FIFTEEN years ago, I had the great pleasure to spend almost two hours in the company of the late Aga Khan IV at Gilltown Stud, during which time he spoke at length about 50 years involvement in racing and breeding. I recall every detail of that meeting with incredible clarity.

This was two years after Zarkava (Zamindar) retired to stud, and she had produced her first foal that spring, a filly named Zerkaza (Dalakhani). When I quizzed His Highness about favourite horses, he was incredibly selective, and mentioned three or four, one of which was Zeddaan. He reserved a special mention for the 2008 Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Zarkava.

He told me: “Zarkava was just incredible. How often it that going to happen? She is without any doubt one of the very greatest ever.” He was speaking about a homebred who had gone through two seasons unbeaten, and was twice anointed as champion filly in Europe. Six of her seven starts were in pattern company, five times at Group 1 level, and she also recorded victories in the Prix Marcel Boussac at two, the two French classics for her sex, and the Prix Vermeille.

Eight years later I undertook a tour of Gilltown Stud, with Pat Downes and Julie White, to see the stallions and feast my eyes on the wonderful setting of the farm. This was just days after the Frankel (Galileo) three-year-old Zarkamiya had created a good impression when winning the Listed Prix de Thiberville at ParisLongchamp, her second win in three outings, and at the time I expressed the hope that this would be a step on her way to some success at group level.

Highly creditable

That didn’t transpire and Zarkamiya made just two further starts, and the first of these was in the Group 3 Prix Minerve. Things did not go right for her on that occasion. She was fractious at the start, found her passage on the inside hindered, and finally she ran on to finish third. Zarkamiya had the winner that day three lengths in arrears when she then raced for the final time, in the Group 1 Prix Vermeille, and finished a highly creditable third to the favourite Kitesurf and Magic Wand.

On pedigree - by one of the best racehorses of all time in the unbeaten Frankel, now a phenomenally successful stallion and out of the unbeaten dual champion racemare Zarkava – and on performance Zarkamiya was entitled to be mated with the best stallions around, and so it came to pass. She has five fillies in her first six years at stud, and all have been got by the best sires around.

Zarkamiya’s first foal, Zarwara (Medaglia D’Oro), won at three in France and is now a member of the broodmare band at the Aga Khan Studs. This year, significantly, Zarwara had her first foal, a daughter of the great Siyouni (Pivotal).

After missing a year, Zarkamiya herself foaled a Siyouni filly, named Zarigana, and on Sunday she won the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas. The debate about whether the decision to promote her to first was justified rages on, but for me she had to get the race.

Extra poignant

For such a classic success to come in the year of H.H. the Aga Khan’s death is extra poignant, but also a timely reemphasis of the power of his breeding lines, now being carefully orchestrated by Princess Zahara Aga Khan and her team. A pattern winner at two, Zarigana suffered her only defeat in five starts to date when she was beaten a nose by her Francis-Henri Graffard-trained stablemate Vertical Blue in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac.

Waiting in the wings for the team at the Aga Khan Studs are three more of Zarigana’s siblings, the two-year-old filly Zarouma (Dubawi), a yearling filly by Lope De Vega (Shamardal), and this spring Zarkamiya foaled a full-sister to the weekend classic winner. In landing the prize at ParisLongchamp, Zarigana credited her Haras de Bonneval sire Siyouni with his fourth French Guineas winner, after Ervedya, Dream And Do and St Mark’s Basilica. His son Paddington and daughter Tahiyra are both Irish Guineas winners.

Zarkava is the dam of a Group 1 winner in Zarak (Dubawi), winner of the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud at four and runner-up in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby and Group 1 Prix Ganay. Zarak is one of the best young stallions in Europe, standing too at Haras de Bonneval, and his three Group 1 winners, among 30 stakes winners, are French 2000 Guineas hero Metropolitan, Prix Ganay winner Kaya Park, and the Grosser Preis von Baden winner Zagrey.

In Australia

A third stakes winner for Zarkava is the listed winner Zaykava (Siyouni), while the already mentioned first foal out of Zarkava, Zerkaza, did not run but she is the dam of Zeyrek (Sea The Stars), and he has been twice victorious at Group 3 level in Australia. Zarkava has two smart siblings, though they achieved their best results in different codes.

Zarshana (Sea The Stars) won twice but both were gained in stakes races, including the Group 3 Prix de Minerve. She has had two stakes-placed winners, and her son Zarir (Frankel) last year was beaten a head in the Group 1 Prix Ganay, and a short neck in the Group 2 Prix Foy. Last October Zarir sold at the Arc Sale for €1.3 million and is now racing in Australia.

The other notable sibling to Zarkava is Zarkandar (Azamour). He won on the flat but made his name over hurdles, and his victories at the highest level over jumps came in the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham, the Grade 1 Aintree Hurdle and the Grade 1 Grand Prix d’Automne at Auteuil. He won well in excess of £900,000.

Zarkava is out of the unraced Kahyasi (Ile De Bourbon) mare Zarkasha, and her six winning offspring include the Group 3 Prix de Sandringham winner Zarkiya (Catrail) and the Grade 3 Premio A.S.S.I Chase winner, and twice Grade 1 runner-up, Zarkali (Starborough).

Petite Etoile

Zarkamiya’s sixth dam is Petite Etoile (Petition). Born in 1956 she won the 1000 Guineas, Oaks, Yorkshire Oaks, Sussex Stakes and Champion Stakes at three, before two years later adding the Coronation Cup at Epsom. This a link to the Aga Khan breeding programme going back more than a century now, and the weekend’s classic winner is an eleventh-generation homebred. Just let that fact sink in for a few moments.

Zarigana traces back to the legendary Mumtaz Mahal (The Tetrarch). She was bought by Aga Khan III in 1922. While the price of 9,100gns was not a record (that was held by Sceptre, the only racehorse to win four British classics outright, and she realised 10,000gns), all agreed that the spotted grey was the most perfectly formed filly ever seen.

Mumtaz Mahal’s successes on the track pale in comparison to the influence she would exercise on racing and breeding in every major country. She won seven of her 10 starts, was champion two-year-old, sprinter and Horse of the Year, and is widely regarded as just about the best juvenile filly of the 20th Century. That year she won the Spring Stakes, Queen Mary Stakes, National Breeders Produce Stakes, the Molecomb Stakes and Champagne Stakes, while at three she added the Nunthorpe and King George Stakes. Tried over longer than sprint distances she was runner-up in the 1000 Guineas.