Jamie Lynch’s guide: Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe

Our Senior Form Analyst looks ahead to Europe’s most prestigious contest, live on Sky Sports Racing on Sunday, and reveals his big-race fancy.

This is everything a Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe should be, first and foremost a clash of nations and generations, and not just a defining race but a deciding race, to decide the best around, while a returning champion always adds an extra layer of motivation and invigoration.

Let’s take a deep dive into the field for Sunday’s 2026 edition, live on Sky Sports Racing, of what is, by common consent, the greatest Flat race in the world.

Daryz

Trainer: F Graffard

“If you’re going to be a star, you have to look like a star,” and Daryz has worn the daunting mantle of Arc winner very well this season, looking suitably starry… Apart from that one time. After Royal Ascot, for Daryz and his devotees, a reported bad blood test was music to the ears, before the Prix Foy’s feast for the eyes and its in-built assurance of all systems go for a second Arc, which has been done eight times in history, but only once in history has the Arc winner added the nine-furlong Prix d’Ispahan on the way, though the horse in question, the outstanding mare Allez France (‘the best I ever rode’, said Yves Saint-Martin), didn’t do it so strikingly in it as Daryz, who topped 42mph when powering up, prompting a 10.68 second furlong. When such a strong stayer is able to reach those speeds, it explains in simple terms the complex combustion engine of Daryz, as well as outlining the overwhelming task for his rivals, up against such a refined and defined racehorse on his home patch.

Saddadd

R Varian

Roger Varian’s fourth runner in an Arc, after Kingston Hill’s fourth in 2014 and Postponed’s fifth (as favourite) in 2016, and Defoe was done by stall 18 in 2018. Saddadd isn’t rated nor decorated like any of those, but he’s still pushing upwards, a master of marginal gains, taking him from a London Gold Cup to a German Group One, and the Grosser Preis von Baden has had a happy habit of readying Arc winners, like Marienbard, Danedream and Torquator Tasso. That was only his first go at the trip, yet he was fastest at stages of both the Tattersalls Gold Cup and the Coral-Eclipse, Group Ones at a mile and a quarter, and the systematic skin-shedding qualifies him as a lively longshot.

Chestnut Rocket

Alicja Karkosa

Polish Derby winner of 2025 and has done better still operating in France as a four-year-old, splitting Al Aasy and Arrow Eagle on his latest start in the Group Two Grand Prix de Deauville. That still leaves him out of his depth in an Arc.

Admire Terra

Yasuo Tomomichi

His claim to fame is that he finished ahead of Calandagan and Masquerade Ball in the Japan Cup. Sadly, he was riderless at the time, having stumbled leaving the stalls, but he went off a 45-1 shot which rather sums up his position in the pyramid, 0/4 in Group Ones.

Meisho Tabaru

Mamoru Ishibashi

There has been little news or noise around the Japanese challenge for the Arc this year but Meisho Tabaru is a bona fide Group One horse, highlighted by back-to-back wins in the Takarazuka Kinen, this year beating Croix Du Nord, who was 14-1 for last year’s Arc having edged out Daryz in a trial, and Danon Decile, former winner of the Sheema Classic (from Calandagan). He seems very straightforward, able to front run, as he did on his one venture outside of Japan so far, though it got him only fifth (behind compatriot Soul Rush) in the 2025 Dubai Turf. In summary, he doesn’t appear to have anything different from the previous 38 from Japan who’ve tried and failed in the Arc over six decades.

Arrow Eagle

J C Rouget

Two Arcs and 14 French Classics are the decorative adornments to the metaphorical monument that’s fixed in French racing for Jean-Claude Rouget, for whom Arrow Eagle will be his last ever runner, without any pretensions of doing any better than 2025 when a staying-on sixth to Daryz at 150-1.

Bay City Roller

George Scott

He’s viable on good ground, but invincible in the mud. Unfortunately for him, conditions won’t be the same at ParisLongchamp as they were at Epsom for the Coronation Cup which he won by ten lengths from two Classic winners and Calandagan. His class is conditional and he was just a plaything for Daryz in the Prix Foy.

Minnie Hauk

A P O’Brien

The widest winning margin in Arc history is six lengths, and Minnie Hauk was five-and-a-half lengths clear of all the other 15 runners when her and Daryz had their ding-dong a year ago. Her standards have slipped this season during which time she’s been hitting the notes without playing the music, but there are precedents for sleepy mare setting the alarm clock in time for their second Arc attempt, such as Treve and Found, the latter having an identical campaign as a four-year-old. Nonetheless, as a would-be winner, she’s easy to explain but hard to back.

Kalpana

A M Balding

Vive la evolution! The draw did for Kalpana in last year’s Arc, but Calandagan did for Kalpana in last year’s King George and there was a role reversal this time around because she has evolved into an even more powerful and purposeful five-year-old. As many as fifteen horses have won an Arc the year after they were beaten in it, and the software updates which have added an extra layer of speed and steel to Kalpana‘s classy core makes her the leading lady for ParisLongchamp, with a rating (of 125) that’s higher than Found, Alpinista or Bluestocking ran to in winning an Arc.

