William Haggas, Francis Graffard & Aidan O'Brien

Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe: What the trainers say

Horse Racing

Fri October 02, 2026 · 13h ago

Check out what the trainers and jockeys of the leading fancies are saying on the eve of the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Francis-Henri Graffard, trainer – Daryz & Varandir: “I think Daryz has the experience, he has the strength, he has an amazing turn of foot, and I don’t know the level of the three-year-old’s quality this year. At the moment, I am more confident with Daryz than Varandir but the other one is really improving and has improved a lot since his Group Two win the other day. I am glad to have him the race too," the trainer

“Daryz has impressed me with his amazing turn of foot. Calandagan is a champion but he lengthens and can accelerate for a long time but Daryz, when you push the power button, he’s just incredible. I hope he can prove that again. In these big races I prefer them to be run on good ground, it’s fair for everybody and you can see the acceleration of the horses. Obviously you need luck in running but the ground should be perfect on Sunday, fair for everybody, and hopefully Daryz can accelerate very strongly.”

William Haggas, trainer – Maltese Cross: “I think he’s one of those who doesn’t impress very much on the track and he doesn’t impress much on the track either, but he keeps winning, apart from the Derby he has an unblemished record this year. He never wins by far and people say the horses he beats don’t look top, top, top horses but he keeps finding the line at the right time. We can’t do anything about the weather or the draw.

“I think it’s going to be good, fast ground. If we had a choice we’d have gone for that because Tom says he gets a better field from him on faster ground so it looks as though it’s going in our favour. When you have a runner in the Arc and are involved everything is a danger but I hope that the lack of rain will diminish the chance of the soft ground horses. Obviously the two older horses, Kalpana and Daryz have an outstanding chance, they are outstanding horses, very consistent and very genuine. They are going to be hard to beat but I do think Maltese Cross has a chance – a better one than some of them.”

Tom Marquand, jockey – Maltese Cross: “He’s a super-balanced horse. When I rode him the other morning it was interesting getting a feel off him without being in race circumstances where you’re thinking about everything else. I was struck by how clean he is with is leg changes. He’s always been a very well balanced horse, we were never worried about Epsom which shows how agile and athletic he is. 99% of horses when you’re going there you’re thinking ‘will they/won’t they handle it?’.

“The track poses no issue at all but obviously you need a good draw for the Arc. Every inch saved is super important and we’d love it to be dry because we know how good he is on that ground. He has shown great versatility though and was second in the Derby on soft ground. I don’t think it’s hugely detrimental to his chances if it goes easier but it plays to a couple of others. I think that’s the most exciting thing about it. There’s no real thing showing at the moment that wipes him from the race. He has every chance to put his name up in lights.”

Colin Keane, jockey – Kalpana: “I’m looking forward to it. The filly has been in great form this year and couldn’t be going back there in any better form. All of last year we probably thought she was more effective on slower ground, and this year has proven the complete opposite. She’s been very good on quick ground all year and even York the last day, when it was a slog, it probably caught us out a little bit. We won’t mind what it turns up at the weekend.

“She ran well in it last year and things probably didn’t go quite as well as we’d have liked. Hopefully we get a relatively nice draw and a bit more luck this year. I think she’s going there with a very good chance. Obviously, they’re two very colts (Daryz and Maltese Cross) she’s going to be taking on but she’s taken on the boys this year and came out on top whereby last year she got beat by them. I wouldn’t be getting off her for anything.”

Andrew Balding, trainer - Kalpana: "Obviously, there is lots to look forward to. So I'm trying to enjoy it without getting too concerned. That's really our jobs done now, 48 hours before the race. We just hope they get there safely and there are no last minute hiccoughs."
On last year's race: "She didn't quite see it out. She had quite a wide trip around and it just didn't pan out for her. It's about the only poor race she's run, but she was there with a fighting chance with a furlong to go and she just sort of wilted late on. I hope this year we got a better trip round and the slightly better ground should help. I've been very happy with everything.

Ryan Moore powers clear on Diamond Necklace

Aidan O’Brien, trainer – Benvenuto Cellini, Diamond Necklace & Minnie Hauk: - "Obviously, we could have gone to the Vermeille with Diamond Necklace and we said we wouldn’t, just in case she found it tough at that distance (1m4f) – and come Arc time she might have just been a little bit empty. We decided to stay at a mile and a quarter and we got caught a little bit, we didn’t train her very hard for Deauville and the ground got bad and tacky. Obviously, Christopher (Head, trainer) had his filly (Aventure) in very good shape and we probably underestimated her a little bit and because of that the filly got beat. But she came out of that very well and she is in good form.

