Zarkamiya zooms in! Daughter of Frankel and Zarkava makes winning start

Zarkamiya, a daughter of Frankel out of wondermare Zarkava, made an impressive start to her career when cosily winning a warm-looking three-year-old fillies' maiden at Longchamp on Thursday.

Boasting such an impressive pedigree, expectations had been heaped on Zarkamiya before her debut but she seemed to take the experience in her stride and always looked like winning when launched with a sustained run down the outside.

Pushed out under a hands-and-heels ride by Christophe Soumillon – who rode her storied mother Zarkava in all eight of her starts –Zarkamiya beat Xagere by a length.

Trained by Alain de Royer-Dupre for owner/breeder the Aga Khan, Zarkamiya holds early entries in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, Prix Saint-Alary and Prix de Diane, although her handler was keen to stress he will not be rushing things with his latest protege.

Royer-Dupre said: "It was a very nice performance. She's a filly who is quite discrete in the mornings but who has shown plenty there [in the race].

"It was quite a prolonged effort as Christophe had to get going early, although it's no bad thing that she was pushed out to the line. She didn’t crack and we'll see how much more there is to come as she wasn’t fully wound up today in terms of condition."

Of the future, he added: "We'll probably look to step her up in trip and she should stay 2,000 metres [a mile and a quarter].

"Between the sire and the dam it's no surprise she's pretty hot-blooded and has a lot of nervous energy, so we'll need to space out her races and really carefully construct her career. We really mustn’t try to leap too many rungs up the ladder too quickly."

What will have pleased connections almost as much as a winning debut was how well Zarkamiya took the preliminaries.

Blown away: Christophe Soumillon and Zarkava overcome blowing the start for a remarkable win in the 2008 Prix VermeilleCredit: Edward Whitaker

"From the outset she's always been very nervous of new experiences and the key thing is not to surprise her," said Royer-Dupre.

"She has a lot of spirit, and her mother was not so different. If you remember Zarkava after a race she always had her ears alert and even in the enclosure she could be a bit dangerous, moving around a lot. So she has some of her mother in her."

Prix de la Lancette (maiden), full result

Zarkamiya was winning on the second anniversary of Zarak's win in the Prix Machado, a race that led to runs in the Poule d'Essai and the Prix du Jockey Club, where he was second to Almanzor.

Crucially, he already had a win under his belt from the previous October, whereas Zarkamiya was facing her first racecourse test here.

But given Zarkava made a slow start to her breeding career – Dubawi's son Zarak was her first offspring to reach the track and earned his place at the Haras de Bonneval with victory in last season's Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud – a winning daughter by Frankel already makes Zarkamiya a precious jewel in the Aga Khan's empire.

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