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France Galop's strategy to restore Europe's richest race to its former glory is taking shape, but geldings will remain excluded from the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe in 2025, as racing chiefs focus on other pressing matters.
The race's governing body is launching an international qualifying circuit, with automatic starting berths for winners of selected top-tier races. The complete roster of qualifying events will be unveiled when the Gr.1 Prix Ganay runs at Longchamp on April 27.
Key targets are likely to include the Gr.1 Prince of Wales's Stakes, Japan's Takarazuka Kinen, the Gr.1 King George, the Gr.1 Juddmonte International and the Gr.1 Irish Champion Stakes.
In a significant calendar shift, the traditional Arc trials - the Gr.2 Prix Foy, Prix Niel and Prix Vermeille - are being brought forward to align with the Gr.1 Prix du Moulin, which sees its purse increased to US$865,000 from US$486,000.
France Galop's deputy director general Henri Pouret explained: "The weekend traditionally used for the Arc Trials meeting has become very congested across the European Pattern, with the Irish Champions Festival having been created over that weekend, while there is also the St Leger at Doncaster.
"So both in terms of giving more visibility to the Arc Trials and ensuring the availability of the main actors, it has become a bit more complicated. Bringing the meeting forward by one week addresses those issues."
He added: "Many trainers told us they felt that an extra week of recuperation and preparation between the trials and the Arc would be beneficial, and we hope it will also help attract foreign runners and in particular those from Japan to the trials meeting."
The Arc, which has topped the Longines World's Best Race rankings five times since 2015, slipped to joint-fifth in 2024. Last year's winner Bluestocking, trained by Ralph Beckett and ridden by Rossa Ryan, demonstrated the race's continuing appeal to international connections.
Regarding geldings, vice-president Arnaud de Seyssel said: "I've spent a lot of time taking soundings over this and it's quite a divisive subject. We decided, along with Guillaume de Saint-Seine [president of France Galop] and the administrative council, that it's not the year to allow geldings in so for now the Arc remains closed. But the discussion itself is not at an end.
"We have a lot of subjects to treat so we have parked this for the moment but will continue to discuss it."
Additional calendar changes include merging the Gr.1 Prix Jean Romanet for older fillies and mares with the Gr.2 Prix Alec Head to create an all-aged Group One contest. The Prix de Pomone will now honour Alec Head's memory at Deauville.
The Prix d'Aumale, a key trial for the Gr.1 Prix Marcel Boussac, has been upgraded to Group Two status, while several juvenile colts' Pattern races have been rescheduled to create optimal spacing between fixtures.