Your essential guide to the 2026 Prix de l’arc de Triomphe

The 105th Prix de l’arc de Triomphe on Sunday will be the last of its kind. From next year, geldings will be able to take part for the first time.

France Galop's decision to remove the restriction on one of the world's greatest races, approved by the European Pattern Committee, has divided opinion. Those who want to see the best horses taking part have rejoiced, but those who argue it won’t be a level playing field (geldings are generally easier to train than would-be stallions) have been choking on their croissants.

Life is suddenly going to get a lot tougher for colts, fillies and mares, and that’s if they make the cut in the first place with field sizes bound to increase.

The French assessors got a pummelling when deciding multiple Group One winner and Melbourne Cup winner Verry Elleegant was the weakest link in an oversubscribed 2022 renewal and could end up being an annual talking point in a race where the safety limit is 20.

Connections of Calandagan, established as one of the best middle-distance horses in training since being gelded three years ago, will be wishing the exclusion had been lifted for this year because it looks like the ground is going to be on the fast side, which suits him.

However, it can be dangerous to second-guess the going in Paris, with the going officially “very soft” or “heavy” in six of the past seven years. It was “good to soft” on the other occasions, with the last good ground renewal being back in 2018.

After a hot summer, it’s also been unusually dry in Paris this month with no rain since Arc Trials day on September 8, but Charles de Cordon, the clerk of the course, has been turning on the taps and his stated aim is for good to soft ground.

More watering is on the cards, with the amount of rain forecast for Wednesday into Thursday having diminished. The meeting at Longchamp on Saturday will tell us more, with more warm weather forecast over the weekend. 

Where do you want to be drawn in the Arc?

Logic decrees that those drawn low are at an advantage as they can stick to the rail and go the shortest route, while those drawn high face a dilemma between staying wide or using up early petrol to get across into a better position.

However, it’s rarely that simple. Those drawn lowest run the risk of getting hemmed in, while those higher can find more room to find stride and manoeuvre. The only winner from stall 1 this century has been the brilliant Zarkava in 2008.

A good example of whn the draw did make a difference was when Enable got a lovely prominent run from stall 6 in 2018 and clung on from Sea Of Class, who had a torrid time from gate 15.

Enable (Evens) is among six horses this century to win from stall 6, with Solemia (33-1), Sea The Stars (4-6), Dylan Thomas (11-2), Hurricane Run (11-4) and Alpinista(33-10)also jumping from there.

The first three home last year were drawn 2-1-3, while in 2017 the finish had been fought out by those in 2-3-1. Low is best, but good horses/jockeys can overcome an outside berth.

Dalakhani won from the widest stall of all (14) in 2003, while Treve hacked up from 15 in 2013. And Ofevre looked like bolting up from 18 in 2012, only to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Golden Horn won from stall 14 in 2015, with Frankie Dettori staying wide through the early stages before working his way across.

The draw for the draw will be made on Thursday morning but will only be revealed at a launch ceremony in the evening. This is an unwelcome move. Add some fanfare, if it’s wanted, but do it live and keep everyone in the picture at the same time.

Overall record: 70 wins in 104 Arc renewals. Possible runners: 8

The home team won 68 of the first 89 editions of the Arc (70.78%), but their grip has loosened and they’ve won only seven of the past 15 renewals (46.66%).

Arc maestro Andre Fabre provided one of those recent victories via Waldgeist in 2019 but the days when he ruled the race – he had the winner seven times between 1987 and 2006 – are over. The serial French champion does not have a runner on Sunday and is likely to be grumpy if he’s back next year, given that he is opposed to geldings taking part. 

Francis Graffard is now France’s No 1 and his possible three-pronged attack is headed by Daryz, who will seek to become the first colt to achieve back-to-back triumphs since Alleged in 1977-78. 

Only seven have tried to retain their crowns in the intervening 48 years and they have included 1984 winner Sagace, who was also first past the post 12 months later, only to be demoted.

Carnegie (sixth in 1995), Helissio (sixth in 1997), Montjeu (fourth in 2000), Bago (third in 2005), Hurricane Run (third in 2006) and Workforce (12th in 2011) have been the other colts who have tried to double up since Alleged. Meanwhile, Treve and Enable have been back-to-back winners in recent years for the female of the species.

Unraced at two, Daryz is better qualified than most to win again.

