Arc a long-term aim for Free Eagle

Free Eagle has the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe as his long-term target this season following his win in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes.

The four-year-old has always been highly regarded, but the Royal Ascot Group 1 was only his fifth career start as well as his seasonal reappearance.

He missed the Classics last season due to a stress fracture in his tibia and he was forced to skip a run in the Tattersalls Gold Cup at the Curragh last month due to a heavy head cold.

Weld felt the Prince of Wales’s Stakes was two weeks too soon for Free Eagle’s return, but the colt overcame those concerns to justify favouritism by holding off The Grey Gatsby by a short head.

The Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in September, which was won last year by The Grey Gatsby, is one of the races under consideration for Free Eagle later in the campaign.

But Weld is also keen to point Free Eagle towards Longchamp in early October and the mile-and-a-half showpiece of the Arc.

“I think there’s lots to look forward to in the future with this horse,” Weld told Racing UK. “We would look at races like the Irish Champion Stakes and we’ve got to look at the Arc with him as well.

“Ascot has been very lucky for us and we’re very fortunate to have this horse. I thought he could have been a Classic horse and he would have been very interesting in the Derby last year.

“It wasn’t to be, but patience has paid dividends.”