Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe

In 2026, the draw for the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe will be unveiled on the evening of Thursday, October 1 when France Galop hosts the official launch ceremony of the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe weekend. As with all Flat races in France, starting gates will be drawn electronically on the morning of Thursday, October 1, under the supervision of a Commissioner of Justice. However, the result of the draw will not be released until the evening ceremony as part of a new initiative being introduced by...

Year in, year out we can appreciate the best horses of each generation but how often are we granted the privilege to witness one whose talent is so immense that his name will echo down the decades?  Those who made their way to Newmarket's traditional opening meeting 40 years ago likely came away with a favourable impression of Dancing Brave's win in the Craven Stakes but they could hardly have dared to dream of what was to come. For Guy Harwood, however, that dream was already alive, even on that...

To a degree, 2025 was the year of the gelding. Those who won at least one Group or Grade 1 race included Calandagan, Ka Ying Rising, Romantic Warrior, Goliath, Cicero's Gift, Lazzat, American Affair, Half Yours, Caballo De Mar, Candelari, Ethical Diamond, Never So Brave, Rebel's Romance, and Trawlerman. Indeed, three of those were among the top-ten-rated horses in the world. There is no doubting the popularity and resonance of some of those names above but to what extent should we prioritise promoting the sport over protecting the breed, or...

The New York Racing Association (NYRA) will partner with FOX Sports to present live television coverage of Sunday's €5-million G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe from ParisLongchamp. The telecast will air on FS1 from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. ET, with the main event to jump at 10:05 as the fifth event on a 10-race program. The Arc, Europe's weight-for-age championship, is run over 2400 meters. The Arc is part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge series and offers the winner an all-expenses paid trip to Del Mar for the GI Breeders'...

Trainer Takashi Saito is eager to use the experience of an unsuccessful Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe bid as he puts the finishing touches to Croix Du Nord's preparation for Sunday's ParisLongchamp showpiece. Back in 2021, Saito saddled his first runner in the Arc in the shape of Chrono Genesis, a four-time Group 1 winner in her native Japan. At ParisLongchamp, however, she could manage only seventh in a race run on very soft ground, with the daughter of Bago tiring late on after more than three months on...

Nine years since Aidan O'Brien gained the most recent of his two victories in the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the Ballydoyle trainer has emphasised the importance of Europe's richest race and its standing in the sport as he prepares a two-pronged assault on the 2025 edition at ParisLongchamp on Sunday. Coincidentally, O'Brien endured a nine-year wait to double his Arc tally after Dylan Thomas overcame Youmzain and a prelonged stewards' enquiry to deliver the breakthrough on that nerve-jangling afternoon back in 2007. By contrast, in 2016, when the...

Aidan O'Brien looks set to saddle Los Angeles (Camelot) and Minnie Hauk (Frankel) in Sunday's G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe at ParisLongchamp, with the latter expected to be supplemented later this week to join the current cast of 17 contenders for Europe's richest race. Minnie Hauk has enjoyed a faultless campaign so far and will make her first trip to France following three consecutive Group 1 wins in the Oaks at Epsom, Irish Oaks at the Curragh and Yorkshire Oaks at York. Coral make her the 4/1 joint-favourite...

Lightning couldn't strike twice, could it? In a sense it already has. Gerard Augustin-Normand, who made his entrance to the world of Thoroughbred racing with Prix du Jockey Club winner Le Havre, recently celebrated victory in the Grand Prix de Paris with Le Havre's son Leffard. The colt had been born a month before the untimely demise of his sire at the age of just 16. That victory brought not just Leffard's posthumous tribute to Le Havre as his first Group 1-winning colt, but also the resurgence of the man...

If the first half of the Flat season is for graduation ceremonies, this is the bit where Masters and PhDs are handed out. To see Ryan Moore sit so beautifully on City Of Troy - and this year's best horse race round Southwell so fluidly - was to feel a surge of anticipation greater than before his seasonal reappearance for the 2,000 Guineas.  We all love spring and the history-laden game of labelling three-year-olds 'Classic' winners. But sorry, late summer and autumn is when we really get ready to rumble....

You wait ages for one gelding capable of spicing up the Arc field to appear - then two come along at once. Expediency is the obvious backdrop to France Galop's move to reconsider the ban on geldings in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, but the debate nevertheless goes to the heart of what sport is meant to be: the best against the best.  It's more nuanced and interesting than a straight in-house polemic about Group 1 race conditions. You'd have a hard job selling that one to the general...

Ace Impact (Fr) (Cracksman {GB}), the brilliant winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and Prix du Jockey Club, will not race on and is set to take up stud duties at his part-owner Kamel Chehboub's Haras de Beaumont from 2024. Speaking to TDN at Tattersalls, Chehboub said, "When we established Haras de Beaumont the idea was to target exceptional future stallions prospects. Ace Impact has won the French Derby, he's won the Arc, he's unbeaten. As we all know, to race on for another year is taking a...

The 3-year-old colts Continuous (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) and Fantastic Moon (Ger) (Sea The Moon {Ger}), winners of the St Leger and Deutsches Derby respectively, have been supplemented for Sunday's Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Sixteen horses remain engaged for the weekend's €5 million showcase race at ParisLongchamp. Eleven of the potential field are already Group 1 winners, including another Classic-winning colt of 2023, the unbeaten Prix du Jockey Club hero Ace Impact (Ire) (Cracksman {GB}), who is currently favourite. With Emily Dickinson (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) holding multiple entries...