He outmuscled Minnie Hauk, the favourite, in the closing stages 12 months ago, with the pair pulling well clear of a field who included ten other Group One winners. 

The winner benefited from a low draw and ground-saving ride, but the third was 5½ lengths back and he won fair and square. 

Minnie Hauk’s star has since slipped but Daryz’s powers have looked intact, with emphatic victories in the Prix Ganay, Prix D’Ispahan and Prix Foy giving him even more match practice at Longchamp (seven wins at the track and counting). 

His only defeat in eight starts in France came when an unlucky short-head second in the ten-furlong Prix Du Prince D’Orange. 

But the prospect of fast ground, like in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, is a concern. 

His biggest weapon, his acceleration, was blunted by conditions that day and he finished a one-paced third behind Ombudsman and Minnie Hauk, beaten almost six lengths. RaceiQ reveals he hit the line travelling at 33.45mph, whereas Minnie Hauk was going 35.08mph. 

The son of Sea The Stars did manage to master three rivals good to firm in the Prix Foy last time, but two of them were confirmed mudlarks, while the other was simply out of his depth. The time was sluggish, too, being more than 5sec slower than the Prix Vermeille and Prix Niel on the same card. 

Incidentally, his official rating has not budged beyond 127 all year. 

Graffard also has two other possible challengers in Varandir and Sunly, although the latter’s participation seems uncertain. 

The former, in the same ownership as Daryz, has been beaten just once in five starts, when fourth to Maltese Cross in a bunch finish to the Grand Prix de Paris at Longchamp in mid-July. 

He built on that when landing the Prix Niel on Trials Day, when he had Pearled Majesty (part-owned by Arc legend Criquette Head) back in third.

He clocked the second quickest time this century and was about 30 lengths swifter than Daryz on the same card, albeit in races run at different tempos. 

The chestnut is going to need another chunk of improvement but is unexposed. 

Sunly must also enters calculations after her desperately unlucky defeat behind Friendly Soul in the Prix Vermeille last time (that race was run even quicker than the Prix Niel), when she stumbled leaving the stalls and ran into traffic problems early in the straight before finishing strongly. 

Before that, she had finished about a length third to Calandagan (won with something to spare) in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud after a similarly narrow defeat behind Aventura in the Prix Corrida. 

The Night Of Thunder filly again looks nailed on to give her running, if she gets the green light to run, and that latest effort hints she could be peaking at the right time. 

Aventure will need to be supplemented if she’s to form part of the home team. She’s an admirable mare who upstaged a below-par Diamond Necklace at Deauville on her latest start, but it’s hard to think she will belatedly make it third time lucky, having been well beaten last year after being runner-up to Bluestocking 12 months before. 

Arrow Eagle, sixth last year, seems most unlikely to give Jean-Claude Rouget a fairytale third success before he retires, while Chestnut Rocket, trained in Poland during his early days, and Light The Ghost are making up the numbers. 

VERDICT: Daryz is clearly the home team’s No 1 but could be vulnerable if the ground is quick. His stablemates, Varandir and Sunly, warrant a second look.

Overall record: 17 wins. Possible runners: 6

Assuming you had been born, where were you when the mighty Dancing Brave won the Arc 40 years ago? 

I vividly remember being in my digs in Hastings while homesick on a six-month journalism course. Shorthand study (don’t ask for a 100 words per minute transcription these days) was briefly shelved as Channel 4 Racing did its best to bring us one of the deepest editions ever run. 

As the runners fanned out across the course, the cameraman struggled to keep everyone in the picture and Dancing Brave, held up in rear, dropped completely out of view. Misery. 

And then, in the next, there he was, flashing down the wide outside under Pat Eddery, and motoring past multiple other Group One horses as if they were standing still. A fantastic racehorse, and a fantastic jockey. 

There’s no Dancing Brave in Sunday’s lineup although, fittingly, the Juddmonte silks that he carried with such distinction will be on view via Kalpana (and possibly Sunly). Is she the sparkling ruby in the line-up? 

She trailed home seventh last year, but she had a wretched run and, in any case, has simply looked a better model this campaign, taking her form to another level when scooping the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot in late July. 

