English Derby winner Workforce survived a stewards’ inquiry to complete a Group 1 double in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on Sunday.  The Juddmonte homebred defeated Japanese raider Nakayama Festa (Stay Gold) by a head to become just the sixth horse to sweep the Cross Channel double.

Workforce (3c King’s Best – Soviet Moon by Sadler’s Wells) gave trainer Sir Michael Stoute a long-awaited first winner in the Arc.  The colt had won the English Derby by seven lengths in record time but he followed up with a tame fifth in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Ascot.

“If you have any ambition from the time you start training, you want to win the Arc de Triomphe,” Stoute commented.  “I may have trained him too hard for the King George so we took a different path this time.  I don’t know if he will stay in training next year, but I’d love to keep him.”

Workforce had only a handful of rivals in arrears at the top of the Longchamp straight but Ryan Moore took all the short cuts along the rails and that proved a crucial factor in the straight.  “He’s back to his best,” Moore said.  “We got a nice run through and, although it got a bit tight at the top of the straight, he took a half gap and really quickened.”

Workforce is by Darley sire King’s Best from an unraced sister to English St Leger winner Brian Boru.  He gave Juddmonte owner Khalid Abdullah a fourth Arc win following Rainbow Quest, Dancing Brave and Rail Link.

Darley shuttled King’s Best to Australia for three seasons until 2004.  A Group 1 winning son of Kingmambo, he has a winning strike-rate of 55% in Australia & NZ but hasn’t sired a single stakes winner down here.