BackTrack: Mill Reef Wins '71 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe

BETTER than Nijinsky II, Englishmen were saying. Four days before the race, one player felt so strong about this that he was able to carry 14,000 pounds into William Hill's betting shop and place the whole bundle on Mill Reef at 2-3 odds to beat the best horses in the world.

Five million Frenchmen—how could they be wrong?—held the same conviction in varying degrees of strength and, as a consequence, Paul Mellon's Virginia-bred 3-year-old was odds-on to become the first American-owned-and-bred horse in 50 runnings to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in Paris on Oct. 3

He was the nap, they said; he figured. Since finishing second in the English Two Thousand Guineas, Mill Reef had swept all before him, winning the 11/2-mile English Derby in easy fashion, defeating France's best 4-year-old, Ortis, in the 1 1/2-mile King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes in July.

Last year coming up to the Arc, Nijinsky II had a more impressive record. He never had been beaten and, in addition to becoming the first English Triple Crown (Two Thousand Guineas, Derby, St. Leger) winner in 35 years, he had won the Irish Derby and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Nijinsky II, as did his sire, Northern Dancer, had a burst of speed that could be turned on at any point in a race; it was a two-furlong burst which swamped his fields and permitted Nijinsky II to coast home alone.

Now, every racing man longs for a horse with a good turn of speed, but there are times when reliance on a burst of speed in a crucial point of a race can be misplaced. In last year's Arc, Nijinsky II was blocked and had to check in the middle of his charge to the front and, quite possibly, this momentary stopping, and starting again when a hole opened, accounted for Nijinsky II's loss by a head to Sassafras.

Mill Reef has a different style. His races have not been marked by the sudden acceleration which dramatized Nijinsky II's triumphs. Mill Reef has speed, of course, being by champion 2-year-old Never Bend, but he has been deftly trained by 32-year-old Ian Balding so as to produce a sustained, steady run that seems to gain in momentum at the end. Mill Reef gallops along at a steady rate, never far off the early pace, and about a half-mile out he just seems to get stronger, gradually going to the front and then drawing away. He overpowers his fields.

It is this power, rather than a quick burst of speed, which captured the fancy of Europeans and made Mill Reef a heavy favorite to capture the record first prize of $251,847 in the $403,047 Arc.

Whatever doubt preceded the Arc was based on Pistol Packer, a 3-year-old filly by Gun Bow—George's Girl II, by Ossian, bred in Pennsylvania by Mrs. John R. H. Thouron and sold as a yearling at Saratoga for $15,000 to French trainer Alec Head.

This year, Pistol Packer had won the Prix Chloe and the Saint-Alary, then beat Cambrizzia (Cambremont—Alizian, by Alizier) by a scant lip in the 1 1/4-mile French Oaks in June, by 2 1/2 lengths in the 1 1/4-mile Prix de la Nonette on Sept. 5, and by one length in the 1 1/2-mile Prix Vermeille on Sept. 19.

French trainers were saying that Pistol Packer might be the best filly seen in France in the last 30 years. Jack Cunnington Sr, who with Alec Head's 84-year-old father, Willie, has been training horses in the Chantilly forests for a half-century, said she was "Oh, a very good filly indeed, exceptional. We must remember Corrida, which twice beat colts in the Arc, in 1936 and 1937, and Nikellora, and Pola Bella, Hula Daner, Roseliere—I would say Pistol Packer must rank in the top seven of the bet fillies we have had here."

Pistol Packer had yet to prove herself against colts, however, particularly one of the power of Mill Reef, and she was installed a 4-1 second choice for the Arc.

In the absence of Rheffic, a son of American-bred Traffic which had broken down after winning the French Derby and Grand Prix de Paris, the only other colt counted a serious challenger to Mill Reef was Ramsin (Le Haar—Maritchia, by La Varende).

