Seven Days: The Aga Khan's Glorious Hundred

“The greatest gift a breeder could have.” That was how the late HH Aga Khan IV described his unbeaten masterpiece Zarkava.

How fitting then, that months after the retirement of the 20-year-old daughter of Zamindar and the sad passing of her owner-breeder, Zarkava's granddaughter Zarigana, herself out of the Listed winner Zarkamiya (Frankel) and by the Aga Khan Studs' homebred French champion sire Siyouni, should pick up the baton. 

In giving her breeder a seventh victory in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, Zarigana continues this line of extraordinary success for the Aga Khan Studs, which stretches back almost to the beginning of HH Aga Khan III establishing a breeding operation. All breeders dream of the big time, no matter how great or small their means of making it there, but not even this one could have imagined the high-calibre longevity that his would have.

That has been thanks in no small part to the lengthy tenure of Prince Karim Aga Khan, who was elevated to the title of Aga Khan IV upon the death of his grandfather in 1957, with thoughts of breeding racehorses then far from his mind at the age of just 20. Three years later his father Prince Aly Khan was killed in a motor accident and the family's thoroughbred breeding empire became his. The Aga Khan's study of bloodlines and blending of his own stock with those purchased from other significant owner-breeders while surrounding himself with trusted advisors ensured the continuation of the already deep-rooted foundations in the sport laid by his grandfather. That chain looks in no danger of being broken thanks to the passionate commitment shown over recent decades by his daughter, Princess Zahra Aga Khan, herself the owner-breeder of Mandanaba (Ghaiyyath), who was third home in the Pouliches.

Zarigana became the 100th Group/Grade 1 winner for her late owner-breeder, and her family still has much to give the operation. Zarkava's most celebrated offspring is her Group 1-winning son Zarak, now one of the most sought-after stallions in Europe, and he was represented on Sunday by his son Flatten The Curve, winner of Germany's G2 Oleander-Rennen.

The Aga Khan Studs' broodmare band has many strands of success but this particular one, which includes four of Zarkava's daughters, has been described by Princess Zahra as “our flagship family”, and it is easy to see why.

In a touching video to mark the retirement of Zarkava last October, she said, “Zarkava means so much. Her ninth dam was Mumtaz Mahal, who my great grandfather bought in Newmarket in 1922. She was known as the Flying Filly, she was a champion British racehorse, and after that she became a foundational mare for our breeding operation. Generations later [came] Petite Etoile. She was bred by my great grandfather and raced in the colours of my grandfather, and when he sadly passed away, she raced in my father's colours.

“Petite Etoile was a brilliant racehorse but was a very shy breeder and she produced only one filly, and my father named her Zahra.” 

Special indeed.

Two Shades of Blue

If the previous weekend had belonged to Godolphin with that unprecedented plundering of trophies for the 2,000 and 1,000 Guineas and Kentucky Derby and Oaks, the week that followed was Coolmore's.

Aidan O'Brien's runners were everywhere: Chester, Lingfield, Naas, the Curragh, Leopardstown, and Longchamp. There were 11 stakes winners across those tracks, with the Ballydoyle brigade mopping up every Classic trial on the horizon. Henri Matisse bagged the Poule d'Essai des Poulains to give his sire Wootton Bassett an important first Classic success since Almanzor lit up his first first crop en route to becoming European champion three-year-old of 2016.

Let's not forget, either, how close King Of Steel came to springing an upset in the Derby when stalking home Auguste Rodin. After Wootton Bassett's transfer from Etreham to Coolmore, seeing that early prowess of some star juveniles through to the next level is key, and he has an array of candidates to carry him forward among this year's three-year-olds. Camille Pissarro, just over a length behind his stable-mate in third in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains, is another, and he was one of six runners for his sire in the Poulains alone. 

Almanzor, too, got in on the action at Longchamp on Sunday when his Etreham-bred daughter Gezora, now owned by Peter Brant's White Birch Farm, got the better of favourite and stable-mate Audubon Park to win the G2 Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary. It was a rather more straightforward result for trainer Francis Graffard than the drama that would ensue later on the card when Zarigana was awarded the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches in the stewards' room. Graffard continues to saddle winners at a ruthless rate this season and has already amassed prize-money earnings of almost double that of his nearest pursuer in the trainers' table, Andre Fabre.

