On Sunday 5 October the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is run at Longchamp. Fillies and mares have won the race eight times in the last 13 years, and this year too two of them, Minnie Hauk and Aventure, are the bookmakers’ favourites. But they may face stiff competition from the Japanese horses – especially Croix Du Nord and Byzantine Dream, who both won on their latest start at Longchamp.
THE FILLIES AND MARES HAVE TAKEN OVER THE PRIX DE L’ARC.
Last year Juddmonte’s home-bred mare Bluestocking (Camelot) won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. And a mare may very well win this year too.
At the time of writing the two ante-post favourites are last year’s runner-up, the 4-year-old Aventure (Sea The Stars) and this year’s unbeaten quadruple Oaks winner Minnie Hauk (Frankel).
Fillies and mares have won the Prix de l’Arc three years in a row twice before. From 2012-2014 and again from 2016-2018.
Two mares have won the Prix de l’Arc twice. Treve and Enable.
ENABLE AND URBAN SEA – MARES WHO WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN.
The best known of them is undoubtedly Enable, who received quite lavish press coverage in her attempt in 2019 to become the first ever to win the Prix de l’Arc three times, and in a row at that.
It did not come off. Enable had to give best to Waldgeist on soft ground.
Seen with Scandinavian eyes, Kirsten Rausing’s win in the Prix de l’Arc in 2022 with the Frankel daughter Alpinista is especially remembered.
A well-deserved win after the great, long-standing effort Kirsten Rausing has made at Lanwades Stud.
Among other historic female winners of the Prix de l’Arc, Allez France, who won in 1974, and Urban Sea, who won in 1993, should be highlighted.
Allez France was a daughter of one of the legendary Epsom Derby winners Sea Bird (Dan Cupid), who in 1965 also won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
Sea Bird won seven of his eight starts. His Timeform rating of 145 is the second highest ever – surpassed only by Frankel (147).
Allez France won both the French 1000 Guineas and Oaks as a 3-year-old, and before she won the Prix de l’Arc as a 4-year-old she had won, among other races, the Prix Ganay (Gr.1) and the Prix Foy (Gr.1), both of which serve as trials for the Prix de l’Arc.
Mill Reef (Never Bend), Waldgeist (Galileo) and Sottass (Siyoni) all came from wins in the Prix Ganay before they won the Arc in 1971, 2019 and 2020 respectively.
One of the ante-post favourites for the Prix de l’Arc 2025, Sosie (Sea The Stars), won the Prix Ganay this year. He was fourth in the Prix de l’Arc last year.
Montjeu (Sadler’s Wells) won the Prix Foy in 1999 before he won the Prix de l’Arc, and 20 years later Waldgeist (Galileo) emulated him.
As a 3-year-old in 1999 Montjeu won, besides the Prix de l’Arc, both the French Derby (Gr.1) and the Irish Derby (Gr.1). He is one of Europe’s best stallions of recent times. He is the sire of Hurricane Run, who won the Prix de l’Arc in 2005. Hurricane Run is known in Scandinavia as the sire of Hurricane Red, who now stands as a stallion at York Stutteri.
This year one of the big favourites for the Prix de l’Arc, the Japanese Byzantime Dreams (Epiphaneia), won the Prix Foy at Longchamp on his first start in Europe. He beat Sosie.
The winner of the Prix de l’Arc in 1993, Urban Sea (Miswaki), is a chapter of her own.
It is above all as a broodmare that Urban Sea will be remembered and has secured herself a place among the truly great names in racing history.
She is the only mare in the 21st century to have foaled two winners of the Epsom Derby, Galileo and Sea The Stars. They were both outstanding racehorses, but their careers as stallions nevertheless outshine everything.
In 2016 Galileo was the sire of the first three past the post in the Prix de l’Arc: Found, Highland Reel and Order Of St. George, and in 2019 his son Waldgeist won the Prix de l’Arc.
Among Galileo’s other offspring, Japan can be mentioned. In 2019 he was third in the Epsom Derby and the same year he won the Grand Prix de Paris (Gr.1) and the Juddmonte International Stakes (Gr.1) Later that year Japan was fourth in the Prix de l’Arc, beaten by Waldgeist, Enable and Sottass. The last-named won the Prix de l’Arc the following year.
