TRULY THE WORLD'S RACE

Rolf Johnson enjoyed the latest running of the Prix De L’Arc De Triomphe

- Rolf Johnson

Artificial Intelligence (AI), so we’re told, is busy writing the future. Hollywood scriptwriters took umbrage and went on strike. Unchecked, AI would have dramatically reshaped the film industry and undermined the role of human imagination, pitting artists against robots in a battle over creativity.

Betting shops with their execrable Virtual Racing – four-legged roulette – have tried, are still trying, to lead punters down the same garden path. They’ve yet to go the full Disney and have Animal Rising disrupting a meeting at Portman Park or Steepledowns, but would you put it past them?

Some say the result of the 2023 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was preordained, written in the sand. It’s fact that Ace Impact spent his early days at Cagnes sur Mer and is trained at the seaside on the Cote Fleurie at Deauville. Yet you wouldn’t necessarily conclude – either from those humble origins at the provincial track or that he isn’t trained at one of the powerhouse training yards in Chantilly – that Ace Impact was going to become arguably the best racehorse in the world.