Arrow Eagle prepared for the challenge of the French Derby

Arrow Eagle will try to follow in the footsteps of his half-brother Ace Impact on Sunday in the Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly.

Last season, Ace Impact won the race and went on to have a winning streak that culminated in a historic triumph in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, which gave trainer Jean-Claude Rouget the trophy.

After that, the horse was put into retirement for stud work, and the training reins were given to his younger half-brother Arrow Eagle, who Rouget is training—though the trainer is taking a two-month hiatus to treat lymphoma.

The three-year-old made his debut at the beginning of the term, winning twice at Cagnes-Sur-Mer over ten furlongs. In April, he was entered in the Longchamp Prix de Ferrieres.

There, he went up a furlong and finished in second place, losing to Andre Fabre's Sosie by a length and a half, but he was still planning to run for the Jockey Club to follow in his brother's footsteps.

“They’re not alike at all, neither mentally or physically. Ace Impact was always a horse who was very active and sharp, this horse is much more relaxed and very cool,” Jean Bernard Roth, the assistant to Rouget, said of the two colts. “He doesn’t show a lot in the morning, but he is a horse that is progressive and is going to improve. That’s the reason we are going for the Prix du Jockey Club, he is a horse that can improve and could reveal himself on the day.”