Minnie Hauk aiming to end surprising Arc wait for O’Brien

When Aidan O’Brien dominated the 2016 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe by saddling the first three home, it would have been hard to believe he would not be responsible for another winner in the following nine years.

However, for one reason or another, despite making the Derby, Oaks and St Leger his own in the intervening years, O’Brien has come up short in that time, with Los Angeles’ third place 12 months ago the best he has done since Found beat Highland Reel and Order Of St George.

This year he is back with two of his strongest contenders since, as Los Angeles is primed for another go along with the multiple Group One-winning filly Minnie Hauk.

“She looks a progressive three-year-old filly and everybody says that type of filly has a good chance in the Arc,” said O’Brien. “We haven’t over-raced her and we’ve given her a lot of time between her runs, so all that has slowly helped her.

“She’s had lovely races all the way along, she’s not a filly that has had too hard a time. The three-year-olds can progress into another gear at this time of year as they slowly progress into four-year-olds, so it will be interesting and we’re as fascinated as everybody else.

“You’re never sure how they’ll cope with a big field until they have to, but she is very straightforward and she’s always very happy to go forward. She’s uncomplicated and she’s a big, strong traveller.

“She has pace early and usually finds it easy enough to get a position, hopefully she’ll be OK.

“Minnie Hauk has only met the older fillies once in York. Up to now you can only hope, you never know how they’ll get on until they meet in these championship races.”

With Minnie Hauk in stall one and Los Angeles in 14, however the race pans out O’Brien should be covered.

The first half of Los Angeles’ season went well, winning the Tattersalls Gold Cup, but O’Brien admitted he and Ryan Moore got the tactics wrong at Royal Ascot in attempting to make all the running.

“He went to Ascot and had a harder race than we would have liked but that was the way it was,” explained O’Brien. “The plan was always to give him a rest after that but it just took him a little bit of time to build back up again.

“He had his first run back at the Curragh, he came forward from that and then he ran a nice race at ParisLongchamp. We think he’s gone the right way since.

“We’re very happy with his work since, he seems in very good form. We felt he was maybe a week behind the last time and he was probably two weeks behind for his first run back, but we think he’s nearly caught up and we’re very happy with everything he’s doing. We couldn’t be happier.

“This has been the race all year that he’s been trained for. He ran a great race in it last year when it maybe didn’t work out ideally for him being in front. It’s always been on our minds.”

Andrew Balding’s Kalpana represents last year’s winning owners, Juddmonte, and she had been favourite for the race for much of the season after winning on Champions Day at Ascot at the end of last year.

While she had run well in defeat several times earlier this term, her Kempton defeat at the hands of the reopposing Giavellotto was a disappointing effort that even placed her participation in doubt.

Juddmonte’s Barry Mahon said: “Bluestocking came into last year’s race having won two Group Ones in pretty ready fashion, whereas we haven’t won a race yet this season with Kalpana, so it’s probably not really right to compare them.

“They are both high-class fillies when they are on song and it is their day, as we saw with Bluestocking in this race especially last year and with Kalpana when she won at Ascot on British Champions Day.

“If conditions are right and she’s in the right frame of mind, Andrew is happy and hopefully we will get some luck in running and you never know what could happen.

“It would be magical if we could win it again, but these races are hard run and you need a good draw, a good trip and you have to be good enough.

“There’s a lot that could go wrong but if we get some luck and everything goes smoothly, then hopefully she can be really competitive.”