Ramsin's owner, Baron Thierry de Zuylen de Nyevelt, was openly confident he had a stayer that could do what Sassafras had done to Nijinsky II. Ramsin, like Sassafras, had shown he could run from here to the Pyrenees. This year, he had finished first in the 1 7/8-mile Prix de Barbeville, the 2 1/2-mile Prix du Cadran, and the 1 9/16-mile Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

To ensure that something would go with Mill Reef during the early part and set up the thing for Ramsin to amble along at the end, Baron de Zuylen also entered Ossian, which had not won a stakes this year. The entry was installed third choice at 7-1, with none of the others less than 20-1.

LONGCHAMP has the Seine at its back and, from a high point in the sparkling new stand constructed in 1966, racegoers can look over the 2,500-acre Bois de Boulogne and see the Eiffel Tower, which serves as something of a 1 1/4-mile pole, marking the spot on the Arc course where the field has gone the first quarter-mile from the start. The gate is located on the north end of the course in front of the Moulin which survived several centuries of storms, but was damaged by World War II bombs.

From the gate, the Arc field races a straight six furlongs, the first two of which (to the Eiffel Tower) are flat; then begins a half-mile, up-hill run, to a point 33 feet above the level of the finishing point. At the top of the hill, the course turns right, and down, for two furlongs, then levels off for a furlong of straight to the final, slight, right turn into the three-furlong straight path to the finish. It is a demanding course which has tested the stamina, and courage, and luck, of Europe's best horses and riders since 1920.

As a usual thing, very few people go to the races in France. Players place their off-course bets in tobacco shops all over France in the morning and concern themselves with something else in the afternoon. Owners, breeders, trainers, and a few others genuinely interested in watching horses race make up the small crowds in attendance.

Arc day is something else entirely. An estimated 65,000 filled the Longchamp stands and crowded the center field tribunes to see the spectacle of the Arc. Part of the spectacle, of course, is the crowd. There is nothing so chic as a chic French woman, and Longchamp on Arc day is a high-fashion showing for Paris designers. Men in dark suits, with some bowlers here and there (no morning suits as is the custom for Royal Ascot), fade into the background as style and femininity lend to the Arc day crowd a grace uncommon to assemblages for American classic races.

Fewer Americans attended the Arc this year than did last year. James P. Mills was on hand and reported that Tyson Gilpin was in the process of syndicating Limit to Reason to stand next spring at Mr. and Mrs. Mills' Hickory Tree Farm near Middleburg, Va.

Trainer John Jacobs revealed that Our Beloved, the full sister to Personality which he had purchased out of the Bieber-Jacobs Stable dispersal last year at Saratoga for a record $256,000, had contracted a staph infection and died at the University of Pennsylvania last June.

Peter Fuller of Boston said Daniel Wildenstein had told him that a Dancer's Image colt was the best of 90 yearlings he had training in France.

Artist Richard Stone Reeves of New Jersey accompanied Mrs. E. H. Augustus and her daughter Betty of Virginia.

Jimmy Drymon of Kentucky, who with his father raised at Gallagher Farm near Lexington most of the horses Mrs. P. A B. Widener II raced in France, scanned the pedigrees of horses listed on the day's program and noted the names of Kentucky-raised Widener horses which had become sires: Spy Well, Blue Tom, Dan Cupid, Neptunus, Timmy Lad.

"You know, we never sent over more than three or four yearlings each year, and none of these were very fashioanbly bred—mostly $500 stud fees—except, of course, Dan Cupid, which is by Native Dancer."

Also on hand were Jimmy Stewart of Hollywood Park, Charles Cella of Oaklawn Park, Spencer Drayton of the TRPB, and John F. Kennedy of The Jockey Club.

In the Ritz bar one night, Ogden Mills (Dinny) Phipps looked around and saw Mr. and Mrs. Howard B. Keck, Adm. and Mrs. Gene Markey, Mr. and Mrs. Gerard Smith, Mr. and Mrs. John Schapiro, Maj. and Mrs. C.C. Moseley, Mr. and Mrs. Paul Hexter, Reginald N. Webster, Robert Coleman, Mr. and Mrs. Horatio Luro, and Mr. and Mrs. Whitney Tower. It is a relatively small bar; no Frenchman could get in. "This place looks like Paris, Ky." Phipps said.

