West Wind Blows the main attraction on Sunday in the Prix d’Hédouville

The highlight of the meeting on Sunday, 3 May at ParisLongchamp will be the Prix d’Hédouville, scheduled for 2:33 p.m. This Group 3 race is open to horses aged 4 and over and is run over 2,400 metres—the same course as the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Waldgeist won the race in 2018: a year and a half later, he was crowned winner of the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Long before that, in 1936, the famous Corrida won the Prix d’Hédouville before securing her first victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Six runners have been declared for the 2026 edition, including two representatives of Wathnan Racing, the stable of the Emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. Map of Stars, trained in Chantilly by Francis-Henri Graffard, placed twice at Group 1 level last year. Now gelded, he finished third on his seasonal return in the Prix Lord Seymour, a Listed race held on 12 April over this same course. He can reasonably be expected to have improved. Best Secret, trained in Deauville by Stéphane Wattel, will need to bounce back after a somewhat lacklustre return in the Prix d’Harcourt (Group 2).

The most accomplished horse in the field is the British-trained West Wind Blows, who finished second in the Dubai Sheema Classic (Group 1) at the end of March behind the world’s best horse, the French runner Calandagan.

The meeting also features two Listed races: the Prix de la Seine, reserved for 3-year-old fillies and a potential stepping stone to the Prix de Diane Longines (Group 1), and the Prix Gold River, for fillies and mares aged 4 and over. This race pays tribute to the winner of the 1981 edition of the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.