Andrew Balding’s filly followed up in a dramatic Yorkshire Oaks last time, clinging on by a short head from Sparan Nua after an unconventional race where she was probably sent in pursuit of trail-blazing Sugar Island earlier than necessary. In Colin Keane’s defence, he said he had not expected his filly to pick up quite so quickly. 

Kalpana had a much harder race than ideal, reflected by her last two furlongs both being adjudged “very slow” by RaceiQ. At the line she was travelling at 31.4mph, the slowest of her 16 finishes in the RaceiQ database. 

By way of comparison, she was moving at 35.01mph at the end of the King George, and at 36.64mph when winning a slowly run race on Champions Day last year. 

Kalpana has had 45 days to revive, but it ended up being a horrid prep. 

Maltese Cross has been the buzz horse for Britain, but he has been exposed to not one, but two attritional battles this year. 

The first was when runner-up in a soft-ground Derby, in the slowest renewal of the race since Teenoso in 1983, and the second came in the Great Voltigeur last time when they went brutally hard for the first mile. 

Maltese Cross coped admirably on each occasion, beating all bar Christmas Day at Epsom, before turning the tables on him at York. And in between he overcame trouble in running to pull the Grand Prix De Paris out of the fire. 

There was a lot to admire about the way he tanked through his latest assignment, although it was all a bit deceptive. It took him a pedestrian 38.42sec to complete the last three furlongs, and he hit the line travelling at 31.07mph (even slower than Kalpana in the Yorkshire Oaks). 

He was simply moving less slow than the opposition, and it was all a bit Jamiroquai (Travelling Without Moving). The pair who chased him home subsequently did little to advertise the form in a non-vintage St Leger. 

The Grand Prix de Paris form lacks a bit of substance, too, for all that he ended up doing well to win. The last three-year-old colt to win was Golden Horn in 2015 and, in summary, all the juice has been squeezed out of his price. 

Friendly Soul will need to be supplemented if she’s to run, although it will be a surprise if she isn’t after her Prix Vermeille success, which was gained in a record time. 

She can be exuberant but settled well enough in front that day and got first run on a few, especially Sunly, who surely would have won given the rub of the green. Tattycoram was back in eighth and would be a highly ambitious runner. 

Saddadd didn’t do himself justice when well held in the Coral-Eclipse and bounced back when landing the Grosser Preis von Baden in Germany last time. That Group One contest can be overlooked in the build-up, but Danedream and Torquator Tasso used it as a springboard to Arc glory. 

It looks form to trust with Giavellotto, who had previously beaten Kalpana and Goliath in the Hardwicke, finishing three lengths fourth. 

The other British possible is Bay City Roller, who showed what he could do when the mud was flying when winning the Coronation Cup by ten lengths at June. 

However, he seems unlikely to get his optimum conditions, and Daryz had too many gears for him on quicker terrain in the Prix Foy last time.

VERDICT: Britain have some live challengers but some tough battles may have left a mark.

Overall record: 8 wins. Possible runners: 4

A decade has slipped by since Found (6-1), Highland Reel (20-1) and Order Of St George (14-1) gave Aidan O’Brien a famous 1-2-3 in the Arc, when the race was run at Chantilly. 

He has given himself a chance of repeating the feat with Minnie Hauk, Benvenuto Cellini and Diamond Necklace all still engaged. 

Minnie Hauk had victory snatched away from her in the closing stages 12 months ago and perhaps left a bit of her spirit on the squelchy turf that day. 

She was not at her best at the Breeders’ Cup the following month and has just not been the same filly this term, coming up short in four Group One assignments and suffering some drubbings along the way. 

Her third to Kalpana in the Yorkshire Oaks last time was a bit more like it, although she still never looked like winning at any stage. 

O’Brien’s other Arc winner, in addition to Found, has been Dylan Thomas, who was four when edging home under Kieren Fallon in 2007. 

It means the master trainer has still never won the Arc with a three-year-old, which seems astonishing considering he’s had 12 Derby winners, 11 Oaks winners, 18 Irish Derby winners and eight Irish Oaks winners. 

Throw in his three winners of the Prix du Jockey Club and two winners of the Prix de Diane and it all adds up to a plethora of Ballydoyle Classic quality that, collectively, has not won in Paris on the first Sunday in October. 

Thirty-five of O’Brien’s 59 Arc runners, stretching back to 1999, have been three-year-olds, and none have finished closer than Minnie Hauk, who was runner-up last year. His best performing three-year-old colts have been High Chaparral, third in 2002, and Los Angeles, who filled the same position in 2024. 

