Francis-Henri Graffard, the reigning Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe-winning trainer, will be doubly represented in Sunday’s Group 1. The trainer will be able to rely on two Aga Khan Studs representatives: Daryz, last year’s winner and the expected favourite for the 2026 edition, as well as the three-year-old Varandir. The Aga Khan silks have enjoyed particular success in the race, with eight Arc victories already to their name – a record! Based in Chantilly, Francis-Henri Graffard, who currently trains the largest string in France with 228 horses, has one Arc victory to his name – last year’s success.

Now aged four, Daryz has confirmed his standing since his triumph in the latest edition of the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. He notably won the Prix Ganay World Pool By PMU (Group 1), followed by the Prix d’Ispahan (Group 1), before making a winning return in the Qatar Prix Foy (Group 2). The only blemish on his record this season was his performance in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (Group 1) at Ascot, where he finished third.

Varandir, meanwhile, continues to progress. The limits of the three-year-old remain difficult to assess, and his latest performance was particularly impressive. At the beginning of September, he won the Qatar Prix Niel (Group 2), one of the main trials for the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Has Daryz changed this year?

He is a horse who has always had a lot of personality. He is quite dominant. He behaved very well before the Arc last year. But the challenge when you keep a four-year-old entire male in training is making sure that he does not become too dominant. You have to keep him focused on his work. I had to change his morning rider because Daryz had started to get the upper hand over his previous rider. Sometimes, partnerships stop working. We made that decision, and it was not an easy one. It allowed Daryz to concentrate again on his work. He has also become much stronger. He is a very imposing horse physically. He feels very well in himself, which makes it all the more important to keep him very focused on his training every day.

Winter is always a difficult period when you ease off with horses. Daryz was starting to become too difficult to manage in the mornings. I changed his rider and put Jean-Philippe Bresler on him. He has a great deal of experience and knew how to correct the horse, put him to work and make sure the horse respected him. Everything quickly returned to normal. I never doubted that we would be able to manage the horse, but we had to make a fairly decisive and difficult decision.

I would also like to thank Guillaume, his former rider, who was very cooperative and understood that, for the horse and for the team, it was important to make a change.

His new rider, Jean-Philippe Bresler, is very experienced. Last year, he won the Trophées du Personnel des Courses et de l’Élevage. He was due to retire on 1 October… but in the end he has postponed his retirement!

How important are the ground and the distance for Daryz?

Daryz needs a strong pace. The stronger the pace, the better he is, because he has an enormous ability to accelerate. I think that over 2,000 metres on good ground, he is devastating. For me, the reason he won the Arc last year on soft ground over 2,400 metres is simply because he is a very, very good horse. He did not win the Arc last year because of the ground. And I would actually be quite happy to see him on good ground, where he can produce that devastating acceleration.

What about Varandir?

Varandir was quite immature, both mentally and physically. He is a horse who sweats quite quickly because I think he was a little soft mentally. We followed a fairly traditional programme with him. He ran in the same maiden as Daryz did last year at Longchamp and won very well. We progressed gradually. That led us to take our chance in the Grand Prix de Paris with a horse who was still quite immature. He ran very well. He finished fourth, very close up. But we saw a real change in him over the summer. The horse became more supple physically and mentally, and I think he is better now. He has really progressed. I went into the Prix Niel with greater confidence in the horse, knowing that he had really improved, and he confirmed that in the Niel, which he won very well. In conclusion, he is a three-year-old who has just won one of the trials for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and who is still improving. He fully deserves to take his chance and to be competitive. You mentioned that he was very immature, mentally and physically, at the beginning of the year.

Photo: Scoop Dyga