The matriarch Zarkasha, pictured with her Champion daughter Zarkava and Group 1 placed granddaughter Zarkamiya.

Zarkasha is now aged 22 and enjoying a peaceful retirement at Haras de Bonneval where she has found a new vocation as a nanny to the foster mares’ foals after their weaning. Her last foal is a son of Harzand, named Zarkan, who is three years old and in training with Alain de Royer Dupré.

Her Champion daughter, the unbeaten winner of the Poule d’Essai, Prix de Diane and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Zarkava is currently in foal to Siyouni. This mating has already proved successful in the past, producing the Listed winner Zaykava.

The second leading European sire is also due to cover the daughter of Frankel and Zarkava, Zarkamiya. The mare was a Listed winner on the track and placed third in the Gr.1 Prix Vermeille. She is one of three Stakes winners out of the Champion racemare, whose Group 1 winning son Zarak has his first two-year-olds this year.

This family of Champions traces back to one of the original purchases that led to the foundation of the Aga Khan Studs, when the Aga Khan III bought Mumtaz Mahal as a yearling in 1922, nearly one hundred years ago. The grey daughter of The Tetrarch would go on to become a foundation mare of the Aga Khan broodmare band and her descendants include Champions such as Mahmoud, Nasrullah, Petite Etoile, Shergar, Mandesha, Golden Horn and of course, Zarkava.