WHAT a wonderful day of quality racing on Sunday as the Aga Khan Studs sponsored the entire card at Deauville. The feature was the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois, and any worries that the race would lose appeal due to the defection of both Bow Echo and Gstaad proved to be unfounded, as less than a length covered the first three home. The winner was a homebred by the Aga Khan Studs.

Multiple Group 2 winner and the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes-third Zeus Olympios was best of the older generation in second, half a length ahead of the four-time Group 1 winner Precise, but they had to give best to another member of the classic generation, Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains-French 2000 Guineas victor Rayif (Sea The Moon). He gave the Aga Khan Studs a first victory in the race since Kalamoun in 1973, and he too had won the Poule d’Essai des Poulains. This rare double was last achieved by the Lagardere-bred Vahorimix in 2001.

A strategic breeding move by the Aga Khan team is reaping benefits, and Rayif is an example, as Princess Zahra explained following the win on Sunday. She said: “It’s a family that we’ve added speed back into, and it seems to work. He has an interesting pedigree, he’s an interesting horse, is very good-looking, and he’s very brave.

“Rayif was born in Ireland, so everyone is part of this; all of the studs in Ireland, the studs in France, and the stable yards in both countries. You know, everyone is working together to get to this point and to be able to produce good horses. It means an awful lot to the entire team.”

This year

A head is all that has denied Rayif’s dam Rayisa (Holy Roman Emperor) the accolade of having two Group 1-winning progeny this year. Her four-year-old daughter Rayevka (Blue Point) was beaten that much in the Group 1 King Charles III Stakes at Royal Ascot, and she held an entry in yesterday’s Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes. The pair are among five winners from the juvenile winner Rayisa who herself was denied a stakes victory by half a length.

The move to inject more speed in the family has been continued, and this year Rayisa foaled a filly by Little Big Bear (No Nay Never). Meanwhile, she has a yearling colt by Vadeni (Churchill). Rayevka and Rayif are the fifth and sixth progeny of their dam, all but the first being winners. The non-winner is a winner producer with her first foal.

Interestingly, Rayisa’s first foal was a filly by Sea The Stars (Cape Cross) who stands at Gilltown Stud, and though that mating failed to fire, the team used a son of the Tsui Family’s great champion to get Rayif. Sea The Moon stands at Kirsten Rausing’s Lanwades Stud, and Rayif is one of the stallion’s six Group 1 winners.

Marcel Boussac

This is a family that has been further nurtured in the hands of the late Aga Khan IV and his family, descending from a line established by Marcel Boussac. Rayif is the second recent classic winner that can trace back to Rilasa (St Paddy), born a little over half a century ago, as the 2024 Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas heroine Rouhiya (Lope De Vega) does too.

By a Derby winner, Rilasa was a winner at two and placed in the Group 3 Prix Vanteaux. Her lasting gift to the Aga Khan Studs has been as the dam of the Group 3 Royal Whip Stakes winner Rayseka (Dancing Brave), a talented stayer for John Oxx who was runner-up to Vintage Crop in the Group 1 Irish St Leger. Rayif and Rouhiya are from her side of the family.

Another branch is responsible for the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera winner Ridasiyna (Motivator), and the family has also fared well in outside hands, notably as the source of Kinnaird (Dr Devious), who was another winner of the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera, and five-time Group 1 scorer Laurens, fittingly a daughter of Siyouni (Pivotal).

Avec Toi on gagne si facilement

THE Deauville card on Sunday included a pair of Group 3 contests and a listed race, and there was an Aga Khan connection with all the results. Zarak (Dubawi) sired the Wertheimer owned and bred Zaraki, successful in the Listed Prix Nureyev on his third start. Winner of his sole outing at two, he was beaten half a length in a Group 3 first time out this year, subsequently gelded, and is now a stakes winner.

In the Group 3 The Aga Khan Studs Prix Francois Boutin, homebred Avec Toi (No Nay Never) retained his unbeaten record in three starts since making a winning debut in early June at Saint-Cloud. He added a listed race at Deauville before returning there to add his first pattern success. This win was in the same race won 12 months ago by none other than Rayif. The Aga Khan homebred juvenile Zakkan (Siyouni) was third on Sunday.

Avec Toi was bred by his owners, Sue Magnier, Michael Tabot, Derrick Smith and Westerberg, and is with Christopher Head who says he is the best colt he has trained. This is some compliment from the man who has handled Big Rock and Maranoa Charlie. Avec Toi’s four-length win on Sunday was very impressive, and his main aim now will be the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere on Arc weekend.

Coincidentally, Avec Toi comes from a family that includes Tamayuz (Nayef), and he won the Group 1 Pric Jacques Le Marois 18 years ago, trained by Freddie Head, Christopher’s father. This immediate family is also responsible for three other Group 1 winners, Eshaada (Muhaarar), Facteur Cheval (Ribchester) and Santiago (Authorized). The latter is a half-brother to Avec Toi’s dam La Joconde (Frankel).

Single win

Raced 13 times, La Joconde gained her single win in a 10-furlong Roscommon maiden on her eighth start. She had been stakes-placed before that, run in the Oaks at Epsom, and contested the Irish Oaks. She later produced her two career best performances, finishing third in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks and two lengths behind the winner Teona, and half-length off the dual Oaks winner Snowfall, in the Prix Vermeille. She cost 850,000gns as a yearling.

La Joconde’s first foal is unraced, the three-year-old filly Totally (Dubawi), Avec Toi is her second, and then there is a yearling colt by Justify (Scat Daddy).

What more can be told about No Nay Never that has not been said a thousand times before? He is well on his way to having his best year with two-year-olds, having 27 on the board at the time of writing, just five off the number that he recorded on four occasions. He has equalled his best season in terms of group horses, and four of this year’s crop are pattern winners now. The others are Great Barrier Reef, Man’s Best Friend and the filly Libertango. They are a glorious quartet.