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

The outlook in terms of the ground for the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe remains unclear, with officials at the Paris venue providing a Goingstick measurement on Monday morning which is a mixture of soft and good to soft.

The track has taken 40 millimetres of rain in the last seven days but had tightened to a penetrometre reading of 4.0 or 'tres souple' (very soft) from Saturday's 4.4 which on the French scale is collant (holding).

The north of France was lashed with heavy rain thoughout 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 18 degrees with a fresh south westerly breeze, while the forecast for the week is largely dry with the chance of scattered showers on Wednesday.

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 didn't expect conditions to dry out sufficiently for last year's Derby winner to take his place in the line-up.

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