Christopher Wright's dual Group 1-winning mare Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) is likely to have a later start to her 4-year-old campaign, with all roads leading to the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, according to trainer David Menuisier.
Wonderful Tonight won the G3 Prix Minerve last summer before scoring at the top level for the first time in the G1 Prix de Royallieu over 14 furlongs. Rather than supplementing for the Arc, connections opted to take in the G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares S. over the same mile and a half trip, which she won by 2 1/2 lengths.
“She's back in training, she's been back in about four or five weeks now, but we are just going to take our time with her,” Menuisier said. “She's not the kind of filly you can stop and start with. The classic French way to prepare for the Arc is to have a spring campaign, then a summer break and come back for the autumn, but once you get going with her, she really doesn't understand the summer break. The idea would be to have four or five races in consecutive months leading up to the Arc, so we don't want to run too early and because of that, I don't really have any strong plans.”
Menuisier said he will be hoping for plenty of rain wherever Wonderful Tonight does run.
“She's entered in the [G2] Middleton at York next month and the [G1] Coronation Cup, but I don't think Epsom would really be her favourite option unless the ground came up very soft. She's usually a bit keen and even on good ground, I could see her doing too much down the hill there and not finishing her race.
“Anything quicker than good wouldn't really rock my boat for her. I wouldn't want her to have too many hard races on the way to October, although obviously as a dual Group 1 winner you are always going to be up against good horses, wherever you run. She will probably be entered in races like the [G1] King George [VI and Queen Elizabeth S.] and then we'll just be hoping for a rotten summer. Even if the weather doesn't favour us, we know we'll have to run her somewhere to get her ready.
“There's also options in France–the [G2] Grand Prix de Chantilly at the Jockey Club meeting would be one and the [G1] Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud is another. She owes us nothing though and we will respect her.”
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