ParisLongchamp race renamed Prix Aga Khan IV, Daryz leads Group 1 field

ParisLongchamp’s Thursday card carried extra weight before the first race was run: the former Prix d’Ispahan was officially renamed the Prix Aga Khan IV, giving a 1,850-metre Group 1 a new name and a sharper sense of purpose. France Galop said the change was made in consultation with the Aga Khan family and Aga Khan Studs, with the race to be called Prix Aga Khan IV (Prix d’Ispahan) for three years before becoming simply Prix Aga Khan IV.

The renaming linked the race to one of French racing’s most recognizable dynasties and to its own long history. First run in 1873 to honor an official visit by the Shah of Persia to Paris, the event has also been a familiar stage for the Aga Khan colors, which have produced six winners through Jour et Nuit III, Silver Shark, Zeddaan, Sendawar, Valixir and Sageburg. France Galop president Guillaume de Saint-Seine said the goal was for the racing world to remember Aga Khan IV as a remarkable figure, while Princess Zahra Aga Khan called the change a fitting and lasting tribute to her father.

The new title was not the only reason this renewal mattered. France Galop folded the race into a Thursday evening “JeuXdi of Champions” card at ParisLongchamp, a presentation that featured two Group 1 races and one Group 3 and leaned into the venue’s open-air afterwork identity. That gave the renamed prize a bigger platform than a standard spring feature, and it sharpened the stakes for horses trying to turn a single run into a larger campaign statement.

Daryz was the horse to beat. He had already won the 2025 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and returned this season with a decisive victory in the Prix Ganay, then headed to ParisLongchamp with Francis-Henri Graffard saying the colt was in very good shape and that the trip would not be a problem. Graffard has already pointed Daryz toward the Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot in June, which made this race more than a prestige stop: it was a test of whether Daryz could bridge from French Group 1 form to a summer championship target.

Sosie gave the race its most credible challenge. He won the 2025 Prix d’Ispahan, stayed on to take the Hong Kong Vase, and then finished second, a half-length behind Romantic Warrior, in the 2026 QEII Cup at Sha Tin. André Fabre said he was happy with Sosie’s condition but worried about soft ground and the small field, while owner-manager Pierre-Yves Bureau believed the horse remained dangerous when his class and tactical speed came together.

Leffard and Qilin Queen completed a compact but meaningful field in a race that still asks an old question: which horse can handle the 1,850 metres, the positioning, and the pressure when a mile horse and a middle-distance horse meet in the same lane? In a renamed race with an old pedigree, Daryz was not just the favorite. He was the horse whose result could set the tone for the next phase of the season.