The entry of Kentucky-bred One For All in the Arc accounted for the presence of most of the Alls in the One For All syndicate: Mr. and Mrs. John A. Bell III and their four children; Mr. and Mrs. E V. Benjamin III, Mr. and Mrs. Jacques D. Wimpfheimer, Webster, Coleman, Luro, and W.R. (Fritz) Hawn.

Two years ago at the Newmarket sales, Hawn happened to notice that an 11-year-old mare by Hyperion was being offered. Six-time leading English sire Hyperion was 27 years old when he sired the mare and Hawn figured there might not be too many Hyperion mares around; he had Keith Freeman bought her for $8,800. She had a weanling filly by the Irish Bold Lad at the time and was in foal to the same sire. Last week, that weanling filly, now named Waterloo, added the Cheveley Park Stakes to her previous victory in the Queen Mary Stakes and appeared to be the best 2-year-old filly in England. At Longchamp, five English bloodstock agents approached Hawn from different angles to see about buying Waterloo's yearling full sister.

Hawn is from Dallas, is a member of the board at Del Mar, has a foal by Buckpasser out of his good mare Blue Norther in Kentucky, had seen the Cheveley Park Stakes at Newmarket, had imported Colorado King from South Africa to race in California, had sold his Keeneland yearling purchase Poleax to stand in France, had won this year's French Two Thousand Guineas with a Deauville yearling purchase, Zug, by American-bred Nasram and out of a Bolero Mare. A racing man today is not bounded by national borders.

Paul Mellon said as much when, as a steward of The Jockey Club from the United States, he was called upon to speak at Marcel Boussac's annual dinner at Maxim's the night before the Arc. Mellon emphasized the one-worldness of the sport of racing which had brought racing men from England, Ireland, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Spain, Mexico, and the United States to Paris. Mellon said he looked forward to the day when President Pompidou not only would attend the races (the French president made his first appearance at Longchamp, where he was to present gold champagne buckets to Mellon the following afternoon), but would have a horse in the race; and he observed what a wonderful thing it would be if other heads of government would have their racing colors represented in international races in England, the United States, and Russia.

NO. 1 in the post parade for the Arc was another American-bred horse, John A. Bell III's syndicated One For All, a 5-year-old by America's current leading sire, Northern Dancer, out of champion Quill, by Princequillo. A turf specialist in North America, where he had won the 1 3/8-mile Niagara Handicap, 1 1/2-mile Laurel Turf Cup, 1 1/2-mile Pan American Handicap, and the $100,000 Sunset Handicap over two miles of grass, One For All had been trained for distance, not quick starts.

When the gates opened for the Arc, One For All was away as usual. In the United Stated, where ordinary horses can get the first quarter from the gate in 22 seconds, One For All was never known as a fast breaker. In France, the game is played quite differently; fields come away from the gate quite leisurely and gradually set about the task of running, which comes at the end.

The first quarter-mile of the Arc was run in 27.6 seconds; One For All, at 39-1 odds, suddenly found himself in the unaccustomed position of being on the lead. Willie Carson, England's second-leading rider, took a good hold on One For All and allowed 31-1 shot Sharapour (Tanerko—Paola II, by Palestine) winner of the Prix La Rochett, to take the lead as the field began the half-mile ascent to the first turn. Ramsin, breaking alongside One For All, had been startled into going to the front early, neglecting to wait for his scheduled pacemaker Ossian, which was scrambling up from the rear to assume his role. Then came 28-1 Irish Ball (Baldric—Irish Lass, ty Sayajirao), winner of the Irish Derby, followed by Mill Reef, with 21-1 Hallez (Le Fabuleux—Haguenau, by Krakatao). Dead last beginning the ascent was 39-1 Cambrizzia; third from last was Pistol Packer, which had broken from the outside post position and remained on the outside during the entire race.

