All eyes now on Daryz as Arc hero nears return

Fresh from seeing Calandagan make a triumphant return to action in Dubai on Saturday, the Aga Khan team are eagerly anticipating the seasonal reappearance of their Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe hero Daryz.

Calandagan ended 2025 as the world’s highest-rated racehorse when following wins in the King George and Champion Stakes at Ascot, he became the first overseas horse in 20 years to win the Japan Cup – and he picked up where he left off with a sublime comeback in the Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan.

Nemone Routh, manager for the Aga Khan Studs in France, said: “We were very happy. There’s more pressure when you’re the red-hot favourite and everyone says it’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll win, but it is still a horse race and it was his seasonal debut.

“He put on quite a bit of weight over the winter and wasn’t at his normal racing weight, so we weren’t sure whether he’d just matured and that is going to be his racing weight this year or whether he wasn’t 100 per cent fully fit, but he was very well in himself.

“We were quite stressed and then during the race the leader (West Wind Blows) went much further ahead than any of us thought he would, but Mickael (Barzalona) knows him very well and knows what he’s capable of and the horse never lets us down, so it was a wonderful win.”

Summer plans for Calandagan are slightly complicated by his stablemate Daryz, who rounded off last season with a thrilling victory over Minnie Hauk in Europe’s most prestigious middle-distance contest at ParisLongchamp and is now being readied to make his first start as a four-year-old at the same venue on April 26.

“Daryz is going to for the Prix Ganay,” Routh confirmed.

“It’s a nice problem to have, having the two in the same division. We’ve got different objectives with the horses as one is a stallion prospect and the other is a gelding, so Calandagan will probably travel a bit more internationally whereas I’d imagine we’ll keep Daryz to Europe.

“I did have a few conversations with Francis (Graffard) after the race on Saturday about various options and we haven’t really plotted an exact plan for Calandagan yet as we’re waiting for Daryz to come out in the Ganay and see where we are with him.

“The horse seems very well in himself. Francis hasn’t started properly galloping him yet, but he’s been a couple of times on the grass and he’s shown  us he’s in really good form.

“I think the one race we would be quite keen to run Calandagan in this summer would be the King George, but he would need a run before that and all this needs to be discussed with Princess Zahra. Summer ground over a mile and a half at Ascot is perfect for him and I think he would be more suited to that race than Daryz.

“We’ve had a lot of people getting quite excited about Calandagan going to the Cox Plate in Australia and obviously everyone wants to get him back to Japan and the race on Saturday was a win and you’re in for the Breeders’ Cup Turf.

“We understand he’s an important horse for racing and we’re conscious of the fact that he’s a horse everyone wants to see now, but we have to respect the horse as well. We’ll get him back home and give him a bit of time off now, wait for Daryz to run and then start plotting who goes where this summer.”