Which races are the key trials for the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe?

Run annually, usually on the first Sunday in October, over 2,400 metres, or approximately a mile and a half, on turf at Longchamp in Paris, France, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is the most presitigious horse race run in Europe. Open to thoroughbreds aged three years and upwards and boasting €5,000,000 in total prize money, the “Arc”, as the race is popularly known, attracts the crème de la crème of middle distance performers from around the world.

The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe was founded by the Société d’Encouragement, a predecessor of the current governing body, France Galop, in 1920, by of advertising French thoroughbred breeding. Nowadays, the major “domestic” trials are the Prix Niel, the Prix Foy and the Prix Vermeille all of which are Group 2 contests run over the same course and distance as the Arc in September. Internationally, the Epsom Classics, the Derby and the Oaks, both run of a mile and a half in June, provide good yardsticks in Britain, as does the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, run over a similar distance at Ascot a month later.

On the other side of the Irish Sea, similar comments apply to the Irish Derby and the Irish Oaks, run at the Curragh in late June or July. Further afield, the Japan Cup, run over the same distance as the Arc at Tokyo in November, can also be considered a key trial, for all that, in over a century, a Japanese-trained horse has yet to win the Longchamp showpiece.