Mamadou, an Uber dash and another European Group 1 for Asfoora

Asfoora’s extraordinary European odyssey added another successful chapter with the Australian-trained mare defying a softer than-hoped track and a last-minute paperwork glitch to win the Prix de l'Abbaye at Longchamp.

The Henry Dwyer-trained mare’s third Group 1 win, to go alongside wins in the King Charles III Stakes last year and Nunthorpe Stakes victory at York in August, came with a relative lack of fuss.

Oisin Murphy settled her close up behind the early leader Jawwal in the five-furlong straight sprint, and simply peeled her off his back and to a comfortable half-a-length win.

Concerns that the very soft conditions might undo the Australian mare’s French foray proved unfounded as she found herself on clearly better ground, and enough to unfurl her signature turn of foot.

"This means a whole lot," Dwyer told reports afterwards. "I'm pretty sure she's the first Australian-trained horse to win in France and that was always a real bucket-list thing.

"I'm not a massive trainer, I'm not going to win trainers' premierships and Melbourne Cups. But trying to do something different is what motivates us, I suppose.

"When you're lying on your deathbed you're not going to think about the things you didn't do but about the things you did do. It's about experience. We tried to experience new things. I've never been to the races in France and here we are winning a Group 1 on Arc day."

But while the win was straight forward, the build-up was anything but after Dwyer discovered that he had left the mare’s passport behind in Chantilly when arriving on the racetrack.

The stewards needed to see the paperwork to allow her to run and the trainer had to get a local Uber driver to pick up the passport and bring it to Longchamp. It got there with 90 seconds to spare.

“We had a couple of complications before the race as the silly Australians forgot to bring the horse's passport,” Dwyer said.

"We got a man in an Uber to bring it from Chantilly, we put him on a retainer of a few hundred euros to get here for 2.30pm and he got it here by 2.33pm, so he can keep his retainer.

"I'm going to put something on Twitter (X) and try to track him down. I've got his name and I'll put it on there with a big love heart and say if he can find us he's more than truly welcome to join us in the celebrations tonight!

"I've driven back and forward from Chantilly to Longchamp four times in the last three days, it's never taken me shorter than an hour and he did it in 52 minutes - he was on a good retainer, though!"

The man was identified as Mamadou, and he earned just under 75 euros for the trip.

The story only adds to the legend of Asfoora, who has made history almost at every turn of her trips to Europe over the past two years.

Her breeder and owner is Akram El Fahkri, whose mother was Australia’s first taxi driver and who made his money with a taxi fleet of his own. El Fahkri was at Longchamp to witness Asfoora's brilliance.

It was also a memorable Arc day for another Australian, as Wootton Bassett colt Maranoa Charlie, previously owned by Peter Maher, won the Prix de la Foret.

Maher sold his interest in the colt in June, but still closely follows the talented three-year-old.

The feature race of the day was won by Daryz, with the Francis-Henri Graffard-trained colt in the Aga Khan’s famous colours overwhelmed Aidan O’Brien’s filly Minnie Hauk in the final stages.

In doing so, he emulated the deeds of his sire Sea The Stars in 2009, while becoming the first Aga Khan-owned horse to win since Zarkava in 2008.