Frankie Dettori's tip for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe has become the 'late plunge' horse for the Paris Longchamp feature. Bookmakers Coral and Ladbrokes have cut the price of Kalpana to 4-1 (from 6-1) after Andrew Balding's mare attracted strong support.
Seventh to reigning titleholder Daryz a year ago, the five-year-old stayer has won three of her four starts this term, with the standout being Ascot's King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes in July.
Dettori's praise for Kalpana
The money for Kalpana comes after Dettori suggested she was "definitely good enough to match Enable" while talking to Stake. Flat racing's former top jockey heads the standings with the mare's two triumphs adding to the exploits by Lammtarra (1995), Sakhee (2001), Marienbard (2002) and Golden Horn (2015).
"Enable set pretty high standards," he said about one of his thoroughbred stars, the winner in 2017 and 2018 before she came up short in her hat-trick bid carrying the silks of Juddmonte.
"She won two Arcs and three King Georges. And a Breeders' Cup, so you know, let's not put too much pressure on Kalpana. She's won a King George, and she can win an Arc, which would be great too."
Bookies report one-way traffic
"It's very obvious to me that she's a filly that has tremendous cruising speed. When she passes the last horse, she kind of pulls herself up a bit. She's super talented."
Kalpana will line up against 15 other horses in Sunday's race, which comes hours after ownermate Blue Bolt continued her winning sequence in the Group One BetMGM Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket. Colin Keane will ride Kalpana in the race which has a first prize of £2,484,348.
It put Balding ahead of Aidan O'Brien in the 2026 trainers' championship - and punters are backing the leader to keep up his terrific season.
"Kalpana is the runner everybody seems to want to be with on the eve of Europe's middle-distance contest," said Coral's John Hill.
"It has been one-way traffic in our betting for Andrew Balding's mare and if this gamble continues on the day of the race, the top two in the betting could come very close to each other at the off. This is something we did not see happening at the start of the week."
