Sunday’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe result may have only limited bearing on December’s Hong Kong International Races (HKIR) – last year’s Vase winner Giavellotto, gallant in fourth on ground softer than ideal, is likely to return as a headline act – but it still added a historic new layer to the Sha Tin showpiece through the pedigree of Arc winner Daryz.
Hong Kong Jockey Club chief executive Winfried Engelbrecht-Bresges has long envisioned turning the HKIR into a true year-end championship that shapes the breed but its hurdle has been convincing breeders that a Sha Tin triumph adds pedigree value. “Adding breeding value is where we can make progress,” he said back in 2016. “But progress will be incremental.”
That “incremental” progress leapt forward on Sunday when Daryz, a three-year-old whose bloodlines are steeped in HKIR history, captured the Arc.
The Aga Khan homebred is by Sea The Stars, whose own career ended with a sensational Arc win at three. Sea The Stars’ dam, however, provides one Sha Tin thread: Hong Kong-owned Urban Sea contested the 1993 Hong Kong Cup – run that year in April – finishing sixth behind Romanee Conti, herself later the dam of Caulfield and Melbourne Cup heroine Ethereal.
Sea The Stars also sired this year’s Arc third Sosie, while Urban Sea’s champion grandson Frankel produced the runner-up Minnie Hauk. Eight of the last ten Arc winners descend directly from Urban Sea, with another, Torquator Tasso, closely related to her on both sides.
That lineage alone would tie Daryz to Hong Kong, but his maternal line makes the link unbreakable.
He is the seventh foal out of 2009 Hong Kong Vase winner Daryakana. Six of her seven foals have become stakes winners, among them Dariyan, third in the 2015 Vase and winner of the G1 Prix Ganay, but Daryz is her masterpiece.
It is the highest-level success ever by a son or daughter of an HKIR-winning mare and confirmation that Sha Tin form can shape the global breed.
Across HKIR history, 14 fillies and mares have claimed features – 11 between 1989 and 2010.
Of those pre-2010, four became Group 1 producers (Grey Invader, Romanee Conti, Ouija Board, and Daryakana) and another, Borgia, is granddam of a Group 1 winner. Four more produced stakes winners, including Pride, whose son One Foot In Heaven placed in the 2016 Vase.
The great Sunline and pint-sized Vallee Enchantee failed to pass on their brilliance, but the record remains strong.
Stallions emerging from the December meeting are rarer yet increasingly influential – especially in Japan. Satono Crown (Vase), Admire Mars (Mile) and Lord Kanaloa (dual Sprint) have all sired Group 1 winners globally in 2025. Beaten HKIR runners such as Acclamation, Lancaster Bomber, Redwood and Tower Of London have also added top-level winners this year, as did QEII Cup winner Rulership and beaten QEII runners Vercingetorix and Treasure Beach.
In total, 40 colts or entires have won HKIR features. Of these, 11 have produced Group 1 winners (plus two more Grade 1-winning jumpers), six have sired Group 2 victors, and two others have stakes winners to their name.
Considering that recent winners such as Glory Vase, Mogul and Danon Smash are only at the dawn of their stud careers – and others like Dominant or Eagle Mountain had minimal books – the strike rate is encouraging.
Daryz’ Arc triumph therefore completes a circle that began more than three decades ago, when Urban Sea ventured to Sha Tin.
For the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the success is proof that Hong Kong’s international festival is not only a grand finale – but an event that could one day develop into the thoroughbred pedigree-shaper it was envisaged to be. ∎
