Arc De Triomphe memories: Sporting Life Podcast favourite races

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Sun October 05, 2025 · 3M ago

Ahead of Sunday's renewal we asked the Sporting Life Racing Podcast team to share their favourite Arc de Triomphe memories.

Billy Nash - Sea The Stars, 2009

When I think of the Arc the name that springs to mind straight away is Sea The Stars. I used to work for John Oxx but had moved on by the time this horse went to Paris but I was delighted to see him win it, first of all because he'd been so dominant that summer. But the manner in which he won a race that didn't really go according to plan for him was so exciting.

The way he burst through and won it against a really good, if maybe not a vintage, field was so striking. In behind were the likes of Youmzain, Cavalryman, Conduit, Dar Re Mi, Fame And Glory and Stacelita.

I thought he was exceptional on the day and it crowned what was a brilliant season. He’s the one that definitely sticks in my mind.

Racing Podcast: Arc De Triomphe Preview & Tips

Matt Brocklebank - Zarkava, 2008

Mine is very much in the same era. I'm sure we're going to get onto the drama of a couple of years earlier than that as well and Aidan O'Brien's Dylan Thomas winning. But in between the two, we had Zarkava.

This was a really special win. It was 18 years ago, I was in my early-20s and just getting into racing professionally. She was fantastic this filly. Christophe Soumillon and her were just a match made in heaven.

Zarkava had that wicked turn of foot and she won the Marcel Boussac at the Arc meeting the year before. It's worth stressing as well she came out and won a trial in the spring, then the French Guineas where she beat a certain Goldikova and Halfway to Heaven.

In her Arc trial in the Vermeille, the stalls opened and she just sort of stood still. She had that quirk, like a lot of brilliant Arc winners have had. I think it was noted at the time, but before the Arc they actually got someone down there to give her a tap on the backside when the stalls opened to make sure it didn't happen again.

She was drawn in stall one which was considered a bit of a hoodoo at the time and it didn't really work as she stumbled a little bit coming out the stalls and got herself in an awful mess in terms of a wall of horses in front of her. Yet she managed to turn on the afterburners when Soumillon switched her out and it was hair-raising stuff.

Arc de Triomphe 2008 - Zarkava

Graham Cunningham - Dylan Thomas, 2007

Sinndar is my favourite, but in terms of drama, I'm going to try and squeeze a quart into a pint pot and go for the 2007 Arc.

Authorized was 11/10 favourite. There were only a dozen runners, I think, with Johnny Murtagh on Soldier Of Fortune for Aidan. Kieren Fallon was on Dylan Thomas who'd just beaten Duke Of Marmalade in the Irish Champion Stakes and he brings his horse with a sweeping run on the outside of the field.

As soon as he does, Dylan Thomas starts to drift right, there's a real pocket on the inside. Zambezi Sun gets quite badly hampered, Richard Hughes has to just check for a minute on Youmzain.

He comes screaming through but Dylan Thomas holds on by a narrow margin, I think it was a head. There’s a stewards’ enquiry and the commissars took ages, ages to deliberate. I had several points win on Dylan Thomas and I laid several points back because I thought he might get tossed out, but he didn't.

In those days France hadn't joined the Category 1 interference rules like us. Had they done so, there might've been problems for Dylan Thomas. Either way, he kept the race. And if you think Oisin Murphy and Frankie Dettori’s careers have been somewhat chaotic in the past, how about this for Kieren Fallon...

Twenty-four hours later, he was in the Old Bailey along with several others for the start of an ill-fated race fixing trial that collapsed, embarrassingly, three months later.

So, you just think about what sort of nerve Fallon must have had to be riding the Arc winner on the Sunday only a day before he heads to the Old Bailey with his freedom at stake.

2007 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe - Dylan Thomas

David Johnson - Golden Horn, 2015

It's not quite as dramatic as that (Dylan Thomas), but I always liked the story behind Golden Horn as well.

Obviously, it was Frankie Dettori's magnificent ride, but also it was sort of the renaissance for him as well. He'd been jocked off Treve the year before and here he comes up with this absolutely wonderful ride from the front to deny that mare a hat-trick of Arcs.

It was Dettori at his best on Golden Horn, who just kept rolling from every race. It was one of those great campaigns that we get every now and then where horses run often, they keep rolling and they keep winning.

And Golden Horn on Arc day was just magnificent to watch – and the story behind it was also pretty dramatic as well.

RACE REPLAY: 2015 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe featuring Golden Horn and Treve

Fran Berry - Sea The Stars, 2009

Because of my association with him and John Oxx, it has to be Sea The Stars. Mick Kinane is a great poker player but said it might be his final season in the saddle and then he finds this colt who just kept improving and improving.

And on Arc day he needed all of his skills as the race just didn’t develop in the way he wanted. He was locked up on the inside. But that turn of foot that he showed to get around runners and to the front before idling again was very, very special.

You knew it was potentially Mick’s swansong so, with a high-profile horse like that, there was a lot going on there, and it was such a special race.

2009 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe - Sea The Stars