One-time Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe favourite Kalpana remains “on track” for next month\u2019s Longchamp feature, with connections confident of an improved performance following her recent defeat at Kempton.<\/p>\n
Andrew Balding\u2019s filly has had Europe\u2019s premier middle-distance contest as her main objective for much of the year and placed efforts in the Tattersalls Gold Cup and Pretty Polly Stakes in Ireland, followed by an excellent second to Calandagan in the King George at Ascot, suggested she was a major player.<\/p>\n
However, the five-year-old was beaten at odds-on in her final prep race on the all-weather, finding Marco Botti\u2019s Hong Kong Vase hero Giavellotto too strong in the Group Three September Stakes.<\/p>\n
In the immediate aftermath Balding suggested her Arc participation was far from certain, with a defence of her title in the Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot a potential alternative, but she is set to take her chance in Paris on 5 October.<\/p>\n
Barry Mahon, European racing manager for owners Juddmonte, said: “We\u2019re still pretty much on track for the Arc, I think Andrew is happy with her.<\/p>\n
“It was as we said, it was a prep race the other day. After Ascot she got a good, long holiday and she probably just needed the run a little bit more than we expected.<\/p>\n
“Giavellotto is a proper horse \u2013 you don\u2019t win a Group One in Hong Kong without being a very good horse, that\u2019s for sure.<\/p>\n
“I thought she came there to win her race and got two big bumps, which probably just knocked the wind out of her a little bit due to the fact she wasn\u2019t hardened fit, so I think we\u2019re still on track for Longchamp.”<\/p>\n
Kalpana is a best-priced 16-1 for the Arc and the prospect of rain-softened ground is not a concern.<\/p>\n
Mahon added: “She showed she handles those conditions in Ascot last year, so we wouldn\u2019t be afraid if the ground comes up soft and Andrew will have her a bit tighter for the main day.<\/p>\n
“We still feel that we\u2019re on track and there\u2019s progression to come. We all saw her at Ascot in the King George, it was a huge run, and we feel like there\u2019s more to come.<\/p>\n
“Minnie Hauk is obviously very talented, but after that it looks a very open renewal. There\u2019s been plenty of trial winners from all over the world and it\u2019s going to be an interesting race with plenty of runners. Hopefully we\u2019ll be there.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One-time Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe favourite Kalpana remains “on track” for next month\u2019s Longchamp feature, with connections…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143433,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[3004,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-143432","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-racing","tag-racing","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143432","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143432"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143432\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143432"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143432"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143432"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}