Nijinsky, the Arc incidentally that first enthralled the author and began his life-long love of the race.
If you have a similar fascination with the Arc, and I dare say there are more in the Pannett camp than mine, this book is an absolute must-buy. Yes, as with any horse race with a hundred-year history, it deserved three volumes to do the subject justice but no publisher in this day and age was ever going to accept such a concept and, in the circumstances, Pannett has produced a fine reference book. This book will certainly give me an edge next year when John Randall’s infernal Christmas quiz in the Racing Post.
It is priced at £25, which is a bit steep for my tastes, though I think I got 10% off due to the Post’s end of the year sale. It is published by Pitch Publishing.