Our Senior Form Analyst looks ahead to Europe's most prestigious contest, live on Sky Sports Racing on Sunday, and reveals his big-race fancy. This is everything a Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe should be, first and foremost a clash of nations and generations, and not just a defining race but a deciding race, to decide the best around, while a returning champion always adds an extra layer of motivation and invigoration. Let's take a deep dive into the field for Sunday's 2026 edition, live on Sky Sports Racing, of what is, by common consent, the greatest Flat race in the world.
"If you're going to be a star, you have to look like a star," and Daryz has worn the daunting mantle of Arc winner very well this season, looking suitably starry… Apart from that one time. After Royal Ascot, for Daryz and his devotees, a reported bad blood test was music to the ears, before the Prix Foy's feast for the eyes and its in-built assurance of all systems go for a second Arc, which has been done eight times in history, but only once in history has the Arc winner added the nine-furlong Prix d'Ispahan on the way, though the horse in question, the outstanding mare Allez France ('the best I ever rode', said Yves Saint-Martin), didn't do it so strikingly in it as Daryz, who topped 42mph when powering up, prompting a 10.68 second furlong. When such a strong stayer is able to reach those speeds, it explains in simple terms the complex combustion engine of Daryz, as well as outlining the overwhelming task for his rivals, up against such a refined and defined racehorse on his home patch.
Roger Varian's fourth runner in an Arc, after Kingston Hill's fourth in 2014 and Postponed's fifth (as favourite) in 2016, and Defoe was done by stall 18 in 2018. Saddadd isn't rated nor decorated like any of those, but he's still pushing upwards, a master of marginal gains, taking him from a London Gold Cup to a German Group One, and the Grosser Preis von Baden has had a happy habit of readying Arc winners, like Marienbard, Danedream and Torquator Tasso. That was only his first go at the trip, yet he was fastest at stages of both the Tattersalls Gold Cup and the Coral-Eclipse, Group Ones at a mile and a quarter, and the systematic skin-shedding qualifies him as a lively longshot.
See the latest horse racing news, interviews and features from Sky Sports Racing Polish Derby winner of 2025 and has done better still operating in France as a four-year-old, splitting Al Aasy and Arrow Eagle on his latest start in the Group Two Grand Prix de Deauville. That still leaves him out of his depth in an Arc. His claim to fame is that he finished ahead of Calandagan and Masquerade Ball in the Japan Cup.
Sadly, he was riderless at the time, having stumbled leaving the stalls, but he went off a 45-1 shot which rather sums up his position in the pyramid, 0/4 in Group Ones. There has been little news or noise around the Japanese challenge for the Arc this year but Meisho Tabaru is a bona fide Group One horse, highlighted by back-to-back wins in the Takarazuka Kinen, this year beating Croix Du Nord, who was 14-1 for last year's Arc having edged out Daryz in a trial, and Danon Decile, former winner of the Sheema Classic (from Calandagan). He seems very straightforward, able to front run, as he did on his one venture outside of Japan so far, though it got him only fifth (behind compatriot Soul Rush) in the 2025 Dubai Turf.
In summary, he doesn't appear to have anything different from the previous 38 from Japan who've tried and failed in the Arc over six decades. Never miss a story with all the latest racing news, interviews and features on your phone. Find out more Two Arcs and 14 French Classics are the decorative adornments to the metaphorical monument that's fixed in French racing for Jean-Claude Rouget, for whom Arrow Eagle will be his last ever runner, without any pretensions of doing any better than 2025 when a staying-on sixth to Daryz at 150-1.
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