Supplemented Minnie Hauk could be Aidan O'Brien's third Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner at Longchamp on Sunday

The dictionary definition of the word ‘supplementary’ includes the reasoning ‘added to complete something’ and Minnie Hauk certainly adds a certain lustre to the 104th running of the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on Sunday.

Supplemented at a cost of €120,000 by Aidan O’Brien and her Coolmore owners on Wednesday, her presence feels necessary in an Arc deprived of genuine middle-distance superstars as her burgeoning record suggests she might well be one of those.

After amassing more Oaks than Sherwood Forest during her Classic campaign, those of Cheshire, Epsom, Ireland and Yorkshire, the daughter of Frankel is getting better with experience which bodes well for her fifth and most taxing start of 2025.

Three-year-old fillies in the Arc have a certain attraction thanks to their allowances; Minnie Hauk gets 7lb from the older fillies and 10lb from the older colts, but it’s true that only exceptional fillies from the Classic vintage have triumphed in the Arc this century.

Look at the quartet that have done it: Zarkava, Treve, Danedream and Enable, racing royalty in other words, and while Minnie Hauk might well develop into that kind of A-lister the racecourse evidence suggests she isn’t quite there yet.

This is the first time she will have raced against a colt in her career, while the ground is going to ask new questions, too. Night time and morning rain in Paris turned the ground ‘soft’ at Longchamp and while she won her Leopardstown maiden in such ground this is a somewhat different assignment and it’s not sure to show her in her best light.

She certainly seemed to thrive on the fast turf at York in the Yorkshire Oaks back in August, a day when she hinted she could very much be the real deal with the way she dismissed Estrange with ease under a Ryan Moore who needed a big winner at the time.

With Moore sidelined through injury Christophe Soumillon has been drafted in to ride Minnie Hauk and the Belgian has already poached some big pots in the absence of Ballydoyle’s number one, notably the Irish Champion Stakes on Delacroix who might’ve been an Arc horse in another dimension.

The good thing for O’Brien is he could hardly have found a better super sub. Soumillon is one of only two jockeys in the race that have won the same amount of Arcs as Moore – two – and one of those was on the aforementioned Zarkava who wowed Longchamp with her career-defining Arc romp in 2008.

It’s hard to imagine Minnie Hauk winning the Arc in the style of a Zarkava, but interestingly she also won the race after breaking from the one stall which is where Soumillon will begin his quest for a third Arc from on Sunday.

One thing she does look to have is star quality. That much has emerged after Epsom and York in particularly, but the jury was still out even behind closed doors at Ballydoyle on May 14 when the initial Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe entries were made.

That was a week after her Cheshire Oaks success, a pleasing return on her first start at three but nothing more. Not enough to stick her in the Arc, anyway, as O’Brien explained in a France Galop-arranged media call earlier in the week.

He said: “We knew she was a little behind this year, as she had only run twice at two. So she started off in a trial at Chester, then went on to Epsom. And of course, the rest you know!

“We knew she was going to catch up, and she proved it by winning at Epsom and the Curragh. Between the Curragh and York, we felt she had improved again in her work, and that was confirmed on the day of the race.

“Minnie Hauk is progressing slowly but surely, without interruption. Her last piece of work was excellent. Christophe sat on her at the weekend. It was his first time on her, and he seemed very happy with her as well.”

One horse who O’Brien did enter in the Arc on May 14 was Los Angeles and with good reason. He had finished a close-up third in last year’s renewal and had just begun his four-year-old campaign with a neck verdict over White Birch in the Mooresbridge Stakes.

Despite going off the rails a little after his Tattersalls Gold Cup victory at the end of May, O’Brien insists he shouldn’t be forgotten following his fourth in the Prix Foy behind Byzantine Dream last time: “This is the race Los Angeles has been trained for all year,” he said.

“He is an older horse, more mature, whom we know very well. Since his last race, he has come forward a lot. He is in very good form. Last time, he was maybe a little behind in his preparation. But now he has caught up. We are very pleased with him.”

Cheekpieces have been added to the son of Camelot, too. But he’s 33/1, Minnie Hauk is 4/1 favourite, and there has been no doubt that she would be supplemented for the Longchamp showpiece ever since she was said to be ‘on the Arc programme’ straight after she had completed her Oaks four-timer at York.

George Scott was a beneficiary of the supplementary system at Longchamp on Saturday as his €21,600 gamble to add Caballo De Mar to the Prix du Cadran paid off in spades as he landed him his first ever Group 1 winner in the Paris marathon.

O’Brien has over 400 Group/Grade 1s in the bag, but Prix de l’Arc de Triomphes are extremely hard to win. His Ballydoyle predecessor, the great Vincent O’Brien, only won three, and victory for Minnie Hauk, or Los Angeles, would see this modern genius called O’Brien equal his tally after Dylan Thomas (2007) and Found (2016).

“You need a top-class horse that stays the trip, and a lot of things need to go right during the race,” O’Brien says. He didn’t know it on May 14, but Minnie Hauk might just have developed into what is required for him to bag a third Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. (Supplementary, adjective: adding to complete something).

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