If the horse's name had hitherto meant little to many racing fans, neither were trainer Marcel Weiss and jockey Rene Piechulek exactly household names outside their own country. That did not suggest his ticket to the Arc would yield much of a return, yet following success in the Grosser Preis von Baden he surged forward once again to capture what had looked like a vintage staging of the sport's supreme middle-distance championship.ģ.05 Longchamp Sunday: Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe full result

Only two months ago a horse who carries the colours of the German flag had been soundly defeated on home soil by the Sir Mark Prescott-trained Alpinista. For almost everyone else it initially delivered anti-climax and bewilderment as a 72-1 outsider swept past leading fancies Tarnawa, Hurricane Lane and Adayar to achieve something few could possibly have foreseen. It finished with stunned observers left simply asking: 'Who?'įor German racing the remarkable victory of Torquator Tasso provided an unexpected but wonderful cause for celebration. The eagerly anticipated 100th running of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe assembled a veritable who's who of European Flat racing.