Longchamp ground begins to dry after wet week but Arc going picture remains uncertain

The likely ground for Sunday's Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe remains uncertain, with officials at the Paris venue providing a GoingStick measurement of a mixture of soft and good to soft on Monday morning.

The track has taken 40 millimetres of rain in the last seven days, but after a dry weekend the surface tightened to an official penetrometer reading of 4.0 or 'tres souple' from Saturday's 4.4, which on the French scale is 'collant'.

The two scales have been operated in parallel at major French meetings for several years now and, as a rough guide, the British and Irish understanding of the ground would tend towards a slightly quicker reading.

For example, 'tres souple' (very soft) on the penetrometer might be something akin to soft on the GoingStick, while 'bon souple' is good or even good to firm.

What is the weather forecast saying?

The north of France was lashed with heavy rain throughout last week and on Friday racing took place on heavy ground at Saint-Cloud, which is less than a mile away from Longchamp across the River Seine.

Temperatures on Monday were due to reach 18C with a fresh south-westerly breeze, while the forecast for the early part of the week is largely dry with the chance of scattered showers up until Wednesday before the outlook improves nearer the weekend.

With an eight-metre strip of fresh ground being preserved for racing on Sunday – widening to 16 metres in the home straight – officials are expecting ground ranging between 'souple' and 'tres souple', which would be mean no great change from Monday's conditions (soft and good to soft).

A band of heavy rain is due to sweep through Paris in the early hours of next Monday and were that to move up in the forecast, it could have a significant impact on Sunday afternoon.

On Sunday, Aidan O'Brien said he would monitor the ground situation at Longchamp for Auguste Rodin, although he did not expect conditions to dry out sufficiently for last year's Derby winner to take his place in the line-up.

Read these next:

18 remain in contention for Sunday's Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe after Monday's first forfeit stage 

Auguste Rodin could join Los Angeles and Continuous on Aidan O'Brien's Arc team if Longchamp ground dries out 

What's on this week: Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe steals the show - but there's a strong supporting cast at Goffs, Ascot and Newmarket 

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