Dylan Thomas won. Yeats lost. Those were the headlines in Thoroughbred racing on Sunday.

Irish-bred Dylan Thomas won France’s most famous race, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamps, running a mile and a half on the turf in 2:28.50. In doing so, he had to survive a 20-minute stewards’ inquiry.

The son of Danehill has won six Group 1 races now, including stakes in France, Ireland and Great Britain this year. Trainer Aidan O’Brien said the horse is a potential starter in the John Deere Breeders’ Cup Turf at Monmouth Park in New Jersey on October 27.

“Dylan Thomas is probably one of the best horses I’ve ridden,” said jockey Kieran Fallon.

“Kieren is a master of his craft, and gave Dylan Thomas a master ride,” said O’Brien, who was winning his first Arc.

Another master of his craft, the Arc champion’s namesake wrote in Fern Hill:

And then to awake, and the farm, like a wanderer white
With the dew, come back, the cock on his shoulder: it was all
Shining, it was Adam and maiden,
   The sky gathered again
       And the sun grew round that very day.
So it must have been after the birth of the simple light
In the first, spinning place, the spellbound horses walking warm
  Out of the whinnying green stable
       On to the fields of praise.

The Welsh poet Dylan Thomas also loaned his name to a poet of a later generation, Bob Dylan.

Also on the Longchamps card, Le Miracle won the group 1 Marathon, while Yeats finished third.