Wohler happy with Novellist ahead of Arc bid

Andreas Wohler has issued an upbeat bulletin regarding the prospects of

Novellist in Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, reporting the

four-year-old to be in fine fettle as he seeks to provide Germany with a third

victory in Europe's richest race.

Unbeaten this term, he stepped up from his victory in the June 23 Grand Prix

de Saint-Cloud to smash the track record in Ascot's King George VI & Queen

Elizabeth Stakes, and continued his perfect season with a workmanlike triumph in

the September 1 Grosser Preis von Baden. Johnny Murtagh, who was aboard at

Ascot, will renew his association with Dr. Christoph Berglar's homebred after

Eduardo Pedroza took the reins for the Baden-Baden showpiece.

"Novellist is really well, he did his last piece of work Monday and we are

very happy with him," Wohler revealed. "Everything has gone smooth and fine

since his last race. Hopefully, that will continue for the next couple of days

and we are really looking forward to this coming Sunday.

"He's a different type of horse now because, although it was a Group 1 (at

Baden-Baden), we just took it as a prep race. Beforehand, we didn't think he'd

win like he did at Ascot because it was just a small field, a tactical race, but

the jockey made the best of it and gave him an easy race.

"We have always thought quite a lot of him, he's improved from year to year,

he goes on any ground and good-to-soft going would be ideal. To have a

one-figure draw would be perfect as I don't think anybody would be happy with an

outside draw.

I spoke to Johnny (Murtagh) on Monday and he's really looking forward to this

coming Sunday as well as he thinks a lot of the horse. He did everything right

on him at Ascot, we've spoken a couple of times since then and I've kept him

updated, but he already knows everything about him."

The Gutesloh conditioner will be encouraged that the going is set to be on

the easy side for the €4.8 million event

with further rain forecast this week.

"We had seven millimeters of overnight rain (Sunday) so (the going) is now

good-to-soft," Longchamp's Christian Delaporte told Racing Post. "We are

expecting showers on Thursday and Friday, and I'm expecting it to be somewhere

between good-to-soft and soft. The showers are forecast to be stormy so we have

to be a little careful with predictions."

Following Tuesday's first forfeit stage, 21 of the original 106 entries

remain engaged, although that figure is set to be boosted at Thursday's

€100,000 supplementary entry stage by the

addition of Leading Light, Meandre and Treve.

There is a second forfeit stage Wednesday.

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