Chantilly, France // Pressure can do the most incredible things to sportsmen, and Freddy Head said that Thierry Jarnet buckled beneath the huge expectation surrounding Treve in Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.
Treve finished fourth in her bid to secure an historic third victory in Europe’s most valuable race after Jarnet decided to ride his five-year-old mare in mid-pack of the 17-runner field.
Stuck on the outside off a slow pace, Jarnet could only watch as Frankie Dettori steered a course to victory on Golden Horn on the inside and from their prominent positions Flintshire and New Bay fill the podium placings.
It was a similar route that Jarnet had taken when he partnered Treve to her bloodless win in the Prix Vermeille over the same course and distance three weeks ago.
But whereas everything went right that day, the competition was far stiffer with Europe’s most coveted prize on the line.
When things began to go wrong for Jarnet as soon as Treve slightly missed the break, the 48-year-old rider did not have a Plan B or refused to consider one.
From his base at Chantilly, Head lives around a mile away from Criquette Head-Maarek, his sister, who trains Treve and who provided him with one of his four Arc winners when he was in his pomp during the 1960s and ’70s.
And throughout the weeks leading up to the €5million (Dh20.6m) contest, Head watched as his sister, whose husband Gilles is a racing journalist, welcomed the world’s media with open arms.
Head said that the intense media spotlight clouded Jarnet’s judgement, and perhaps that of his sister’s, too.
“I’m not like Criquette. Pressure is not a good thing,” he said. “It stops jockeys and trainers from thinking the normal way. That is what has beaten Treve. All this hype before the race – you can’t analyse the races well. You think you have an invincible thing on your hands.
“I thought that Treve was too far back yesterday.
“Once you take a position, you can’t go as you would have to make your move up the hill. She is not an easy mare. She takes a good hold, and she doesn’t relax and doesn’t give you much chance to do things.
“When I was a jockey, I rode very good horses. But [dual Breeders’ Cup winner] Miesque was a very hard puller and those horses don’t give you much chance.
“You can’t do what Frankie did yesterday – settle your horse on its own. She’s too keen and you have to put her behind horses covered up.”
It will come as no surprise that Head does not plan on welcoming the media to open gallops as he prepares Solow for what would be the gelding’s ninth consecutive victory when he takes his chance on Champions Day at Ascot on Saturday week.
Solow had already won four races in a row before he made the trip to Meydan to win the Dubai Turf in March, and since then he has added the Prix d’Ispahan at Longchamp, the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot as well as the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood.
Head took Solow for a racecourse gallop last Monday at Maisons-Laffitte racecourse and tipped off French racing journalists about the piece of work. It is likely to be one of the last times they see the five-year-old grey before he crosses the Channel.
“I won’t do what Criquette has done,” Head said. “I don’t think it is good. It takes you out of your old routine, and I’m a routine kind of guy.
“I don’t want people to come and see his work like they did with Treve. I like to be on my own in the morning.”
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on twitter at @NatSportUAE
