Arc Card Includes Three Breeders' Cup Challenge Races

The talent-packed program at Chantilly Oct. 1 extends well beyond the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (G1) itself, as it features five other group 1 events, three of them Breeders' Cup Challenge races.

The Longines Prix de l'Opera (G1) for fillies and mares at 1 1/2 miles offers a fees-paid entry for the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1T) at Del Mar. The race features the Aidan O'Brien-trained bouquet of Hydrangea and Rhododendron, who top the 14 contenders.

Hydrangea, a 3-year-old Galileo (IRE) filly, defeated Arc contender Winter in their previous race, the one-mile Coolmore Fastnet Rock Matron (G1) at Leopardstown. Hydrangea does throw in the occasional clunker, including the 2016 Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1T), where she ambled home last of 14. Rhododendron, also by Galileo, enters off a seventh-place finish in the Matron but earned a pair of classic placings earlier this season.

Others of note in the Opera include the Aga Khan homebred filly Shamreen, a 4-year-old Dubawi filly who should enjoy the expected soft ground, and Godolphin's Wuheida, a 3-year-old filly also by Dubawi who finished a closing third in the Matron.

Positions in the Breeders' Cup juvenile turf races are up for grabs in the Total Prix Marcel Boussac (G1) for 2-year-old fillies and the Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère (G1) for juvenile colts and fillies, both run at one mile.

The Marcel Boussac has a field of seven that includes Polydream—an Oasis Dream filly undefeated in two starts at Deauville and trained by Freddie Head for owner/breeder Wertheimer et Frère—and group 2 winer Magical, another Galileo filly from Coolmore trained by O'Brien.

The Jean-Luc Lagardère drew six and O'Brien again is in the mix with Happily, a Galileo filly who exits a victory in the Moyglare Stud Staks (G1) at the Curragh. Francesco Bere, a Peer Gynt colt who won the Criterium du Fonds Europeen de l'Elevage at Deauville in his last outing. Masar, a New Approach colt trained by Charlie Appleby for Godolphin, was last seen winning the BetBright Solario Stakes (G3) at Sandown.

The Jean Luc Lagardère also is the third race in Churchill Downs' "European Road to the Kentucky Derby,” offering 10-4-2-1 points to the first four finishers.

The Arc card concludes with the Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp Longines (G1) for 2-year-olds and up at five furlongs and the Qatar Prix de la Forêt (G1) for 3-year-olds and up at seven furlongs.