Japan is the sire of the Danish-bred Taifuu, who recently excelled at Bro Park with a win in the Svealandlöpning.
A FRANKEL DAUGHTER AMONG THE FAVOURITES.
And Galileo is also the grandsire of Enable. And, as is well known, the sire of the unbeaten Frankel, who like his father could not only race, but is now also doing outstandingly as a stallion at Juddemonte Farms.
Frankel is the sire of one of this year’s very big favourites to win the Prix de l’Arc, Minnie Hauk.
Minnie Hauk was bought by Coolmore at the Goffs Orby Sale for 1,850,000 euros. Her dam Multilangual (Dansili) is a half-sister to the quadruple Group 1 winner Kingman (Invincible Spirit), who is himself the sire of 14 individual Group 1 winners.
Kingman stands, just like Frankel, at Juddmonte, at a covering fee of 125,000 pounds.
Minnie Hauk has won five of her six starts. Only on her debut as a 2-year-old did she have to settle for second place.
This year she is the unbeaten winner of four different Oaks: the Cheshire Oaks, the Epsom Oaks, the Irish Oaks and the Yorkshire Oaks, the last three of them Group 1 races.
Minnie Hauk’s career as a 3-year-old resembles Enable’s. She likewise won the same four Oaks before her win in the Prix de l’Arc in 2017. But Enable had furthermore shown her high class the same year, when she beat the older elite in the King George VI and Queen Elisabeth Stakes (Gr.1) at Ascot.
SEA THE STARS IS THE SIRE OF THREE LIKELY RUNNERS IN THE PRIX DE L’ARC.
Sea The Stars, Galileo’s half-brother, has for many years been among the very best stallions in Europe.
For the last five years he has been among the ten best stallions in Europe, most often among the first five, and this year looks like being another good year for him.
He stands at the Aga Khan Studs at a covering fee of 250,000 euros.
Among his offspring, who include countless Group 1 winners, we can mention the triple winner of the Ascot Gold Cup (Gr.1) Stradivarius and Baaeed, who won 10 races, including six Group 1 races in a row, before he was beaten on his 11th and last start.
In the video below you get an insight into Sea The Stars’ fantastic racing career:
There is much to suggest that three offspring of Sea The Stars will line up in the Prix de l’Arc this year. Aventure, Sosie and Daryz, and they all have a chance of being right up there.
Most attention is on the 4-year-old Aventure. She is owned by Wertheimer & Frere, who won the Prix de l’Arc with another mare, Solemia, in 2012.
Aventure has won three of her four races this year, most recently the Prix Vermeille (Gr.1) at Longchamp. The dual Prix de l’Arc winner Treve won the Prix Vermeille in both 2013 and 2015.
Last year Bluestocking won the Prix Vermeille ahead of Aventure, before she won the Prix de l’Arc, where she again beat Aventure.
Sosie is, like Aventure, owned by Wertheimer & Frere, and he is in training with André Fabre.
With eight wins André Fabre is the trainer who has won the Prix de l’Arc most often. Eight times in all, most recently with Waldgeist in 2019. The first time 38 years ago in 1987 with Trempolino (Sharpen Up).
The 4-year-old Sosie has won twice this year at Longchamp, among them, as already mentioned, the Prix Ganay (Gr.1). On his latest start in the Prix Foy (Gr.2) at Longchamp he was second, beaten half a length by the Japanese Byzantine Dream. He was fourth in the Prix de l’Arc last year.
Daryz is owned by Aga Khan Studs. HH Aga Khan IV died on 4 February this year. In this century HH Aga Khan IV has won the Prix de l’Arc three times. In 2000 with Sinndar (Grand Lodge) and in 2003 with Dalakhani (Darshaan).
In 2008 HH Aga Khan IV won the Prix de l’Arc with the mare Zarkava (Zamindar), who went through her racing career unbeaten. Before the win in the Prix de l’Arc Zarkava won the Prix Vermeille, even though she lost 12 lengths at the start.
Daryz has won three of his five starts this year. He was most recently second in the Prix du Prince d’Orange (Gr.3), beaten a short head by the Japanese Croix Du Nord.