As noted in Monday's TDN, Graffard's consideration of Charlie Fellowes, who had what would have been his first Classic victory snatched from him when the placings of Shes Perfect and Zarigana in the Pouliches were reversed in a stewards' enquiry, was touching. Nothing could have consoled Fellowes, Kieran Shoemark and the Basher Watts Syndicate in the aftermath of that crushing verdict. As the dust settles, hopefully Fellowes will draw some comfort from two mighty runs from Shes Perfect and Luther, who was fourth in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains, both of whom benefited from having Kieran Shoemark in the saddle.

For Juddmonte, this year's Classic quest continues, but more chances will come on Irish Guineas weekend. Field Of Gold will seek to go one better on the Curragh than he did at Newmarket, and the Poulains runner-up Jonquil surely has a big win in him this season. Hopefully Zanzoun can bounce back from the setback which ruled her out of a trip to Longchamp, while the unbeaten Swelter, from the family of Frankel, remains an exciting prospect for Dermot Weld's team.

Immortal Beloved of Charlie Noell

A happy member of the Coolmore throng following Henri Matisse's win was the tall figure of American owner-breeder Charlie Noell of Merriebelle Stable.

Noell has mares both in Ireland at his Ardbraccan House in Co Meath and in Kentucky, and with his Merriebelle partner John Jay Moore bought the Group 1-winning miler Immortal Verse (Pivotal) among the 30 mares purchased by the duo from Kilfrush Stud.

Now 17, the mare famously appeared at Tattersalls in December 2013 to fetch the record broodmare price of 4.7 million gns when offered for Merriebelle Stables by Luke and Tabitha Lillingston's Mount Coote Stud. The Coolmore team was the purchaser but Noell retained a leg in the mare, joining the Immortal Verse Syndicate. It was a wise move, even if initially that did not appear to be the case.

“Her career as a broodmare has been a lot like what you saw with Henri. The first four or five years she had the worst luck and all of a sudden now, the last four or five years, we've got Tenebrism, Statuette, Henri,” Noell told TDN at Longchamp.

“The only thing I would like to be different is that Henri, much like Immortal Verse, runs from behind, and I'm going to have a heart attack. I'd like to have something run from the front, but that's not going to happen with this horse. I didn't think we got there but we won by the bob of a head.”

Gesturing towards Luke Lillingston alongside him in the winner's circle, Noell added, “And this man is responsible for having found Immortal Verse and talked us into buying the whole [Kilfrush] broodmare band in 2012.”

With a Classic success to add to the two Group 1 wins of Tenebrism (Caravaggio) and G2 Airlie Stud Stakes success of Statuette (Justify), Immortal Verse is more than rewarding Noell and his co-breeders for their patience and investment. 

Does Dante Hold Derby Key?

With Arqana's Breeze-up Sale preoccupying thoughts in France, events at Chester and Lingfield were hard to digest properly in this corner except for the headline news that Ballydoyle won just about everything. Where the Dee Stakes winner Mount Kilimanjaro (Siyouni) and Chester Vase winner Lambourn (Australia) fit in Aidan O'Brien's pecking order for Epsom remains to be seen, though Sunday's Cashel Palace Hotel Derby Trial Stakes victor Delacroix, the son of Dubawi and Tepin, is surely somewhere near the top.

Betting market aside, there has been an underwhelming vibe around The Lion In Winter (Sea The Stars), who has not been seen in public since winning the Acomb Stakes at York last August. His planned return to the Knavesmire this Thursday for the Dante Stakes will be intriguing indeed. 

A Boy Named Sioux 

It has been a big week for Sioux Nation in France, both in the sale ring and on the track. 

At Arqana, the stallion's seven two-year-olds sold for an average of €270,000 and he was responsible for one of the sale's four seven-figure lots when Glending Stables sold the filly out of the stakes-placed Brioniya (Pivotal) to KHK Racing for €1 million. In fact, the filly is yet to reach her actual second birthday as she was foaled on May 19, so her stellar performance in the breeze was perhaps even more noteworthy. 

From last year's sale, another Sioux Nation filly from the draft of Ryan Conran's Lacka House Stables had caught the eye of Will Douglass, and when she failed to sell in the ring the agent agreed a private sale with the filly going to Charlie Fellowes. A year later, under the name of Shes Perfect, she was involved in the dramatic finish of the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches. 

Had her narrow win been allowed to stand, she would have been the second Classic winner from the Arqana Breeze-up Sale of 2024 within eight days. And just to show that the major results are not always provided by those who command the highest price tags, the 2,000 Guineas winner Ruling Court and Shes Perfect come from the opposite ends of the buying spectrum: the former having topped the sale at €2.3 million and the latter having changed hands for €50,000.