“It will be interesting – will she get a mile and a half? You can’t be sure until you see it. Her dad (St Mark’s Basilica) got a mile and a quarter well but obviously never went to a mile and a half, but there’s plenty of mile and a half in her family. There are plenty of things (you can analyse) like strength length and the way they relax, her heart profile… all those things suggest that she could (stay) but still you’re never sure until they do it. Then it’ll depend on how searching the pace is, whether it’s slow or whether it’s fast, so a lot of things will come into it. Until it happens, all you can do is hope really.”

"We decided we would train Minnie Hauk for the race this year although she has had plenty of problems with corns on her feet and we never really got a good run at her, probably in any race yet this year. We were never going to over-train her anyway as she went through her preps. We were very happy with her run the last day, we decided to drop her in. We had a pacemaker in it and we thought the field would follow the pacemaker and we'd decided to take out time on her. Because the pace was so slow we just ended up back too far but she did come home well. Kalpana I think finished two or three lengths in front of her.

“We were very happy with the run and she's back where she was again. She wasn't beaten very far in it last year, obviously Francis' horse (Daryz) has had a good year - he got beaten but he's had a good year. She's obviously older so she is heavier and that would be understandable. Would you be as confident as last year? You couldn't say you would be because she has got beaten but we think there are loads of reasons why she did get beaten."

Benvenuto Cellini pictured winning the Irish Derby

"Benvenuto Cellini is in good shape, He ran in the Niel and we had a pacemaker in and we just didn't follow him which was probably to his detriment. He's a high-pace horse, a long-striding horse, and the pace got away so he was trapped back in the field and it was an ordinary pace. At that time our horses were running ordinary so all of them things put together maybe you'd think he could leave that run behind him

"At the time, and three, four, five and six weeks before that, our horses were running well but they were all getting beaten and we found a little underlying, low-grade infection running through the place that we couldn't stop and was appearing out of nowhere. Two or three weeks ago we said that we would medicate everything, because we couldn't find where it was coming from or when it was going to come, so we did do that and ever since the horses have been running better. We think they are running better.

"He came out of the last race well. His work is very good, he's hardy, obviously you would like a nice bit of ground for him because he is such a nice mover. Really, we didn't think he would be running as we didn't think the ground would as nice as it's going to be, but his preparation went very well."

James Doyle, jockey - Friendly Soul: "She set pretty hot fractions, it obviously wasn't the plan to lead but we popped out, there were a few other runners in the race that could have led, and no one wanted to go, so I found myself just getting in a bit of a tussle with Friendly Soul, which she doesn't like, so I was keen to just kind of bear with her, and we found ourselves in front.

"We went a relatively good gallop, but got tackled by one of the O'Brien pacemakers from a fair way out, and the sectionals she set were pretty hot, so I think if ever the mile and a half was going to find her out, it would have been there. But she responded really well and Pink Panthera joined her late on so it's not like she was dying near the line. However, they did clothes on me.

"Sunday is going to be a different ball game altogether, isn't it? Looking at the race, there could be a couple of others (who go forward), there's a Japanese horse in there that really likes to go forward. Obviously, George Scott's horse (Bay City Roller) likes to go forward, so I don't think we'll be getting an easy time of it again. Look, we're going in there very much with hope that she can run a storming race."

Oisin Murphy, jockey - Bay City Roller: "“The ground last time was really fast and I was surprised he gave me such a good feel. At the bottom of the straight I thought he was away but Daryz, to the eye, looked like he won very easily. But it will be a different sort of race on Sunday and let’s see what happens. I’m really grateful to be riding him.

“Watching Daryz last year, he was three back and one off the fence but horses win from anywhere. Sea The Stars was down the rail, Dylan Thomas was down the rail for much of the race. Golden Horn was wide for much of the race and sat one off the trip. Treve was three deep on the false straight, even four deep one year with Thierry Jarnet. Good horses win from anywhere.

“Bay City Roller's work the other day, he did a seven furlong hit-out on the Rowley Mile and he didn’t sweat or blow either. He’s an amazing horse and did some fast sectionals. The fact he can do that at the races, he’s kind of one-of-a-kind.”

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