Halfway up the hill, the field disappeared from view from the stands as the horses raced behind a small wood, which is the point where jockeys were said to have drawn knives prior to the advent of film patrol.

Review of the films showed that behind the trees, Ossian, Ramsin, and Sharapour vied for the lead with the Italian Ortis (Tissot—Orientale, by Nagami), which had set the pace in last year's Arc, ranging up on the outside. Mill Reef had moved over to the rail in fifth place with One For All right beside him and Hallez on the outside. Miss Dan II (Dan Cupid—Miraloma, by Clarion), which had run a courageous third in last year's Arc and a game second to Fort Marcy in the Washington, D.C., International, was up on the outside of the second flight, with Pistol Packer running in her tracks two lengths behind in ninth place.

At the top of the hill, with the first six furlongs raced in 1:19.5, the field turned right and started the descent—that is, all of the field except One For All, in his first clockwise race. Like Tom Rolfe in the 1965 Arc, One For All did not change leads in trying to make the unfamiliar right turn; a neck off Mill Reef at the top of the hill, One For All was shuffled back to be next to last as Sharapour, Ortis, Hallez, Miss Dan II, Ramsin, and Mill Reef raced down the hill with a quarter-mile in 21.7 seconds.

Leveling off with a straight run to the final, slight bend, Geoff Lewis began to case Mill Reef off the rail to get around Sharapour, and Ortis, which had about finished their racing for the day. Hallez, with Lester Piggott up, took the lead with Miss Dan II closest to him, still tracked by Pistol Packer.

As the field swung wide into the final, straight three furlongs, Mill Reef and Pistol Packer were about even, Lewis wondering whether he should try to get through between Sharapour and Ortis, or go around Ortis and inside of Hallez; Freddy Head meanwhile decided that, since he had been on the outside all the way around the downhill turn, he may as well stay on the outside of Miss Dan II. Mill Reef and Pistol Packer made their moves at the same time, both passing tired horses that would not finish in the first 10.

Lewis sent Mill Reef on the outside of Ortis and then dropped in on the rail, taking aim on Hallez; Pistol Packer rounded Miss Dan II. The power of Mill Reef began to tell. He gradually gained on Hallez and, as his momentum built, went by him with no apparent change in acceleration and two furlongs from home had a lead he was to lengthen. Pistol Packer could not match the colt's move. She was not to be caught by Caro, which had followed essentially the same outside path taken by the daughter of Gun Bow, and she was never to know that her old rival, Cambrizzia, was coming through the middle of the pack to get within 1 1/2 lengths of her at the finish. One For All, next to last at the final right turn, began to run again, too late, passing tired horses at the end to finish ninth, seven lengths behind the best 3-year-old in the world, Mill Reef.

As Mill Reef drove relentlessly toward the finish of the 1 1/2 miles in record time of 2:28.3, bettering Levmoss' 1969 Arc time by seven-tenths of a second, a wave of applause rolled down the Longchamp stand. Three lengths separated the two American-breds at the finish, with Pistol Packer 1 1/2 lengths in front of Cambrizzia. A neck back in fourth was Caro, by three-quarters over Hallez. A half-length back came Royalty, by a neck over Bourbon, a nose in front of Arlequino, then One For All, Irish Ball, Oarsman, and Mr. Sic Top, with the other early leaders far back.

First money of $251,847 raised Mill Reef's career earnings to $652,654, placing him second only to Nijinsky II ($677,117) on the list of Europe's all-time leading money earners. Mill Reef is scheduled to be raced again next year. Second money of $86,400 raised Pistol Packer's career earnings to $474,346; she is the first filly ever to earn as much as $400,000 in Europe.

Thus, the 50th running of the Prix de l'Arc was run to form, Mill Reef, which had beaten Caro by four lengths in the Eclipse, finished about five lengths in front of Caro; Pistol Packer finished ahead of Cambrizzia for the fourth time this year and, racing many lengths further than the winner on the outside, confirmed that she was indeed an exceptional filly.

And thus it was in France, American-bred horses one-two, in the richest Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.