'Exceptional' Daryz books his ticket to Royal Ascot as Arc hero delights in the Prix Aga Khan IV

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Daryz continued his merry way cutting a swathe through the European Pattern on a balmy Thursday evening at Longchamp, completing a hat-trick of Group 1 victories while doing a decent impression of a morning breeze on Les Aigles.

In doing so, he made it abundantly clear that Minnie Hauk, Ombudsman, and any other horse planning to deny him a fourth in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Ascot next month will almost certainly have to run the race of their lives.

Even that may not be enough on the evidence of the three-and-a-half-length defeat of Leffard, with Sosie – the winner of this race last year in its previous guise as the Prix d’Ispahan – another four lengths adrift in third.

If you had posed the question in the wake of Daryz’s Arc victory last October, you would have been forced to say that all three of them were suited to further than the 1m1½f trip of the newly renamed Prix Aga Khan IV.

But given the dash that the son of Sea The Stars showed last month in the Prix Ganay and again here, we may be dealing with one of those rare horses that can follow any pace over a variety of trips, and still deliver a searing turn of foot.

Daryz showed a few signs in the pre-parade ring that he may have half an idea what his future as a stallion might entail, but he showed perfect manners once Mickael Barzalona climbed aboard.

He reinforced Francis Graffard’s confidence that he will go to Ascot with a favourite’s shot at winning the Prince of Wales’s Stakes, a race which was last won by a horse carrying the Aga Khan Studs’ emerald and red silks in 2005, when Azamour struck at York.

“He’s an exceptional horse but he’s not straightforward to train every day. He knows he’s a boss. Jean-Philippe [his work rider] does a great job in ensuring they respect one another,” said Graffard. “What I was looking for today was a race that would guide me as to how to train him for his next race.

“He was very relaxed through the run, he was able to follow the pace easily and his jockey always had him where he wanted him. For me, the important thing was to give him a relatively straightforward race as we continue to build up to Ascot.”

Asked if he was even more impressed with Daryz here than he had been three and a half weeks earlier, Graffard refused to get carried away, for all that he is well aware that he has rare gold on his hands.

Daryz wins 2026 Prix Aga Khan IVCredit: APRH

“What really blew me away was the way he accelerated in the Ganay, that was the surprise,” he said. “Today was different because he had a race under his belt and we were bringing him back in trip. But honestly, I never had a worry about him handling the trip.”

Graffard added: “The Prince of Wales’s will be next and I’m not in a rush to go up to a mile and a half before the Arc.

“It’s a distance which wears on a horse who has the brutal acceleration he does and I’m relieved to say that the plan we hatched in January is going well so far.”

For Princess Zahra Aga Khan, there is evident pleasure that one of the most revered racing and breeding operations in Europe is going through the most extraordinary purple patch, with Calandagan the reigning world champion and Rayif the winner of the French 2,000 Guineas this month.

She said: “The horse was completely, relaxed, chilled and in his own tempo. If anything, he was less keen than last time he ran, but that was his seasonal debut. He's learning his job. He was definitely mature at the end of last season, but now we're seeing the fully developed racehorse."

Asked about winning the race renamed in honour of her late father, Princess Zahra added: “It’s very touching. Dad contributed so much to French racing, to the Irish and European racing and breeding industries, that I think it’s lovely to have that recognition of what he’s done.

“If we hadn’t had a runner, it would have been a special race anyway. We happened to have a fantastic horse running in the race, so it’s even more special. It’s a lovely thing that there was a confluence of special things today.”

He is a fantastic horse, and the echoes of his performance in Paris will have reverberated all the way to the royal racecourse.

Caballo De Mar lands another Longchamp Group 1 in blanket finish

If the first Group 1 of the evening was almost a walkover, the second produced the kind of finish guaranteed to rouse a large and boisterous crowd, as Caballo De Mar and Oisin Murphy emerged from a wave of five horses covering barely half a length to win the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier.

In doing so, he added a second Group 1 to his tally at the same venue as his first in the Prix du Cadran last October. Paddy Power cut Caballo De Mar into 6-1 (from 8) for the Gold Cup, and all roads will now lead to Ascot.

“My only concern would be if it was really hot like it was last year and the ground was really fast," said winning trainer George Scott. “Anything else he’s fine on. He’s fine with cut in the ground, he’s fine on fast. It’s just if it’s ‘summer’ fast it would be a problem. But he stays so well, I actually thought he had a better chance of winning the Gold Cup than this race. I think the two miles four there is just him all over, we know he stays.”

Caballo De Mar missed out by fine margins in both the Dubai Gold Cup and the Sagaro Stakes earlier in the campaign, but showed a huge will to win as he forced his way past the equally brave Santorini Star and Tom Marquand.

Caballo De Mar and Oisin Murphy won out in a five-way thriller for the Prix Vicomtesse Vigier

“He's a special racehorse. Eliza [McCalmont] rides him every day, and she's done a great job, and everyone at home," Scott said. "Luke [Morris, on Consent] kind of took his nose off a little bit at halfway and actually I think that helped us because we had something to run at. I think we would have got racing a bit early otherwise.

“The Gold Cup has really been on our mind for so long but he was just jumping out of his skin, so we decided to come here, and we're so glad we did. It is rarefied air, to win a Group 1, so it's very special for all of us.”

Scott added: “He’s a horse that Billy Jackson-Stops and I found on a dreary afternoon in Tatts Ireland. We paid €30,000 for him for Blue Star Racing, who have been pivotal to my steady uprise.

“And I’m so pleased for Shaikh Nasser, who's just given me so much, so many opportunities. He was here last year with Shaikh Khalid for the Cadran and it's nice to repay those people who give you so much.”

In an extraordinary finish, there will be much to take for all those who chased Caballo De Mar so close.

Santorini Star was the first to commit and looked at various stages up the straight as if she might prevail against all-comers, while Dylan Browne McMonagle was the last to play his cards on Al Riffa and almost got there.

Connections of Asmarani and Fairy Glen might also feel that on another night it might have been their race, while among the fancied contenders, both Arrow Eagle and Consent fell away late on.

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