Zarkava

"She has played her part," says Pierre Gasnier with some understatement as a gaggle of visitors to the Aga Khan Studs gazes at Zarkava, now enjoying her retirement at the age of 20. With Thoroughbreds, it is the race records that separate the great from the good from the downright ordinary. Zarkava's stands her apart from the crowd by some wide margin. Seven wins, seven runs, with her parting gift on the track to her owner-breeder being her sensational Arc victory. Seventeen years have rolled on since then, and the...

It is plain to see that the Aga Khan Studs are in excellent hands, but the passing of His Highness the Aga Khan IV nevertheless signals the end of one of the most significant chapters in the long and storied history of Thoroughbred breeding. During his 65-year tenure at the head of the Aga Khan Studs, he presided over a prolonged period of growth, both in the stature and size of the operation, which was consolidated and expanded by the acquisition of stock from other major breeders. Those included Francois...

The Aga Khan Studs has one of Europe's leading Classic prospects for this season in the unbeaten Group 1 winner Tahiyra (Ire), whose sire Siyouni (Fr), unsurprisingly, has a stellar lists of mares booked to visit him in 2023. These include Tahiyra's half-sister Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal), who was also trained by Dermot Weld and won three Group 1 races among her nine career victories, as well as finishing runner-up in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.  An equally starry name features on the list as the brilliant, unbeaten Zarkava (Fr)...

First job in the Thoroughbred industry? Summer job as a stud groom at Highland Farm in Paris, Kentucky, that was managed by Peter Kirwan in 1999. Everything looked big and new at the time especially the Clydesdales that were kept on the farm not far from the Thoroughbreds! Biggest influence on your career? My friends Benoit Jeffroy and Gabriel Leenders. Unlike me the two of them are born and raised in this game and they have been keen to share their knowledge and experience with me since I decided to...

The Aga Khan Studs is celebrating 100 years of success in 2022, making the emergence of Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}) as one of the most talented colts in training and Zarak (Fr) being one of the hottest young stallion prospects in Europe all the more fitting.     Georges Rimaud has played an integral role in the success of the organisation. The manager of HH Aga Khan's studs in France, Rimaud reflected on the success of Vadeni in Saturday's G1 Coral-Eclipse at Sandown and shared his delight at the popularity of...

Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar), the Aga Khan's unbeaten 2008 G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner and the dam of last year's champion French first-season sire Zarak (Fr), will be covered by another Aga Khan superstar, Siyouni (Fr), in 2022. Zarkava has already produced the listed-winning filly Zaykava (Fr) from a mating with Siyouni, and she has a yearling colt by the French champion sire. Zarkava's listed-winning and Group 1-placed daughter Zarkamiya (Fr) (Frankel {GB}) is currently in foal to Siyouni. Siyouni stands for a second consecutive season for €140,000 at...

Our concluding part of the series reflecting on one hundred years of the Aga Khan Studs begins in the 1980s with the rise of the legendary Shergar and incorporates some of the most celebrated horses of the modern era, as well as a special anniversary for HH the Aga Khan IV. The text is reproduced by kind permission from the Aga Khan Studs' centenary brochure, written by Emma Berry and John Berry.   Shergar's birth came in the year that HH the Aga Khan IV decided to renew his family...

When Aga Khan homebred Zarak (Fr) retired to stud at Haras de Bonneval in 2018, he boasted exemplary credentials: by the sire-making Dubawi (Ire), Zarak was a Group 1 winner out of the Aga Khan's great champion mare Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar). Zarak did his best running at four when he won the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud over 2400 metres for trainer Alain de Royer Dupre, and therefore his first 2-year-olds in 2021 could have been somewhat forgiven should they have required time. They, however, most certainly did not. Zarak...

When the gates open for the G1 Hong Kong Vase on Sunday, Ebaiyra (Distorted Humor) will be bidding to round off her trainer Alain de Royer Dupré's 49-year career with a 94th Group 1 win. Now pause. And read that sentence again.  Forty-nine years. Ninety-three Group 1 victories. Almost two per season. And a mind-boggling total of 320 wins at group level.  Royer Dupré's retirement from the training ranks brings the curtain down on a whole chapter of French and international racing history. It is quite fitting that his final...