'It's wonderful to see this family come back to Group 1 prominence' - Princess Zahra Aga Khan hails Rouhiya renaissance
All it took was the merest glimpse of daylight deep into the closing stages of Sunday's Poule d'Essai des Pouliches for Rouhiya to shoot between rivals and score an eighth win in the race for the Aga Khan and his family.
It was the kind of devastating kick that we all yearn to see from a top miler, and the kind of acceleration breeders search for when making their mating plans.
Sunday's scenario was a far cry from Ridasiyna's success in an attritional 2012 Prix de l'Opera, the last time a close member of this family returned to the Group 1 winner's enclosure in the green and red silks, and the revival of the line evidently struck a deep emotional chord with Princess Zahra Aga Khan.
"For me personally, it’s wonderful to see this family come back to Group 1 prominence," Her Highness reflected. "It is extraordinary and for me is something that carries a lot of emotion. The family has been quite quiet for several generations and for it to come back this year is very special, and repays a lot of work."
Dam Rondonia managed to earn her black type for trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre when third in the Listed Grand Prix de Fontainebleau, and has now produced a Classic winner from just her second foal.
Rouhiya's year-older sister by Le Havre, Rodainah, won twice for Francis Graffard and was sold at Arqana last December to race for David Salabi for €130,000, while the Aga Khan team have two more fillies to look forward to, a two-year-old by Camelot in training with Graffard and a yearling by Sea The Moon.
Rondonia is out of the Listed-winning Marju mare Raydiya and is thus a sister to Debutante Stakes winner Raydara, dam of 2022 Prix Isonomy winner Rajapour. To the breeder's point, Ridasiyna appears under Rouhiya's fifth dam, Rilasa, as does the multiple Group 1 winner Laurens.
Princess Zahra said: "To win the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches is huge for a breeder and to produce a filly like her is very important for the future.
"We’ve been trying to bring speed into these families and it’s been a labour of 20 years. With this family we hadn’t managed it until now. The staying power is a given, but she has that speed a breeder looks for.
"This race and the Diane mean everything for us as breeders because they can launch a whole family. For this family to come back in a Group 1 like this adds great value to all her sisters and the entire line."
Can lightning strike a third time?
Princess Zahra's own emerald and chocolate silks were carried to success in the Pouliches by Darjina in 2007, while the last two Aga Khan fillies to win France's version of the 1,000 Guineas hold the unique distinction of having each bequeathed the operation a stallion apiece.
The result of 2008 world champion Zarkava's cover by Dubawi in 2012 was Zarak, whose own career goes from strength to strength and who completed a near-perfect day in siring Metropolitan, winner of the Poule d'Essai des Poulains.
And during her sadly short career at stud, the 2015 Pouliches winner Ervedya produced Erevann, another stallion son of Dubawi who has made his debut at Haras de Bonneval this covering season.
Might Rouhiya have the potential to repeat the trick?
Princess Zahra said: "You always hope so. Especially when they have that acceleration over a mile, you can always hope."
The team at Bonneval is well aware that being able to stand two sires of Siyouni and Zarak's quality at the same time is not an everyday occurrence, though the princess pointed to the hard work that has gone into producing a pair of stallions who can help financially underpin her family's breeding and racing to the scale that it currently exists.
"Zarak has extraordinary statistics and of course he is blessed with extraordinary genetics, being out of a champion and by a great sire," she said. "Siyouni hails from a Lagardere family which is renowned for precocity and speed. I don’t think it’s all a coincidence. We’ve worked for a very long time to produce horses in that mould.
"Certainly both stallions had a lot going for them on paper. As my father says, you are playing a game of chess with nature. But they each bring the qualities that we have spent a long time searching for.
"We’re lucky not to have to follow fashion. We can follow our own genetic path and that means we can stand horses who aren't world famous and if they are good stallions because they’re well bred, that’s the way it should be."
All major breeders go through peaks and troughs but it would be fair to say that the Aga Khan is enjoying something of a purple patch in terms of producing top-level winners who go on to produce a real body of work on the track; the three Group 1 winners that preceded Rouhiya – Tarnawa, her half-sister Tahiyra and Vadeni – each backed up on more than one occasion, and boast eight of the most precious victories between them.
The breeder in Princess Zahra will already be looking forward to Rouhiya's career in the paddocks, which she revealed was one of the prime motivations for rolling the dice and going for the Poule rather than a Listed race at Chantilly 24 hours earlier.
But whether it's an attempt to keep hold of the Coronation Stakes crown won by Tahiyra last season, or a step up in trip in the Diane, Rouhiya's next appearance will be a golden opportunity to prove that, like her immediate predecessors, she is no one-hit wonder, as well as to further establish her family across the Aga Khan's breeding empire and beyond.
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