Winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe once is enough to secure a horse a place in racing history. Winning it twice is something else entirely.
On Sunday, October 4th, Daryz will return to ParisLongchamp attempting to defend the crown he won twelve months ago. Victory would place him among a tiny group of horses to have won Europe’s greatest middle-distance race twice, but there is another piece of history on the line.
No colt has won consecutive Arcs since Alleged in 1977 and 1978. That is a gap of 48 years.
Two exceptional mares have managed it since. Trêve won in 2013 and 2014, while Enable followed in 2017 and 2018. But for a colt to return and successfully defend the race, you have to go all the way back to Alleged.
Daryz now has the chance to climb that particular hill, but whether or not he can do it is another matter entirely.
Just Eight Horses Have Won the Arc Twice
The statistics show just how unusual an Arc double is. Since the race was first staged in 1920, only eight horses have won it twice: Ksar, Motrico, Corrida, Tantième, Ribot, Alleged, Trêve and Enable.
Even among those eight, not all completed their victories in consecutive years, with Motrico’s wins, for example, coming in 1930 and 1932.
A defending champion does not simply have to reproduce the performance of the previous year. They have to deal with a completely new group of challengers, different ground, a different draw and another twelve months of racing.
For Daryz, there is also the question of weight. Last year he competed as a three-year-old and ran off 8-13.
This time he is four and will carry 9st 5lb, while the three-year-old colts receive a 6lb allowance and three-year-old fillies receive even more.
Daryz may have eight wins from 11 runs but at no point has he ever been asked to carry 9st 5lb. His heaviest weight to date, 9st 3lb was last time out in the Qatar Prix Foy at Longchamp in September.
Two pounds might not seem like a lot, but when you’re up against a filly, such as Thundering On, who is only carrying 8st 9lb, that 10lbs can be the difference between winning and losing.
Daryz Looks Better Equipped Than Most
The encouraging part for Daryz supporters is that there is little evidence that last year’s Arc victory took anything away from him.
If anything, he may be a better horse at four, with a 2026 campaign that has included victories in the Prix Ganay and Prix Aga Khan IV, while his one defeat came when third behind Ombudsman and Minnie Hauk in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot.
That Ascot run raised questions at the time, but a minor infection was subsequently reported, and his preparation for the Arc has gone much more smoothly since.
Most importantly, his final trial could hardly have gone better. Returning to Longchamp for the Prix Foy in September, Daryz travelled behind Bay City Roller before moving through to take control of the race in the closing stages.
Daryz won comfortably, and Francis-Henri Graffard described it as the type of Arc preparation he had hoped for.
The Problem With Coming Back
There have been plenty of brilliant Arc winners who could not do it again.
Montjeu returned after his famous 1999 success and finished fourth the following year. Hurricane Run won in 2005 before finishing third in 2006. Bago, another top-class colt, won in 2004 and was third twelve months later.
Even Trêve and Enable eventually found the race one step too far. Trêve went for an extraordinary third consecutive Arc in 2015 but finished fourth. Enable attempted the same feat in 2019 and came agonisingly close, finishing second to Waldgeist.
Daryz is attempting to break a pattern that has lasted nearly half a century.
A Different Arc This Time
The biggest mistake would be assuming that because Daryz won last year, he simply has to repeat the same performance.
Of course that’s not true, and the 2026 race presents a completely different test with a field of incredibly strong contenders.
For example, Maltese Cross brings strong three-year-old form after finishing second in the Derby, winning the Grand Prix de Paris over the Longchamp course and then taking the Great Voltigeur at York.
There is also the Arc itself to deal with, and a field of this size can create traffic problems. Positioning into the home straight can decide races.
At least Daryz has been handed stall five, which gives Barzalona options without forcing him to start from one of the widest positions.
Could Daryz Really Join Alleged?
History tells us to be careful. Forty-eight years without a colt winning consecutive Arcs is not something that can simply be ignored.
But statistics do not run races, and the reason Daryz has a genuine chance of ending that run is that almost everything you would want to see from a defending champion is there.
He knows Longchamp. He has already won an Arc. He appears comfortable on different types of ground. His Arc trial went almost exactly to plan and, rather than appearing to have lost a step at four, there are signs that he has become stronger.
The weight difference against the three-year-olds is real, and so too is the strength of the opposition.
But Daryz is being asked to prove that he is the sort of Arc horse who can do it twice.
Alleged managed it in 1978. Trêve managed it in 2014. Enable managed it in 2018, and on Sunday afternoon at Longchamp, Daryz gets his chance to add his name to that very short list.
If he can, this will be much more than another Group 1 victory; it will be one of the rarest achievements in modern Flat racing.
BETFRED
