‘Siyouni Is A Game-Changer For Us’: Homebred Quartet Underpins the Aga Khan Studs’ Stallion Wing at Haras de Bonneval

[Wandering Eyes]

“She has played her part,” says Pierre Gasnier with some understatement as a gaggle of visitors to the Aga Khan Studs gazes at Zarkava, now enjoying her retirement at the age of 20.

With Thoroughbreds, it is the race records that separate the great from the good from the downright ordinary. Zarkava's stands her apart from the crowd by some wide margin. Seven wins, seven runs, with her parting gift on the track to her owner-breeder being her sensational Arc victory. Seventeen years have rolled on since then, and the gifts have kept coming. 

Zarkava is there in the background as the granddam of Zarigana, the best three-year-old filly in France this season, and another jump back in the pedigree of arguably the best two-year-old in Britain, Zavateri. All the while, her Group 1-winning son Zarak is giving kingpin Siyouni a run for his money as the operation's leading stallion. She has played her part indeed, and continues to do so.

Zarkava now is not so reminiscent of the feisty filly she once was on the track: blood up, fire in her belly, testing the innate horsemanship of her trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre and jockey Christophe Soumillon. Here she stands, a pensioner, quiet as a lamb with her best friend Daltama, whose brother Dalakhani marked Zarkava's dance card upon retirement to stud. Two homebred Arc winners: what a first date. 

 

Zarkava in retirement at 20 | Emma Berry

 

But that's the funny thing about this game, as the unassuming, smallish bay mare reminds us today. When racehorses are let loose in the paddock, unbound from the names that speak to their greatness, they are really just flesh and blood, the good ones and the the less good ones equally deserving of our care and respect.

Zarkava is evidently content in this new phase of her life. She looks terrific, barely showing her age bar a slight dipping of her back. He final foal is now a yearling filly, appropriately by Siyouni, a mating that has already produced the Listed winner Zaykava. With Daltama her constant companion, she spends her days in the picturesque surroundings of Haras de Saint-Crespin, whose ownership by the Aga Khans stretches back almost as fair as their involvement with Zarkava's female forebears. Eight generations before she came along, her ancestress Mumtaz Mahal was bought by HH Aga Khan III in 1922. Five years later, he purchased Saint-Crespin, which borders the more recently acquired Haras de Bonneval, though even this dates back to the 1960s. 

The family's tenancy of the land is indicative of the long-term thinking behind Aga Khan III's venture into Thoroughbred breeding, and is is echoed by his great granddaughter Princess Zahra, who, when asked what advice she might impart to other breeders, replied instantly with one word: “Patience.”

Expanding on this, she added, “A filly like Ridasiyna, or Ridari, their family hasn't produced much in the last years, so it's always about trying something different, working out what you did wrong last year, or the year before, or 10 years ago, and then going again, discussing the various elements. 

“I mean, there are so many variables, from the pedigree to the physical attributes, so it's spending the time, and it takes us a lot of time to get through the mares. But it's really about patience and reflection, and really evaluating all of the different aspects of your mare, and then sometimes you get surprises from the families that you don't expect, and it's always nice when that happens.”

That slow and steady quest resulted in a Group 1 victory for Ridasiyna (Motivator), a fourth-generation Aga Khan Studs homebred who traces back to the acquisition, by HH Aga Khan IV, of the stock of Marcel Boussac in 1978. Her son Ridari (Churchill) is already a Group 3 winner this year and runs on Sunday in the G1 Aga Khan Studs Prix Jacques Le Marois, a new sponsorship arrangement which has prompted this week's press gathering at Haras de Bonneval. 

It was another of the 'lock, stock and barrel' purchases of a major owner-breeder's operation which has resulted in the stallion which Princess Zahra refers to as a “game-changer”. Siyouni, the multiple champion sire and one of the great success stories of the French stallion scene in many a year, emanates from the breeding empire of Jean-Luc Lagardere, who bred his dam Sichilla (Danehill). Appropriately, Siyouni first put his name on the map when winning the Group 1 two-year-old race named in Lagardere's honour back in 2009.

The 18-year-old stallion's record at stud now runs to 11 Group 1 winners, the latest being the aforementioned Zarigana, his third daughter to win the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches after Ervedya and Dream And Do. Ervedya has herself now supplied a son to the home stallion ranks in the elegant Erevann, whose first foals are on the ground. He is a hope for the future, along with Vadeni, the Eclipse and Jockey Club-winning son of Churchill who is at the same stage in his career. Both stallions have covered three-figure books in their first two years at Bonneval, with Erevann being notably well supported by 168 then 153 mares in those two seasons.

Siyouni, a little lower in his hind pasterns these days, is being sensibly managed, but he himself can certainly still manage, and he covered 125 mares this season. They included 23 from the Aga Khan Studs and three Arc winners: Enable, Alpinista and Solemia.

“I think that Siyouni is a bit of a game-changer for us,” said Princess Zahra. “He has brought something completely different to our broodmare band, as have some of the other Lagardere families that have inherent speed, and we're just trying to treat those appropriately.”

Arguably the most commendable aspect of the stallion careers of Siyouni and Zarak is, to use that old saying, that they have 'done it the hard way'. Neither arrived at Bonneval commanding a huge fee. Siyouni, as Georges Rimaud once noted in TDN, had come close to being gelded and sent to race on in Hong Kong, but he was spared that snip and was syndicated to stand at what now looks a real snip, with an opening fee of €7,000. These days, he doesn't get into bed for less than €200,000.

 

Zarak

-300x218.jpg" alt="" width="482" height="350" /> Zarkava's stallion son, Zarak | Emma Berry

 

Then there's Zarak, on his upwardly sliding scale from €12,000 to €80,000, with a profile rising just as fast around the world, and his latest big winner, Laurelin, coming in Saturday's Saratoga Oaks. What immense pride it must give all of those people who spend their time pondering the matings, and nurturing the youngsters, that Zarak's success is built on more than a century of careful deliberation, liberally spiced with patience. That, in the end, is the most important ingredient of all. 

 

 

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