Defending champion Daryz will lead the home team into Sunday’s €5 million Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe but the shape of the Irish challenge for Europe’s richest race still looks unclear.
It’s a decade since Found won the Arc for Aidan O’Brien and that race was run at Chantilly due to redevelopment work at Paris-Longchamp. The last Irish-trained winner at the Arc’s traditional home was Sea The Stars in 2009.
They are among an elite group of seven Arc winners trained in this country. Vincent O’Brien’s Alleged won twice in 1977-78.
Daryz will try to become the first colt since then to double up in the historic contest although the fillies Treve and Enable have managed the rare feat. Francis Graffard’s colt is a general 7/4 favourite to repeat his 2025 success when edging out Minnie Hauk in a memorable finish.
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The main British threats according to the betting markets are Maltese Cross and Kalpana, both of whom have been confirmed for Paris. Irish representation in what is perhaps European racing’s most prestigious event of the year will be firmed up later this week.
Minnie Hauk could try to go one better than a year ago and deliver Aidan O’Brien a third Arc success. However, her younger stable companion, Diamond Necklace, is also in the mix, as is the Irish Derby winner Benvenuto Cellini.
Uncertainty about ground conditions at Longchamp next weekend means Joseph O’Brien is holding fire about a call on whether his Epsom Oaks heroine Thundering On lines up in the Arc. Along with Diamond Necklace, she has an alternative option on Sunday in the Prix de l’Opéra over a mile and a quarter.
Joseph O’Brien saddled a remarkable 13 of the 30 runners in Sunday’s Friends of the Curragh Irish Cesarewitch at HQ but ultimately had to settle for a best-placed third with Galileo Dame behind the 16/1 winner Chally Chute in the €500,000 feature.
It underlined a comparatively underwhelming weekend for the trainer who on Saturday was hit with a €3,000 fine under “non-trier” rules by the Curragh stewards.
The performance of O’Brien’s runner in a juvenile maiden, the Declan McDonogh ridden Ar Son Na Cuise, was examined by officials who concluded the rules had been breached.
O’Brien confirmed McDonogh’s instructions were to settle his mount, to do the best he could and not to use his whip in the race. The trainer also expressed his satisfaction with the ride. Ar Son Na Cuise finished 10th of the 13 runners.
The stewards banned the horse from racing for 60 days, suspended McDonogh for 14 days and fined O’Brien €3,000 after considering his clean record in this regard.
Chally Chute collected the €275,000 first prize for the Cesarewitch with a superb victory under topweight of 10.2 on ground that had turned heavy after over 20mm of morning rainfall.
That proved vital to the horse that had finished runner-up in the race 12 months previously behind Puturhandstogether. Galileo Dame looked a winner a furlong out but was ultimately swallowed up by Chally Chute and Sirius.
“He’s coming back into this race with a little bit more weight than last year. Obviously, all week, you are a little bit nervous with the ground and then the heavens open last night and this morning and he gets the ground that he is best in. It’s great it all worked out.
“We came so close last year and we thought that was our one and only chance. For it to happen, it’s magic,” said Chally Chute’s trainer Ross O’Sullivan.
“He’s in the Cadran [at Longchamp] next week but it’ll probably be too soon. He’s in another race in Saint Cloud. He won the Loughbrown here last year, a Group Three. The Curragh might be the place for him,” he added.
Johnny Murtagh could have a classic prospect on his hands for next year after Curracloe made it two from two with a Group Three success in the Darley Stakes.
A 22/1 winner on her Gowran debut, the Qatar Racing-owned filly made light of the conditions to beat Alpine Wedding by almost three lengths under Ben Coen. She was a first Group race winner for her sire, Baaeed, the former European champion racehorse.
“For ours to win first time out the way she did, she’s a bit special. It was a beautiful race for her today. I was a bit worried about the ground but, as Ben said to me this morning, ‘the good ones seem to go on any ground, Johnny’ and we think she’s a good one.
“She was a little bit unbalanced on the ground but she’s just probably good. She was able to cope today but I think you’ll see a much better filly on faster ground,” Murtagh said.
