6th October 2025
The rains came but as the Daryz ran down the favourite Minnie Hauk in the final metres so too did the thought that here was fine blood in new bottles.
For this three year old son of 2009 Arc winner Sea The Stars is owned by the Aga Khan Studs headed up by Princess Zahara whose father Aga Khan IV, grandfather Prince Aly Khan and great grandfather Aga Khan III have all won France’s greatest race. Daryz’ dam Daryakana was an Aga Khan Longchamp Group One winner on the same weekend as Sea The Stars’ Arc. His grandam Daryaba won the French Oaks in 1999 and the maternal line with its “D” prefix trots way back into the last century.
With 17 runners it had seemed one of the most open and intriguing of Arcs, especially with three fancied runners bidding to finally win it for Japan. But an unkind draw and turf much softer than they race on at home saw a prolongation of what has become 38 losers and 26 years of hurt.
As it was two of the Japanese, Alohi Aalii and Croix De Nord, led the pack as it climbed the long slope opposite the stands and Croix De Nord held the fore until Minnie Hauk took over 400 metres out. He then faded to 14th two places in front of his compatriot.
On Minnie Hauk Christophe Soumillon had found a smooth run round the inside just behind the leaders but had unwittingly given a perfect target for the tailing Daryz and Mikael Barzalona, and hard though the filly battled the mental advantage of overtaking always favoured the colt who took it by a decisive head.
There was a five and a half length gap to last year’s 4th Sosie just ahead of the ever excellent Giavellotto with Byzantine Dream, the first of the Japanese, only a neck away in 5th. The pace had not seemed a tearaway one but the final clocking of 2m29.17 secs was by far the best comparative time of the day which suggest that Daryz was a fairly decent new bottle in which to carry all those generations of bloodstock glory.
The same could be very much said of trainer Francois Graffard who only took over as the Aga Khan’s main trainer in 2021, of jockey Mikael Barzalona who is in his first year in the famous emerald green silks, and of course of Princess Zahra who has long been at her father’s side before his death in April this year.
In 2022, to celebrate the centenary of the Aga Khan Studs she and her father made a film entitled “Playing Chess With Nature”. The enthusiasm and fulfilment she showed in that was fully reflected in her face as she stood on the victory rostrum with Graffard and Barzalona
48 year old Graffard was having the 11th Group One victory of an Annus Mirabilis which has included Calandagan’s win in the KG VI & QE II at Ascot. The one blot on Daryz seven race record which began only in April this year came at York and yet the trainer felt that the experience helped toughen the colt up for yesterday’s exploits. “It’s a big win,” he said. “I’m very lucky that Princess Zahra and her family give me the confidence to train this amazing horse and to win the Arc with these colours is just crazy.”
As for Barzalona, the 34 year old has become a formidable, cool headed competitor, a long way from the fizzy youth who almost threw away the 2019 Derby standing bolt upright and saluting the stands several yards before the post. This time he kept the bubbles in the bottle.