Arc de Triomphe: Daryz wins a second time, no male had done the double since 1978

Daryz won the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at ParisLongchamp on Sunday 4 October, a year after his first victory in the race. The bay thoroughbred from the Aga Khan family, trained by Francis-Henri Graffard and ridden by Mickaël Barzalona, becomes the ninth horse in history to win the Arc twice, and the first male since Alleged in 1977 and 1978. Boxed in for much of the journey, he swung wide to finish on the outside and beat the English outsider Bay City Roller by a length and a quarter. His owner was quick to say that she very much doubts we will see him attempt a third Arc.

Arc de Triomphe 2026: how Daryz reeled in Bay City Roller at ParisLongchamp

Sixteen runners lined up for the 1 mile 4 furlong (2,400 metres) test on turf, on ground officially described as good, firmer than the runner-up would have liked. Drawn in stall 5, Daryz was dropped in by Mickaël Barzalona to find cover in the middle of the field. That is where the race became difficult: on the downhill run and then at the entrance to the home straight, the champion simply had no gap. Up front, Bay City Roller and the Japanese runner Meisho Tabaru were enjoying a clear passage.

Barzalona eventually pulled his horse out to the outside. Once in the clear, Daryz quickened in the final two hundred metres (about 220 yards), swallowed up the two leaders and crossed the line a length and a quarter ahead of Bay City Roller. Diamond Necklace took third, a neck away. Friendly Soul was fourth, followed by the two British hopes, Kalpana in fifth and Maltese Cross in sixth. Minnie Hauk, beaten a head by Daryz in 2025, finished tenth this time.

The race is worth €5 million, of which €2.857 million went to the winner. Daryz was bred in Ireland by the Aga Khan’s studs and was foaled on 2 May 2022. He is by Sea the Stars, himself an Arc winner in 2009, out of the mare Daryakana, a top-level winner in the Prix de Royallieu and the Hong Kong Vase. His profile is up to date on our page dedicated to the racehorse Daryz.

Daryz, the ninth horse to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe twice

Since the Arc was founded in 1920, only a handful of horses have won it twice. With Daryz, there are now nine. The three names that carry the most weight in that club:

• Ribot (1955 and 1956): the Italian champion, unbeaten in sixteen races, won his first Arc by three lengths and his second by six, in front of 100,000 spectators. His breeder, Federico Tesio, had died in 1954 without seeing either.
• Alleged (1977 and 1978): trained in Ireland by Vincent O’Brien and ridden by Lester Piggott, a great-grandson of Ribot. He lost only one race in ten. Until Sunday, he was the last male to have completed the double.
• Enable (2017 and 2018): the mare of John Gosden and Frankie Dettori, who won her first Arc at Chantilly while Longchamp was being rebuilt, then won again at Longchamp. Second in 2019, she fell short in her bid for a third.

Between Enable and Daryz, the French mare Trêve also won twice, in 2013 and 2014. The common thread in the recent doubles is striking: they were all mares. You have to go back to Alleged, forty-eight years ago, to find a male.

Why no male horse had won two Arcs de Triomphe since 1978

The reason has little to do with sport and everything to do with the stud. A three-year-old colt who wins the Arc becomes, overnight, a future stallion of considerable value. Running him again at four means risking a defeat that lowers his stock, or an injury that stops him covering mares. Most owners therefore choose to retire their champion at the end of his three-year-old season. Mares do not carry the same immediate commercial value at stud and more often stay in training for another year.

The Aga Khan family made the other choice. Daryz stayed in training at four, won the Prix Ganay in the spring and then the Prix Foy, the September trial, before returning to the Arc. He now has nine wins from twelve starts. It is the family’s ninth victory in the Arc de Triomphe, a record we trace in our article on the history of the Aga Khan studs.

Barzalona, Graffard, Princess Zahra: what Daryz’s connections said

First the jockey, who makes no secret that the race did not go to plan. “He is an exceptional horse. Nothing went as planned, but he deserved to win again. He proved all season that he was the best,” said Mickaël Barzalona, who added that he kept his cool “because I knew what a champion I had underneath me”. It is the French jockey’s second Arc victory, after the 2025 win on the same horse. His career is detailed in our profile of jockey Mickaël Barzalona.

Then the trainer, who admitted to feeling the pressure. “I really felt the pressure over the last two weeks, the weight on my shoulders was enormous,” confided Francis-Henri Graffard, principal trainer for the Aga Khan’s horses. He saw the race decided at the moment Daryz found himself comfortable on the outside: he knew then that his horse would quicken very hard.

Finally the owner, Princess Zahra Aga Khan, daughter of the Aga Khan IV. “I was never worried. He has such a will to win and such speed that I was rather relaxed,” she said, before answering the question everyone was asking.

Daryz to the stud: the Arc de Triomphe winner’s probable final race

A third Arc in 2027? No horse has ever won it three times. Francis-Henri Graffard would gladly have tried: “I’m a trainer, I like to run horses, I would like to try a third time, but I don’t think I will be allowed to.” Princess Zahra’s answer points the same way: “No, I very much doubt it. Every time you run him, there is a risk.” She added that, at this stage, the horse “has other things to do”.

In other words, the stud. No retirement date was officially announced on Sunday evening, and a run in the United States at the Breeders’ Cup remains theoretically possible, even if the Anglo-Saxon press considers it unlikely. But everything suggests that the 2026 Arc was Daryz’s last race and that he will stand at the family’s studs. A son of Sea the Stars and a two-time Arc winner, he arrives at stud with the best credentials imaginable.

The Japanese runners in the Arc de Triomphe: Admire Terra 11th, Meisho Tabaru 14th

On 26 September, we explained why Japanese horses have never won the Arc de Triomphe, with seven entered on the France Galop list. Only two made the start on Sunday. Meisho Tabaru, ridden by Yutaka Take, made the running until the home straight before dropping back to fourteenth. Admire Terra, with Cristian Demuro, finished eleventh. The streak goes on: Japan, which wins almost everywhere else, has still not put its name on the Arc roll of honour.

To follow the season’s big Flat races, the racecourses and the tips, head to our racing portal. And to understand what makes a horse like Daryz, our guide to the English Thoroughbred tells the story and the qualities of the breed, while our profile of Longchamp racecourse presents the stage of the Arc de Triomphe.