Friendly Soul

J and T Gosden

It has taken some time and training to overcome the holes in her career and holes at Haydock to recover the whole of her ability and then some, successful as a three-year-old in the Pretty Polly (from Kalpana no less) and Prix de l’Opera, but hitting new heights last time out with an all-the-way win in the Prix Vermeille on her first go at the trip, in the fastest overall time of the three trials that day. This, however, is a different ball game, taking on the big boys for the first time in her life.

Varandir

F Graffard

Two of the last three Arc winners were unraced at two, shining a specific spotlight on Varandir, who actually won the very same newcomers race in April that Daryz had 12 months earlier. His only defeat so far came in the Grand Prix de Paris and that was a matter of heads and necks when a close fourth to Maltese Cross, though his rebound in the Prix Niel owed something to a subdued Benvenuto Cellini rather than any great improvement on his part, meaning his upside is more in profile and potential: but it’s the modern Arc profile and Graffard grade potential.

Benvenuto Cellini

A P O’Brien

There was a while there when it felt like he was the “chosen one” for the Ballydoyle three-year-olds, but he hasn’t added as much as hoped to the coffers, before becoming one of the coughers in that spell when the stable had some downtime, explaining in part his dull display in the Prix Niel. He looks of similar standing to Maltese Cross from their defeat of the same two horses, in the Irish Derby for him, but there’s a big difference in momentum at this stage and Benvenuto Cellini is stuttering into the autumn, from chosen one in the spring to third string in the Arc.

Bright Light

Andreas Suborics

German-trained three-year-old who has been placed in Group Ones at home, behind British raiders, Tiffany at Hoppergarten and Saddadd at Baden-Baden, an element of him being in the right place at the right time in those events. A race like this is out of his reach.

Maltese Cross

W J Haggas

The Maltese Cross cocktail has been purified and clarified over 393 days and seven refining races, making for a fortified blend which is now similar in strength to a drop of Daryz. And there’s still a bit of shaking and stirring to be done with him yet, a three-year-old who’s peaking for Paris, after resisting the temptation to mix a Classic cocktail for the Leger. The brilliance-bordering blend is the stamina that got him a Great – in literal terms – Voltiguer and the speed that got him out of a spot in the Grand Prix de Paris, in which he clocked an even faster speed (43.1mph) than Daryz had at ParisLongchamp in the Prix d’Ispahan. His ingredients and improvements have earned him a robust rating which is higher than Daryz and Ace Impact packed pre-Paris amongst recent three-year-old Arc-winning colts, and the fullest Maltese Cross is still in the future tense.

Thundering On

J P O’Brien

What she’s done is impressive, but it’s more who she is that could win her an Arc, a flourishing three-year-old filly often greater than the sum of her parts when it comes to Arcs, as wild winners Zarkava, Danedream, Treve and Enable all symbolize in recent times, while Minnie Hauk went mightily close last year. Thundering On, whose 117 rating is within a pound of Minnie Hauk‘s at the same stage, passed the eye test in the Oaks and the time test in the Blandford at the Curragh where her closing two furlongs were faster than any winner on that Super Sunday bar the Group One sprinter Commanche Brave. The form-lines and data points booked her a ticket but, above all, it’s the badge she wears that could win her it, the wind of a three-year-old filly a specialist sirocco that regularly blows through ParisLongchamp.

Diamond Necklace

A P O’Brien

Without the Prix Jean Romanet, I’m pretty sure Diamond Necklace would be second-favourite for the Arc, as a hitherto unbeaten dual Classic winner who gave a subsequent Prix Vermeille winner a good thrashing in the Nassau. On that basis, she’s rated higher than Thundering On, and trained by the Daddy, but there’s no doubting the dent that defeat by Aventure did to her Arc claims, begging the question of a bump in the road or the end of her developmental road? The recent market momentum would suggest bump and, a half-sister to Irish Oaks winner Chicquita amongst others, there’s plenty to propose that she’ll improve for this trip let alone stay it: don’t forget what a mile and a half did for three-year-old Daryz at the first attempt last year.

Jamie Lynch’s Verdict

We’ve got a true A-lister in Daryz who has an air and aura of horse about to force his way into Arc folklore, though for now scales are weighted slightly more in style than substance for his season so far, with extra marks for artistic impression, but it can’t be completely forgotten how he fell flat at Royal Ascot. There’s still a sense that the best version of Daryz will leave this lot or any lot for dead, but the market rather underestimates quite what a heavyweight MALTESE CROSS is becoming, with a strong case for saying he’s the best three-year-old in Europe. His budding brilliance is in his blend, of overt stamina and hidden speed, and that’s the magic mix which wins Arcs.

Watch every race from Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe weekend at ParisLongchamp live on Sky Sports Racing (Sky 415 | Virgin 512) on Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th October.

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: skynews.com