Sirjan heads successful weekend for rising star sire. Leading second crop sire Zarak achieved his ninth Stakes winner over the weekend courtesy of two-year-old Sirjan, impressive four-and-a-half-length winner of the Gr.3 Premio Guido E Alessandro Berardelli at Capannelle on Sunday.

The strikingly marked colt is out of Gr.1 winning dam Sortilege, who also has a yearling Zarak filly, and is from the family of Samum, Schiaparelli and Sea The Moon. He was bred by Gestüt Karlshof and sold at the BBAG September Yearling Sale last year for €85,000.

Holger Faust, racing manager of owners Darius Racing, said: “This third win was our target and we had some other juveniles entered in the race. We made the right choice with Sirjan, who is a nice colt who has plenty of improvement. He could be back here next season for the Derby Italiano.”

Soon afterwards, Zarak had his second Stakes success of the day when Zagrey ran out the easy winner of the Listed Grand Prix du Nord at Chantilly. It was a second Stakes win of 2022 for the progressive three-year-old, owner/breeder Jean-Paul Challet and co-owner Gérard Augustin-Normand.

Also over the weekend, Parnac – a Listed winner for Zarak last year – made a successful US debut in an Allowance race at Aqueduct. The filly was bred by Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois but was purchased privately earlier this year and now races for West Point Thoroughbreds and Dream With Me Stable.