3 Best Betting Tips for Arc Weekend at Longchamp

Steve Mullington

September 17th, 2019

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Quick Tips

• Prix de l’Abbaye – Back Battaash at 5/6 with Bet365
• Prix de la Foret – Back Space Blues at 11/2 with Ladbrokes
• Prix de la Foret – Back Sir Dancelot at 8/1 with 888Sport

I have already previewed the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe itself, but Longchamp has plenty more betting opportunities this weekend, with no less than seven Group 1 contests on Sunday alone.

It truly is a mouth-watering weekend of top class horse racing betting action.

Prix de l’Abbaye

The Prix de l’Abbaye has been won by raiders from this side of the Channel every year since 2013, and the prize looks highly likely to stay here for a 7th consecutive year.

Battaash won the race two years ago and looks to emulate greats such as Lochsong and Committed in becoming a dual winner of this unique sprinting test.

Battaash has gone from strength-to-strength this year after a stop-start campaign last season. He proved his doubters wrong with a monstrous performance in the Nunthorpe and just looks a much more straight forward horse this year.

Available at 5/6 with Bet365, he is clearly ‘the one to beat’ and is a worthy favourite but he did boil over in the race last year. His conqueror last year, Mabs Cross, is a 10/1 chance with the best horse racing sites, but she’s not been in any sort of form recently.

The remaining dangers all have points to prove, Soldiers Call ran a stormer in the race last year as a two-year-old, but was well held behind Battaash at York. Fairyland is improving and she did get her Group 1 last time out at the Curragh, but once again, she’s already been beaten by Battaash and unless he boils over again he looks extremely hard to take on.

With the shortest priced French horse currently 25/1, it looks pretty certain that this prize will be coming back to the UK and I firmly believe that will be Charlie Hills and Battaash scooping the pot.

He’s a much more mature horse this year and after a couple of poor performances last season, he’s even better this year.

Prix de la Foret

The Prix de la Foret looks much more competitive and harder to work out. Last year’s race was a very mess affair with a lot of hard luck stories but Sir Dancealot ran well from a bad position. He’s back for more this time around and at 8/1 with Ladbrokes he looks brilliant each-way value.

The favourite City Light is a tricky customer, he wasn’t fast enough for the Abbaye last year but he bolted up last time out when stepped up to 7f. That was a Group 3 but he looks to have been saved for this race and is a worthy favourite at 10/3 with Paddy Power.

Advertise could go to Ascot instead and Laurens could head to Newmarket but there’s still strong challengers from the UK including Safe Voyage, Space Blues and Glorious Journey. Glorious Journey looks the perfect 7f horse and has gotten better with age but the stable number one could be Space Blues. He’s finished second and third in his last two Group 1 races behind Advertise and Too Darn Hot, but this race looks much easier on paper.

It’s a wide open race but the two that stand out for me are Space Blues (NAP) and Sir Dancelot (NB). The 11/2 with Ladbrokes is a brilliant price for Space Blues who has gone close in two previous Group races. He’s still unexposed and he’s improved at this sort of trip.

Sir Dancelot is another solid option He ran superbly in this contest last year and has been mopping up the 7f races in England over the summer, and is interesting at 8/1 with 888Sport.

The favourite City Light should be bang there but for me does not have the same level of form as Space Blues.