Trainer Jean Claude Rouget has the Arc in mind for Al Hakeem © Photo Healy Racing
Al Hakeem is on course for the Prix Gontaut-Biron Hong Kong Jockey Club at Deauville on Sunday, as connections dream of another tilt at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the autumn.
Trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, the Al Shaqab Racing-owned five-year-old finished fourth, beaten just shy of three lengths, in his first crack at Europe’s middle-distance contest.
An injury suffered on his next start in last year’s Prix d’Harcourt kept the son of Siyouni on the sidelines for 427 days before he returned with a brilliant run to finish second at ParisLongchamp in La Coupe in June.
Eager to bide their time – and follow a typical Rouget route back to the French capital – Sunday’s Group Three event has long been earmarked for Al Hakeem’s mid-summer outing.
Holding entries for both the Prix Dollar and the big one itself on Arc weekend, Al Hakeem’s performance on the Normandy coast could prove crucial in deciding which direction connections head on the first weekend of October.
Rupert Pritchard-Gordon, Al Shaqab’s French racing consultant, said: “The Gontaut-Biron is the plan and it is funny as since he came into training that was a race we were looking at for his programme for the simple reason that he’s obviously trained in Deauville and for a lot of Jean-Claude’s top-class horses, Deauville is part of the programme in the summer.
“If you wanted to write a race for him at this time, then that would be the race so it makes sense to try and take advantage and we just hope he can run as well as he did first time out.
“We have spaced his races as Jean-Claude has always done with him in the past and he has had time to get over that last run which was after a lengthy absence.
“We’re all very much looking forward to seeing him in Deauville and his work in the meantime has been very good. He seems very bright and happy and he is a horse who loves his training. He is always enthusiastic and full of beans and touch wood he is showing the right signs.
“Depending how he runs we will make a plan (for the autumn). With the issue he had it is very much one race at a time but you have to be thinking of October as well and this face fits in well.”
