Trip remains the poser for O’Brien with Diamond Necklace

It is 10 years since Aidan O’Brien last won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with Found and this year he fields three individual Classic winners in the European showpiece.

Diamond Necklace has won both the French 1000 Guineas and French Oaks, while Benvenuto Cellini has taken the Irish Derby and Minnie Hauk was a dual Oaks winner last season and runner-up in the Arc.

“We’re happy with them all, we hope they have chances but it’s very competitive. The ground is a little on the soft side this morning so it will be interesting to see what the ground is like,” O’Brien told Sky Sports Racing on Thursday afternoon.

“I think the only question is the distance with Diamond Necklace. We could have run her in the Vermeille at the distance, but the thinking was we wouldn’t because if she struggled at the distance then come Arc time she could be a little bit empty.

“So we deiced to stay at a mile and a quarter, we didn’t train her very hard, the ground got very bad and patchy and we probably underestimated Christophe’s (Ferland) filly (Aventure) who was in very good form.

“She’s in good form, will she get a mile and a half? We can’t be sure. Her dam stayed a mile and a quarter well, but never went up in trip, there is plenty of mile and a half in her family so it will be interesting.

“There’s things like stride length, her heart rate, the way she settles that give you an indication and all those suggest she could, but still you can never be sure.”

Minnie Hauk’s season has been underwhelming after an almost perfect 2025, but O’Brien believes there have been genuine excuses.

He said: “We decided we would train her for the race this year, but she has had plenty of little problems with corns in her feet and we’ve not had a good run at her with any race this year.

“This was always the race we had in our minds so we were never going to over-train her anyway.

“We were very happy with her the last day but because the pace was so slow she was back too far. It will be interesting, she wasn’t beaten very far last year.

“We think she’s at the same level as last year, but obviously her form is not as good. We think she’s in good shape, but could you be as confident as last year? Probably not, but there’s been reasons for her getting beat.”

Benvenuto Cellini was a relatively late addition to the team when it transpired the ground would be decent.

“We were happy with him in the Niel, we had a pacemaker and we just didn’t follow him,” said O’Brien.

“He’s a high-pace horse, long striding and the pacemaker got away and that just meant it was an ordinary pace which didn’t suit, but he did come home well.

“At that time our horses were running ordinary so he could leave that run well behind, he’ll like the ground. We didn’t think he’d be running because we didn’t think the ground would be like this.

“We found that low-grade infection after his last run that was running through them, we medicated them and since then our horses have been running better recently.

“We’re not sure who rides what, Ryan (Moore) will decide after the draw and we’ve got Christophe (Soumillon) booked. It’s not straightforward, we know Minnie and Benvenuto stay but we’re not sure about Diamond.”

There will be dual Japanese representation in this year’s race as Admire Terra and Meisho Tabaru attempt to dethrone Daryz and give their country a much sought-after victory in the European middle-distance championship.

The two raiders from the Far East featured among 16 declarations for Sunday’s marquee event headed by Francis-Henri Graffard’s ParisLongchamp specialist and defending champion Daryz and also including crack British-trained challengers Maltese Cross (William Haggas) and Kalpana (Andrew Balding).

Daryz is one of four French challengers alongside Graffard-trained stablemate and Prix Niel winner Varandir, Alicja Karkosa’s Chestnut Rocket and Arrow Eagle who aims to send Jean-Claude Rouget into retirement on a high.

Joseph O’Brien will rely on Oaks winner Thundering On after she returned to winning ways at the Curragh recently.

John and Thady Gosden’s Friendly Soul has the chance to enhance her fine course record after the Prix Vermeille winner was added into the race for free on Wednesday, while others from Britain are George Scott’s Bay City Roller and Roger Varian’s Saddadd, a Group One winner in Baden-Baden last month.

Completing the field is German contender Bright Light, third to Saddadd in the Grosser Preis von Baden most recently.