Dahlia to miss 'Arc’

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33654, 2 October 1974, Page 8

Dahlia to miss ' Arc’

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter— Copyrioht) PARIS. Mr N. B. Hunt’s crack mare, Dahlia, will not run in the Prix de I’Arc de Trlomphe next Sunday, her trainer, M. Zilber, said yesterday. Zilber said that instead Dahlia would race in the Man O’war Stakes in the United States on October 12, when she would be ridden by top English jockey L. Piggott. Zilber did not give any reason for the decision to withdraw Dahlia from the "Arc,” the world’s richest race for thoroughbreds. But if Mr Hunt had thought his mare, voted Horse of the Year last season, had any chance of winning the “Arc” there is little double she would have run, experts said. Dahlia has never run well in France, where the heavilywatered courses are too soft for her liking. The Australian jockey. W. Pyers, who rode her to most of her great victories in England and the United States says: “She likes to hear her feet rattling.” Only two weeks ago Dahlia failed to do better than third in a warm-up race against an ordinary field. She showed great pace at the start of the straight but was unable to accelerate once she got on terms with the early leaders. She has never managed to beat her great rival, Allez France, which has carried all before her in France. Allez France will be In the "Arc” field, ridden by Piggott, who had the ride on Dahlia but switched to Mr D. Wildenstein’s mare when her regular jockey, Y. St Martin, fell and cracked a hip bone earlier this week.