The 81 entries for this year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp include 5-y-o Nagano Gold, owned by V3J and trained at Bošovice by Václav Luka (photo). British-bred Nagano Gold, by Sixties Icon (GB), out of Never Enough (GB) (Monsun (GER)), has a decent record.

As a 3-y-o, he won the Czech St Leger impressively, and he then went on the win at Deauville. As a 4-y-o, he won a Listed race at Vichy. This year, he won a Listed race at Longchamp in April, and early in May he finished 3^rd in the Prix d’Hedouville, also at Longchamp (Group 3). 

Three Czech-trained horses have run in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in the past: Tullamore, trained by Zdeno Koplík, and Mikhail Glinka and Meandre, both trained by Arslangirej Šavujev.

We will see if Nagano Gold, named after the medals won by the Czech ice hockey team at the Nagano Winter Olympics in 1998, will get to the starting gates for the big race.