Bluestocking's Vermeille Showing Opens Path to Arc

Trials day was supposed to be all about the flourishing of youth, with the 3-year-olds in the Prix Niel occupying the top two places in Arc ante-post lists and a raft of Classic-generation fillies ready to serve it up to their elders in a cracking Prix Vermeille. But the one horse everyone will take away from Longchamp is surely Bluestocking (GB), who made her seasonal debut Sept. 15 only the day after Arc entries were made but has showed herself to be of a rare Juddmonte ilk in repeat performances since. Wins in the Middleton Stakes and group 1 Pretty Polly firmly put aside her 3-year-old role of bridesmaid, and her reputation was only further enhanced when second in the King George and fourth in the Juddmonte International. In a Vermeille that would measure up well to any run in the last 20 years, she showed the class and grit which have hallmarked her season, fighting off the persistent attentions of Aventure (IRE). Trainer Ralph Beckett and the Juddmonte hierarchy will now seriously weigh up supplementing Bluestocking for the Arc. "She showed a real liking for the place today and that's very relevant," said Beckett when probed on whether Bluestocking would be added...to a race for which her price was cut from as a big as 33-1 to as short as 7-1, and no bigger than 12-1. The alternative is the Fillies & Mares Stakes on British Champions Day, but Beckett said: "I don't know how many times in the last few years they've moved to the inner track for the mile and a half race at Ascot, but that didn't suit her last year and that would be in the back of my mind. "If we have a wet two weeks or a wet ten days leading up to Ascot, that would temper enthusiasm. History would say it's at least a possibility." The late Khalid Abdullah won the Arc six times, a record he shared with Marcel Boussac, and there is clearly every incentive for Beckett, Juddmonte manager Barry Mahon, and Abdullah's family to give Longchamp the nod. "She's a dual group 1 winner now; everything else is a bonus," said Beckett. "We were second to a really good horse last year. I think some years Westover would have won it, based on last year's performance. It would be nice to come back and have another go." Beckett was also keen to heap praise on Rossa Ryan, who not only executed a great stalking ride in behind Aventure's pacemaker Halfday, but was the sole author of the plan. "The riding plan today was not mine, that belonged to the rider," said Beckett.