PRIX DE L'ARC DE TRIOMPHE REPORT:IT'S NOT like 65 is set in stone as retirement age any more but if Michael Stoute decides to chuck this training lark in when he hits the momentous birthday date later this month he can do so secure in the knowledge he has nothing left to prove after Workforce's dramatic Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe victory at Longchamp yesterday.
A dream cultivated in his native Barbados which took Stoute across the Atlantic to Britain in the 1960s and resulted in a near-40 year career that has yielded many of the world's most prestigious prizes culminated in style as Workforce landed Europe's most valuable race yesterday.
The Arc had been a glaring omission on Stoute's CV which contains every British classic, international success in the Japan Cup, Dubai World Cup and Breeders Cup, not to mention even a Champion Hurdle victory in 1990 with Kribensis.
There have also been 10 trainer's championships, legendary status as the trainer of Shergar, as well as a worldwide reputation as a master of his craft that received official recognition with a knighthood a dozen years ago.
But the Arc always remained frustratingly elusive. Pilsudski twice finished runner-up and other horses have been placed but it took maybe the most unlikely candidate of the lot to finally crack the Longchamp code.
A brilliant Derby winner at Epsom in June, where he broke the course record in winning by seven lengths, Workforce's only subsequent start was a dismal failure in the King George that made any idea of him joining just the five other horses who have completed the Derby-Arc double in the same year seem far-fetched.
In fact the Juddmonte owned colt was only confirmed a definite runner just three days previously amid suspicions that Stoute might be indulging in a desperate throw of the dice to finally break his duck in Europe's most coveted all-aged race.
That Workforce defied the sceptics may just prove to be the finest training performance of them all although Stoute was keen to praise everyone else around him, especially jockey Ryan Moore who delivered a superb big-race ride in a desperately rough race that featured several hard-luck stories.
Johnny Murtagh had Fame And Glory in a perfect position on the turn in but Aidan O'Brien's colt was repeatedly denied a clear passage and had to be snatched up over a furlong out as Workforce swept past.
It was the Japanese raider Nakayama Festa that turned out to be Workforce's main threat but Moore was at his strongest to get his colt home as Sarafina, who had been all but brought down in the false straight, ran on for third.
"He was back to his best today. It got a bit tight in the false straight but the gaps came and he was very brave. He has a great attitude and Ascot simply wasn't him," Moore said afterwards.
Not surprisingly the stewards were busy after the race but Workforce was not involved and while the Juddmonte team celebrated a fourth Arc success, Stoute got used to a novel feeling.
"If you have an ambition, and when you start training, you want to win an Arc. The horse was so impressive on Derby day and I'm just thrilled he's come back," he said after the race.
"The King George was inexplicable. Ryan blamed himself because he couldn't switch him off that day and I think I may have trained him too hard.
"So we took a different path this time. It was some team effort, and I'm not just saying that as some old cliche. Plus the jockey gave him some ride," Stoute added.
Out of luck on Fame And Glory, Murtagh enjoyed better fortune in the Prix Marcel Boussac as the Moyglare winner Misty For Me completed a Group One double after getting the better of a battle with Helleborine.
One race that Goldikova hasn't managed to win was the Boussac but the French superstar heads to next month's Breeders' Cup in Kentucky with a European record 11th Group One success under her belt after landing the Prix de la Foret yesterday.
