(MENAFN- Gulf Times) There are races and then there is the race. The Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe is the latter.It is one event that is followed by a billion enthusiasts from around the world and boasts a glorious history few can rival.
Winning this one makes the winner a champion like only a few can claim. It's for this reason, that among the many, the famed Japanese raiders have been trying to win for years. And failed.
It's also the one that no one has tried winning a third time, forget having actually won it a third time. Not yet, that is.
Today, Al Shaqab Racing's Treve will attempt to win the 5 milllion euros Group 1 race for the third consecutive time after having captured the imagination of everyone at Longchamp and worldwide for the last two years.
From Paris Saint-Germain and French national women's team player Laure Boulleau, who was at the draw on Friday, to the France Galop president Bertrand Belinguier, nobody could stop talking about the Motivator progeny.
"There will be a lot of enthusiasm over the weekend. Ever since 1920, it is a huge challenge, no one has won three of these. Treve will be going for it. I am just glad that it is happening here," Belinguier said ahead of Friday's draw.
Laure, who has 70 caps for France and has been playing for PSG for a decade now, said, "I have been lucky to witness races here at Longchamp. I must say I am fan of Treve. I follow her on social network and I hope she wins it for the third time."
The Bay mare has a website of her own, a Facebook page and a Twitter handle of her own. In fact, she also has a Follow Treve stand at Longchamp, which sold out in no time.
Such has been Treve's impact that according to one of the many statistics floating around on the World Wide Web is that UK broadcaster Channel 4's ratings reported a 17 percent increase as compared to the previous year courtesy the double.
With so much focus comes a lot of pressure, and a target mark.
""I always anticipate defeat. You always have to fear the others," her trainer Criquette Head-Maarek was quoted as saying by The Irish News.
"I've got no pressure. I'm taking her to the race like I would take any other horse. I am not someone who is nervous."
Among those looking to play a party pooper for Treve and her team, are Andre Fabre-trained New Bay, winner of the Prix du Jockey Club and Qatar Prix Niel, and John Gosden's charge Golden Horn, winner of the Epsom Derby and two other Group 1s in the run to the Arc.
Golden Horn, rated 130 against Treve's 126 for the race, was supplemented as the weather held up and the turf moved toward being good as opposed to just soft.
Golden Horn, who has won six of his seven starts, will be ridden by Frankie Dettori, who has won thrice at the Arc.
The champion Italian jockey would be gunning for his fourth Arc win on Sunday, even as Thierry Jarnet, who rode Treve to a victory in the last two years at Longchamp, will be looking to go for a record fifth.
"I think we could probably argue that more last year than this year," Al Shaqab's racing consultant Harry Herbert told Gulf Times yesterday. "She won Grand Prix de Saint Cloud (in June) on very fast ground, beating Flintshire who loves fast ground. She is moving well this year. She doesn't have any of the niggles she had last year and that makes a big difference."
He added: "Who knows this may be her last race, before retiring to the paddocks. She comes into it in great form."
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