Fabre favouring traditional Arc route with Sosie

Nick Robson
July 15, 2024 2:38 pm

Master trainer puts Prix Niel on the agenda for ParisLongchamp winner.

Andre Fabre will chart a traditional path towards the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Sosie.

The Sea The Stars colt finished third in the Prix du Jockey Club but always looked likely to improve once asked to tackle a mile and a half.

He did just that in Saturday evening’s Grand Prix de Paris, quickening up in fine style to see off Aidan O’Brien’s Queen’s Vase winner Illinois and the previously unbeaten Delius by two lengths.

Sosie will now be aimed at the Prix Niel in September, a race Fabre has already won 11 times but surprisingly not since New Bay in 2015.

Sosie lands the Grand Prix de Paris!
Third in the Prix du Jockey Club last time out, Andre Fabre’s three-year-old powers away from Illinois and company to grab Group 1 glory this time around for @maximeguyon_off at @paris_longchamp… pic.twitter.com/nnsWYDf58o

— At The Races (@AtTheRaces) July 13, 2024

“Sosie always looked like he wanted to run over a mile and a half and he improved for it,” said Fabre of his record-extending 14th Grand Prix de Paris winner.

“He will run in the prep race that I use traditionally, the Prix Niel.”

Fabre, who has won the Arc eight times, most recently when Waldgeist denied Enable an unprecedented hat-trick in 2019, added: “We knew Illinois stayed well but so did we and Sosie has a smart turn of foot.

“He’s a great looking horse, he’s a big horse who was always going to thrive and he wasn’t 100 per cent fit for the Jockey Club, so I expected him to improve.”