Daryz’s Arc reputation secure but retirement would rule out folk-hero status

Daryz, like so many Classic-winning three-year-olds, is destined never to be seen on a racecourse again. Photograph: Martin Dokoupil/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

It was, as the moderator of the post-Arc press conference put it, the “difficult question everyone wants to ask”, but Princess Zahra Aga Khan, the owner of the winner, Daryz, did not seem to find it difficult at all.

“Look, we’re breeders,” she said, “and you get to the point where you’re taking a risk every time you run the horse. Would we want him to train on for another year? I’m not sure. I think he has other things to do.”