Talking Horses: Alpinista’s Arc win a shot in the arm that racing needed

Baaeed was back home in Newmarket, Christophe Soumillon did his best to spoil the build-up and Alpinista, the winner, could struggle to make the top 10 when the international handicappers’ annual ratings are published in January. And yet, many racing fans will fondly recall the 2022 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe long after a few of those to come have started to merge together just a little in the memory.

There was a time, even within the living memory of older generations of racegoers and punters, when a 50-horse yard such as Sir Mark Prescott’s Heath House, with the backing of a wealthy and committed owner-breeder in Kirsten Rausing, could challenge for the trainers’ championship if the stars aligned.

The huge influx of sovereign wealth into British racing since the 1970s has changed the game completely. Prescott, in his 54 years in charge of the oldest and most historic yard in Newmarket, has watched as strings ballooned to 100, then 150 and now, in a few cases, 200 or more. The town has become a global powerhouse in an internationalised sport, but a place where size is generally all that matters.

Alpinista’s half-length success at Longchamp showed that, very occasionally, racing’s traditional values can still win the day. The five-year-old mare, whose dam and grand-dam were both trained at Heath House before her, thrived thanks to the care and attention to detail of a trainer who stubbornly refused to build more boxes.

Her jockey, meanwhile, was an essential player in the story too. Luke Morris is just the third stable jockey at Heath House – after George Duffield and Seb Sanders – since 1974, and as familiar a name to committed punters as any in the game thanks to his insatiable appetite for hard work. Morris has had at