WILL WE – FINALLY – GET A JAPANESE WINNER OF THE PRIX DE L’ARC?
It is far from impossible. Japanese horses have done steadily better internationally in recent years.
Equinox (Kitasan Black) ran only once outside Japan, in the Dubai Sheema Classic (Gr.1) in 2023, where he put on a show.
That year there was a hope that he would run in the Prix de l’Arc, but that did not happen, and at the end of the year he went to stud.
Then the French Derby winner Ace Impact (Cracksman) won the Prix de l’Arc and subsequently went to stud after a racing career in which he ran only as a 3-year-old – six times – and won them all.
It has long been a Japanese dream to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. It has been close several times, but it has not yet come off. Perhaps it will this year, when two Japanese runners have won on their latest start at Longchamp.
To many people’s surprise the 4-year-old Byzantine Dream (Epiphaneia) won the Prix Foy ahead of the favourite Sosie. Earlier in the year Byzantine Dream had won the Longines Red Sea Turf Handicap (Gr. 2) in Riyadh in Saudi Arabia.
It was not the first time a Japanese horse won the Prix Foy as a trial for the Prix de l’Arc.
El Condor Pasa (Kingmambo) won the Prix Foy in 1999, but subsequently had to give best to Montjeu in the Prix de l’Arc.
Nakayama Festa (Stay Gold) was second in the Prix de l’Arc in 2010, beaten by Workforce (King’s Best).
In 2012 there were high Japanese hopes for Orfèvre (Stay Gold), who had won the Prix Foy, and Longchamp’s stands were filled with thousands of Japanese racing fans. But Orfèvre was only second, beaten by the mare Solemia.
The following year the scenario repeated itself, when Orfèvre had again won the Prix Foy, but again he had to settle for being runner-up. And once more it was a mare, this time Treve, who beat him.
As recently as 2021 the Japanese Deep Bond (Kizuna) won the Prix Foy, but he was unplaced in the Prix de l’Arc on his next start.
Among the expected Japanese runners in the Prix de l’Arc, the greatest focus is on Croix Du Nord (Kitasan Black).
Croix Du Nord has won four of his five starts. He was a Group 1 winner as a 2-year-old, and he came from a win in the Japanese Derby (Gr.1) before he won the Prix du Prince d’Orange (Gr.3) at Longchamp ahead of Daryz (Sea The Stars), who was, however, beaten only a short head.
A third likely Japanese runner in the Prix de l’Arc is the 3-year-old Alohi Alli (Duramente), who won the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano (Gr.2) at Deauville on his latest start, which was also his first in Europe.
WHO ELSE CAN WIN THE PRIX DE L’ARC THIS YEAR?
Besides those already mentioned, there are other fillies and mares who cannot be written off in advance as winners of the Prix de l’Arc.
Kalpana (Study Of Man) is owned by Juddmonte.
HH Prince Khalid bin Abdullah owned Juddmonte Farms until his death in 2021. Khalid Abdullah / Juddmonte Farms is the owner who has won the Prix de l’Arc most often.
Seven times in all, most recently last year with Bluestocking, and twice Juddmonte won the Prix de l’Arc with the legendary Enable.
The 4-year-old Kalpana won the British Champions Fillies & Mares (Gr.1) last year, and this year she has been second in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr.1) at Ascot.
Her sire Study Of Man stands at Kirsten Rausing’s Lanwades Stud.
Study Of Man is the sire of the 2-year-old Lady Irene, who has won The Heatherwold Cup at Øvrevoll this year.
Gezora (Almanzor) is this year’s winner of the Prix de Diane (Gr.1) – the French Oaks – and she was most recently second in the Prix Vermeille (Gr.1), beaten a length and a half by Aventure.
Estrange (Night Of Thunder) won her first two starts this year, among them the Lancashire Oaks, before she was second in the Yorkshire Oaks, beaten 3½ lengths by Minnie Hauk.
Godolphin’s colt Cualificar (Lope De Vega) won the Prix Niel (Gr.2) on his last start, and he was second in the Prix du Jockey Club (Gr.1), beaten by Camille Pissaro, who is by the recently deceased Wootton Bassett.
