His Highness The Aga Khan

In a new partnership between the Aga Khan Studs and France Galop, it was announced on Thursday that the racing and breeding operation of His Highness the Aga Khan has committed to an across-the-card sponsorship of Prix Jacques le Marois day at Deauville from 2025. For nearly 40 years the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois, which boasts prize-money of €1 million, was sponsored by the Niarchos family whose long association with the race included nine victories in their familiar silks. The legendary Miesque was the first when winning back-to-back editions...

His Highness The Aga Khan's undefeated G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine and Group 1 producer Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar) will not be bred next year and has been pensioned, The Aga Khan Studs announced on Wednesday. The 19-year-old mare's final foal is a filly by Siyouni (Fr) born on February 2, 2024. Foaled on the final day of March in 2005, the daughter of Zarkasha (Ire) (Kahyasi {Ire}) won her seven starts for Alain de Royer-Dupre by a combined 16 lengths, all in group company, bar her Longchamp maiden. After winning...

Jockey Gerald Mosse, who has ridden for 41 years, has called time on his career after his weekend rides, he announced on Saturday. He will begin his next career, as a public trainer based at Chantilly, on Sept. 1. A winner of more than 90 Group 1 races worldwide, including all of the French and Hong Kong Classics, the Marseille native has found success in Hong Kong, Bahrain, Dubai, and Singapore, as well as England and Italy. Early in his career, he rode for Jean-Luc Lagardere and His Highness The...

The Classic-placed Royal Scotsman (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}) has been supplemented to the G1 Tattersalls Irish 2000 Guineas on Saturday, and the field now stands at 12. Trained by Paul and Oliver Cole for Mrs. Fitri Hay, the G1 Dewhurst S. runner-up and Guineas third is joined by the Guineas second and fourth Hi Royal (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and Galeron (Ire) (Camacho {GB}) respectively. A trio of colts line up from Aidan O'Brien in Age Of Kings (Ire) (Kingman {GB}), Cairo (Ire) (Quality Road) and Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}). Sunday's G1...

Group 1 winner Tahiyra (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) has exited her strong second-place effort in the G1 QIPCO 1000 Guineas in good order, according to trainer Dermot Weld. His Highness The Aga Khan's homebred pushed Mawj (Ire) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}) all the way to the line in a fierce stretch duel at Newmarket, only to lose out by a half-length. Plans for last year's G1 Moyglare Stud S. heroine are fluid at the moment, but the May 28 G1 Irish 1000 Guineas is under consideration. "She's come out of her...

Champion Daylami (Ire) (Doyoun {Ire}--Daltawa {Ire}, by Miswaki), a winner of seven Group 1 races worldwide, has been euthanised due to the infirmities of old age, the Aga Khan Studs announced on Wednesday. He was two weeks shy of his official 29th birthday on Apr. 20. Racing for first his breeder, His Highness The Aga Khan, and later on in the blue silks of Godolphin, the 1994 foal was second in the 1996 G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud at two and grabbed a Classic laurel in the G1 Poule d'Essai des...

Aga Khan Studs' sire Zarak (Fr) continued to prove popular at the sales, as Tom Goff's Blandford Bloodstock shelled out 350,000gns on behalf of Chasemore Farm for a 1/50th share (lot 63) in the rising sire star to top the Tattersalls Online January Sale on Thursday. The son of Arc heroine Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar) has gone from strength to strength with his progeny in the past few years. Among his many stakes winners are group winners Purplepay (Fr), Sirjan (Ger), Baiykara (Fr), Lavello (Ire), and Lizaid (Ger), while La Parisienne...

Retired French trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre has been elevated to the rank of Knight in the French Legion of Honour. The award is the highest distinction for French citizens, and is comprised of the following ranks in order of increasing distinction: knight, officer, commander, grand officer, and grand cross. Royer-Dupre, who retired from training at the end of 2021, will be presented with the award in a subsequent ceremony. De Royer-Dupre told Jour de Galop, "It's good that the racing world is recognised. Certainly, as far as I am concerned,...

Juddmonte homebred Westover (GB)'s seven-length thumping of the G1 Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby field last month was the second consecutive Irish Derby victory by a son of Frankel (GB) after Hurricane Lane (Ire) in 2021, but his achievement was also a timely reminder of the potency of his late broodmare sire Lear Fan. Born in 1981, the dark bay has also featured as the broodmare sire of another prominent Sadler's Wells-line runner, the two-time U.S. Champion Sire Kitten's Joy (El Prado {Ire}), who died at Hill 'n' Dale Farm...

His Highness The Aga Khan's Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}), winner of last term's Listed Criterium du Fonds Europeen de l'Elevage, was a class above his rivals in Tuesday's G3 Prix de Guiche and laid down a marker for next month's G1 Prix du Jockey Club with an impressive 2 1/2-length success in the nine-furlong Chantilly feature. The homebred bay had previously opened up with a July 21 debut score at Bordeaux-Le Bouscat and closed his three-race juvenile campaign with a third in this venue's Sept. 29 G3 Prix de Conde....

Breeders' Cup champion Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal), who was retired in November, will visit Frankel (GB) for her first beau, Pat Downes, the Manager of The Aga Khan Studs in Ireland, announced on the Nick Luck Daily podcast. Bred and raced by His Highness The Aga Khan, the chestnut scored three times at the highest level in 2020, in the Prix Vermeille, Prix de l'Opera and Breeders' Cup Turf. She was second in the 2021 G1 Irish Champion S. to Cartier Horse of the Year St. Mark's Basilica (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr})...

Three-time Group 1 winner Tarnawa (Ire) (Shamardal--Tarana {Ire}, by Cape Cross {Ire}) has been retired and will become a broodmare for her owner/breeder, His Highness The Aga Khan. "Happy retirement to the brilliant Tarnawa, winner of three Group 1 races: Prix Vermeille, Prix de l'Opera, Breeders' Cup Turf," The Aga Khan Studs tweeted on Thursday. "We look forward to her new career as a broodmare." Trained by Dermot Weld, the daughter of the dual stakes winner and G3 Curragh Cup third Tarana was stakes-placed at two and won a trio...