2010 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe: Weekend Schedule

There are a few days of racing in Europe that demand I get up early to watch live regardless of how absurdly early they are run: Guineas and English Derby day, Royal Ascot, and Arc weekend.  This Saturday and Sunday is Arc weekend at Longchamp in Paris with eleven group races over two days.  Saturday's card features four Group 2 events while Sunday is packed with seven Group 1s.  

(By the way, check out the form that guy is holding in the picture on the right.  Now that's a racing form!  What font are they printing those things in - 46?  I'd love to see how Paris Turf presents past performance information but I'm guessing my rudimentary knowledge of the French language would present some challenges.)

This year's Arc doesn't appear to pack the star-power that the past two editions had in Sea The Stars and Zarkava, but there's is still plenty of story lines to focus on.  

• Youmzain (IRE) will tackle the race for the fourth consecutive year after finishing second three years in a row.
• Workforce (GB), the runaway winner of the Epsom Derby, will try to rebound from a poor performance in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. 
• Planteur (IRE) was 2nd in the 2010 French Derby to Lope de Vega (IRE) in June.
• Cape Blanco (IRE) is coming off a win in the Irish Champion Stakes but might need firm ground in order to run his best race at 12 furlongs.
• Japanese invader, Nakayama Festa (JPN), comes into the Arc off a 2nd place finish in his French debut in the Prix Foy.  Like Cape Blanco, Nakayama Festa would probably prefer firm ground.

Below the jump is the list of group stakes scheduled for this weekend at Longchamp, along with the post times and race conditions.  One thing I'd like to point out that I always find a bit peculiar are the conditions for the Group 1 Prix de l'Abbaye, the turf sprint that closes out Arc weekend.  The race is open to any horse two years old and up - a condition that you rarely see in any other race at any other track.  Just off the top of my head, I can't think of a single thoroughbred race in North America that is open to both juveniles and older horses.  Can anyone else?

I was curious as to how frequently a two year old actually attempts to run in this race so I searched for a list of the historical starters and winners.  I came up empty in terms of finding out how many juveniles have started but I did discover that prior to 1979 a juvenile winner was a fairly frequent occurrence (link: France Gallop - l'Abbaye winners 1959-1979).  However, there hasn't been a juvenile winner of the race since Sigy, ridden by Freddy Head and trained by Criquette Head, won in 1978.