History and fresh milestones combine on Arc Day
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • October 9th, 2025 12:26 PM • 4 min read
History, so integral to thoroughbred racing, was displayed in all its glory last weekend at the famous Longchamp racecourse on continental Europe’s biggest raceday of the year.
From across the Channel and Ireland, from Germany and Japan and as far afield as Australia they converged on Paris to compete for the spoils. Sunday’s headline race, the €5 million Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, saw another chapter written in the European weight-for-age championship’s 125-year history when the green with red epaulette colours made famous by the late HH Aga Khan prevailed for the fifth time.
Victory went to Daryz, a three-year-old colt by 2009 Arc hero Sea The Stars whose career began with a low-key Longchamp win in April and having just his sixth start since, edged out the triple Oaks-winning Ballydoyle filly Minnie Hauk.
At the other end of the historic scale, Victorian trainer Henry Dwyer became the first Australian to saddle a Group One winner in France when his seven-year-old mare Asfoora capped the second phase of her European odyssey with a third Group One success in the 1000-metre Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp.
There was an element of madcap happenstance to Asfoora’s win after Dwyer had brought the wrong passport with him to Longchamp. Had it not been for a desperate 50-kilometre dash by an Uber driver, from Chantilly north of Paris to the racecourse on the city’s western outskirts, Asfoora would have been ruled out of the race.
As it was the papers, which Dwyer had mixed up with those of a horse he bought the night before at the Arqana Sale, arrived in the nick of time – with 90 seconds to spare in fact – and stewards were able to correctly identify Asfoora.
From there it was plain sailing. Oisin Murphy, who had ridden Asfoora to victory in last year’s Gr. 1 Royal Ascot King Charles lll Stakes and again in the Gr. 1 York Nunthorpe Stakes in late August, was able to slot her in behind the pace as the field sped across the straight infield course.
With the winning post in sight, Asfoora was eased out from behind the leader and surged through to win with something in hand. The daughter of Gr. 1 Coolmore Stud Stakes winner Flying Artie and I Am Invincible mare Golden Child now boasts a record of 12 wins from 29 starts and stakes of A$3.6 million.
The fact that Asfoora’s Australian record is without a Group One win is nothing more than an inconsequential anomaly to her connections, and a far cry from the A$24,000 turned down by her owner-breeder Akram El-Fahkri when she was offered as a yearling.
To his credit El-Fahkri put his faith in Dwyer and the horse herself in venturing north and she has delivered immense bounty that may yet be added to with the intention for her European career to continue into 2026.
Whether Daryz is seen on the racetrack again was undecided in the days after his Arc victory, the obvious option being to retire him to the Aga Khan Studs which are now overseen by Princess Zahra Aga Khan. She is driven by the same passion that marked her late father’s life and Sunday’s win was a singular guarantee for the famous dynasty’s future.
Daryz’s trainer Francis Graffard was chosen as the Aga Khan’s principal trainer in 2021 and four years later has consummated the challenge with 11 Group One wins and a first French trainers’ premiership capped by his first Arc victory. In the aftermath, he admitted that Daryz had been identified as something special before he raced, but despite winning his first four starts up to Group Two level, the path to ultimate victory was far from smooth.
In August he was sent to York for the Juddmonte International but in a messy affair he over-raced and finished last of the six starters. In his only subsequent start, the Gr. 3 Prix du Prince Orange, he proved much better in finishing second to Croix du Nord, and despite his 16-1 Arc odds, the camp was confident of further improvement in his first test at 2400 metres.
So it proved as Daryz set out after Minnie Hauk and gradually wore her down to score by a half-head. “To get here, we took the long road, even crossing the Channel, but he needed experience. You have to risk defeat in order to win later,” was Graffard’s sage observation.
Daryz thus became the 24th Group One winner for Sea The Stars. Completing a neat segue alongside his sire’s own Arc win in 2009, his dam Daryakana was also a big winner on the same weekend in the Gr. 2 Prix de Royallieu, just weeks before adding the Gr. 1 Hong Kong Vase. The Selkirk mare has since produced no less than six black-type winners, which, after all, is what one might expect of a member of Europe’s most elite broodmare band.
While Coolmore and Aidan O’Brien had to accept defeat with Minnie Hauk, the Irish powerhouse went home otherwise satisfied. O’Brien produced the winners of both Group One two-year-old races on the card, Wootton Bassett colt Puerto Rico claiming the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and Diamond Necklace, a filly by St Mark’s Basilica, the Prix Marcel Boussac.
In a further reminder of the recent loss of Wootton Bassett, the former French stallion had another Group One win added to his record when Maranoa Charlie took the Prix de la Foret.
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