Winner number four for mighty mare Zarkava at Compiegne

Fillies do not come more important for the Aga Khan than Zaykava, a combination of two of the renowned owner-breeder's great flag-bearers, who got off the mark at the first attempt at Compiegne on Wednesday.

The three-year-old is the eighth foal, and just the fourth to have appeared on the track, from Zarkava, whose unblemished seven-race career concluded in the 2008 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Although it was a slow start to her life as a broodmare, times changed with Zarak, the son of Dubawi who went on to lift the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and will have the his first yearlings from his tenure at Haras de Bonneval sold in the next few months.

Zarkava has also produced Zarkamiya [by Frankel], who was a Listed winner in 2018 and third in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille and Invincible Spirit's Zarkallani, twice successful to date for Alain de Royer-Dupre.

She was kept in-house for her next covering as she visited Bonneval resident Siyouni, another Group 1 winner in the Aga Khan green.

The resulting Zaykava did not appear at two but seems to have inherited ability, staying on despite inexperience and murky conditions to score nicely by two and a half lengths in the 10-furlong Prix du Cochet for newcomers.

"She is very elegant, very racy and walks well," Royer-Dupre told Equidia.

"She had a minor problem which prevented her from running before now but she has ability. Nearly all the mare's offspring can run: the filly by Frankel [Zarkamiya], there's Zarak... it's formidable. Often the exceptional champions like her don't produce so well.

"We'll aim at earning her some black type and she takes after Siyouni in that she has an adorable character and is very easy, very calm. I would say 2,000 metres [a mile and a quarter] is her limit."

Zarkava has a two-year-old colt in the same stable named Zaskar and produced a sister to Zarak last year.

Earlier in the afternoon at the same track there had been some encouragement shown by another distinguished descendant of the owner's operation when Vissani, a Dariyan half-brother of elite stayer Vazirabad, was an unfurnished-looking fourth on his juvenile debut in the Prix de Marolles.

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