Darjina defeated a high-class opposition to score in the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp and establish herself as a force to be reckoned with against Europe’s best milers. Princess Zahra Aga Khan’s three-year-old was facing her male counterparts for the first time in the Group 1 event however she won more impressively than she had done when taking the Prix d’Astarté against the fillies and mares at Deauville.

Christophe Soumillon had Darjina perfectly placed in third position for much of the race and when he asked her to accelerate the filly easily swept aside Ramonti. Godolphin’s triple Group 1 winner finished two lengths behind in second with Aidan O’Brien’s George Washington, the world’s top-rated miler last year, another length away in third.

The Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine was winning her third top-level contest and she has only been beaten once in her six-race career, when finishing third on rain-softened ground at Royal Ascot.

Darjina, who has a beautifully relaxed attitude to go with her excellence on the track, is likely to be back among her own sex for her next outing. Preferred targets are the Prix de l’Opéra on 7th October or the Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket a day earlier.

Darjina is a daughter of Zamindar and is out of Group-placed Zilzal mare Darinska. In taking the Prix du Moulin she follows in the footsteps of previous Alain de Royer Dupré trained Aga Khan colour bearers Ashkalani and Sendawar.

The Aga Khan’s team had begun the day well at Longchamp with the victory of Zarkava, another daughter of Zamindar. Zarkava took the Prix de la Cascade for unraced fillies by two lengths and she looks to be yet another promising juvenile for the Aga Khan stable.

Updated on 11/09/07