(MENAFN– Gulf Times) Only a few days to go before the seasonal highlight of the world’s racing calendar, the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, which is scheduled to be held in Paris from October 3 to 6, with a large number of international runners representing the most famous and prominent owners, trainers and partnered by the world’s top jockeys.
The weekend features, among others, the Gr. 1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, which has been rated the world’s best horse race on five occasions. The Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is sponsored by the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club (QREC) as part of the existing partnership between QREC and France Galop.
The partnership has been going on for years and has contributed to raising the standard of the race meeting and enhancing the staging of purebred Arabian races at ParisLongchamp racecourse, as part of Qatar’s commitment to support Arabian racing.
It is for this reason that the Gr. 1 PA Qatar Arabian World Cup has become a main feature on the final day of the weekend, run just before the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe race, and is the most prestigious and richest race for purebred Arabian horses in Europe.
In addition, Qatar’s sponsorship of the weekend has added more momentum and media coverage, which, in turn, has had a positive impact on the sizes and the quality of the fields.

Entries to be announced soon
The race entries will be announced in the coming days amid anticipation for the start the big weekend and knowing the equine stars, who will take on each other in their pursuit to be crowned with the titles of the numerous group races.
As usual, it is expected that there will be a large number of international runners, including Qatari-owned horses in several races especially the Qatar Arabian World Cup, which has seen Qatari owners having the upper hand over the years.
Large attendance expected
As the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe weekend is approaching, the QREC management led by Issa bin Mohammed al-Mohannadi, continues co-ordination with the management of France Galop for the final arrangements related to this event to ensure its usual perfect organisation.
The arrangements related to the sponsors, guests, trophy presentation ceremonies and the horse auction, which will be held October 3, at Saint Cloud, were recently completed.
The following day, the same venue will host a race day, featuring two big and important races for the horse owners and trainers in Qatar. These are the Gr. 1 PA Qatar Arabian Trophy for three-year-old fillies and the Gr. 1 PA Qatar Arabian Trophy for three-year-old colts. Saturday and Sunday’s races will be at ParisLongchamp, which will host some of the world’s top group races over the two days with dozens of thousands of spectators filling the stands of the iconic racecourse.

Vying for titles
The entries will shed more light on the contests for the prestigious titles, especially the Gr. 1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe run over 2400m with a total purse of five million Euros, making it the highest prize money in the French racing calendar, and the Gr. 1 PA Qatar Arabian World Cup run over 2000m with a total prize money of one million Euros, which is the highest for an Arabian race in Europe.
However, all the horses, who will manage to make their way to ParisLongchamp on October 5 and 6th will be naturally qualified to vie for the prestigious titles.