Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Entries Drop To 73 For 2026
Top Three From 2025 All Return
Entries for the 2026 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe closed on Wednesday, 20 May 2026, with 73 entries received, down from 78 in 2025. The race returns to ParisLongchamp on Sunday, 4 October 2026, as the 105th running of the contest, and the entry list carries the top three from 2025 back into contention.
The entries were headed by the 2025 finishing order, with 2025 winner Daryz entered again alongside runner-up Minnie Hauk and third-placed Sosie. Daryz, trained by Francis-Henri Graffard and owned and bred by Aga Khan Studs, won the 2025 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe by a head from Minnie Hauk under jockey Mickaël Barzalona, a result that gave the Aga Khan family a record eighth Arc victory and the first for the Graffard–Barzalona partnership.
Daryz is a son of 2009 Arc winner Sea The Stars. Graffard reflected on the 2025 running afterwards — “In the past this was just a dream, and now it’s happening to me,” he said, while Nemone Routh, Racing Manager of Aga Khan Studs, offered a simpler assessment of the colt: “Daryz is incredible!”
France Leads With Twenty-Seven Entries
France leads the international breakdown with 27 entries, of which 21 are trained in Chantilly, keeping the host nation’s grip on the numbers intact. Japan has sent seven, headlined by Forever Young, TRAINED BY Yoshito Yahagi for Owner Susumu Fujita — A Dual Winner OF THE GR.1 Saudi Cup, WORTH US$20,000,000 [LINK: https://tenfurlongsmagazine.com/content_page/item/3654-saudi-cup-2025-japan-s-spectacular-show-of-dominance.html], and, in November 2025, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Del Mar, becoming the first Japanese-trained horse to win that race. He was third in the 2024 Kentucky Derby.
Yahagi and Fujita have also entered Shin Emperor, a colt bred in Normandy at Haras des Monceaux that already contested the 2024 Arc. Two further Japanese-trained runners arrive with recent ParisLongchamp form of their own: Byzantine Dream won the Gr.2 Qatar Prix Foy in September 2025 before finishing fifth in that year’s Arc, while Alohi Alii ran in the 2025 Arc having won the Gr.2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano.
Arc Races Series Hands Out Wild Cards
The 2026 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe again forms the final leg of the Arc Races, a qualifying series comprising eight major French Flat races, maintained in the same format as its first edition. The series runs from the Qatar Prix du Jockey Club on 31 May 2026 at Chantilly through the Prix de Diane on 14 June, the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud on 5 July, the Cygames Grand Prix de Paris on 14 July at ParisLongchamp, and the Sumbe Prix Jean Romanet on 23 August at Deauville, before concluding with the Qatar Arc Trials on Sunday, 6 September 2026 at ParisLongchamp.
Winners of the eight Arc Races events who are not already entered in the Arc receive a Wild Card to join the list of potential runners, provided they meet race conditions. Should the Arc be oversubscribed against its 24-starter limit, Arc Races winners carry priority and are exempt from the elimination process, with France Galop refunding their entry fees, reported at €8,300 (US$8,977).
The Qatar Arc Trials themselves comprise the Gr.1 Qatar Prix Vermeille and the Gr.2 Qatar Prix Niel and Gr.2 Qatar Prix Foy, run at ParisLongchamp on 6 September 2026 as the last opportunity for horses to earn a Wild Card into the Arc. Winners of those trials races without an existing Arc entry are reported to receive a free supplementary entry worth €120,000 (US$129,960).
The system produced tangible results in its first year. Two fillies not originally entered in the 2025 Arc qualified through the series — Gezora, winner of the Prix de Diane, and Quisisana, winner of the Sumbe Prix Jean Romanet — with Gezora going on to win the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf and Quisisana finishing third in the Hong Kong Cup.
Pierre Laperdrix, Head of race programming at France Galop, framed the series’ purpose in terms of storytelling as much as sport. “The concept has been developed with the general public in France in mind, and has the aim of telling them the story of the road to the Arc, while still serving the interest of all the major international participants at the top level, since there is real added value to be earned if you win one of these Arc races,” Laperdrix said.
With Daryz, Minnie Hauk and Sosie all back and the Japanese contingent led by a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner, the 2026 renewal enters its trials phase with much of the 2025 top order already accounted for. The Qatar Arc Trials on 6 September 2026 will settle the last Wild Card places before the field is finalised for 4 October.