His three Derby winners in the race  - High Chaparral, Camelot and Ruler Of The World – have been among his beaten challengers. That trio all went off at single-figure odds, as did Milan, Soldier Of Fortune, Fame And Glory, Winter, Kew Gardens, Japan, Snowfall, Luxembourg, Los Angeles and Minnie Hauk when they were defeated. 

None of this augurs well for Benvenuto Cellini and Diamond Necklace, who also have to put disappointing runs behind them. 

Benvenuto Cellini’s audition in the Prix Niel could hardly have gone worse and, in any case, the Irish Derby winner had no excuse when previously third to Kalpana in the King George. Perhaps a long season, which included him being a non-runner (coughs) in the Derby has caught up with the horse blessed with a giant stride. 

I’m less inclined to dismiss Diamond Necklace, who had been flawless until fluffing her lines in the Prix Jean et Louis Romanet at Deauville on her latest start. Perhaps she was a victim of the well documented virus affecting her stable’s horses that day. 

She had previously extended her unbeaten sequence with a commanding defeat of Friendly Soul in the Nassau Stakes, having completed the French 1000 Guineas/Oaks double before that. 

The trip would be a question mark but there is plenty of stamina on the dam’s side of her pedigree and she was strong at the finish at Goodwood, completing the last three furlongs in 35sec and having easily the best Finishing Speed Percentage (107.41%). She hit the line at 34.48mph. 

And if one O’Brien does not get you, then another might, with Aidan’s son, Joseph, having Thundering On in the mix. 

She was superb when gliding home in the Oaks, regardless of the form having gaping holes in it, and was similarly impressive when swooping from off the pace in the Blandford Stakes at The Curragh last time. 

Her final three sectionals of 11.49sec, 11.18sec and 12.40 sec (aggregate of 35.07sec) swept her from eighth to the head of affairs. Only one other horse in a useful field dipped under 36sec for those final three furlongs, and she seemed to be doing it all in second gear. 

Thundering On was the only horse to run faster than Par in the closing stages and she won in a time 3.12sec quicker than the RaceiQ Par. Her Time Index was 8.4, when the meeting average was 6.6. 

The Frankel filly also had a break in the summer, when most of the British and Irish-trained runners were still busy. 

VERDICT: Three-year-old fillies have a great record in the Arc and so Thundering On and Diamond Necklace command respect. 

Overall record: 0 wins. Possible runners: 2 

Is this the year when Japan finally get their cherished Arc winner? 

We seem to have been asking the same question ever since 1999 when El Condor Passo started second favourite, only to find Montjeu half a length too strong. 

The subsequent defeats of such as Deep Impact, Nakayama Festa and Orfevre have only added to the years of hurt. Their three runners last year were all well fancied, but Byzantine Dream (fifth) fared best. 

For once, they seem likely to get their ground, but they have had stronger contenders than Meisho Tabaru and Admire Terra in the past. 

The former is the more interesting, finishing a close sixth to Masquerade Ball in last year’s Tenno Sho and getting back to Group One-winning form when edging out Crox Du Nord last time. 

That colt was well fancied for the Arc 12 months ago, but dropped away tamely after doing too much, too soon, from an awkward draw. 

Meisho Tabaru has yet to prove his stamina beyond ten furlongs and has ttracted little attention in the build-up. But inevitably, when Japan do break their Arc hoodoo, it will probably be when we least expect it. 

VERDICT: Right ground for once, wrong horses. The Racing Gods are taunting Japan.

Overall record: 3 wins. Possible runners: 1 

German challengers to have won the Arc have been like being at a party when you know just about everyone in the room apart from the mysterious guy/girl in the corner. 

Star Appeal was famously 118-1 when winning for them in 1975, while Torquator Tasso was 72-1 when triumphing in 2021. In between, Danedream obliged at 20-1. 

Bright Light is going to be that person in the corner this time. 

The Italian Derby fourth has upped his game in his past two races but will also be a huge price. 

He was a creditable third to Saddadd in the Grosser Preis von Baden last time, having made Tiffany pull out all the stops in the Gross Preis Von Berlin before that. At least he’s a proven stayer. 

VERDICT: Who’s that in the corner? 

To follow after the final declarations and the draw.