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00:00Zarak is a home-bred Group 1 winner for the Aga Khan out of his great champion and ARC
00:07winner Zarkava.
00:08Zarak got off to a flying start with his first two-year-olds this year, and if his own racetrack
00:15performance is anything to go by, the best could be yet to come.
00:20Zarak has been an expected success, actually, because he kept covering a lot of mares every
00:28year.
00:29So breeders are quite keen to go back to him every year, and that's a good indication generally.
00:34And when he started to have winners early in the summer, I would say, then we started
00:41really looking at him seriously and very pleased with what he's done, stakes winners in Germany,
00:48and then Group 1 placed in France in the classic races and all this, with his pedigree.
00:55And then he suddenly appears as a very good prospect.
01:00He was not really expected as a champion two-year-old producer, I suppose, but it should be expected
01:09for him to run at two, and I suppose the breeders also knew that, knew that he won his Group
01:151 at four, and they needed to bring precocious mares.
01:19He's also syndicated, so the shareholders really supported the horse and with nice mares.
01:26Zarak is a very interesting horse because he has a pedigree that goes with it as well.
01:32His pedigree, Ado Zarkava, who is an absolute champion filly.
01:38The pedigree is interesting also because it's a nice outcross for mares by Dane Hill or
01:44that Sire line and Sadler's Wells.
01:47So it provides a lot of opportunities for people, and this is possibly also why he was
01:52very popular.
01:55The Aga Khan said that this race, when she won the Ark, epitomized his breeding operation.
02:02And that's just the continuity of it, really.
02:04I mean, that's the goal.
02:05This is what we're about, really, raise good racehorses to become nice broodmares or to
02:12become good stallions.
02:14So I think he's obviously, I'm pretty sure he's very, very pleased with it.
02:20But as I said, it's early.
02:22So we still need support from people with nice mares, and hopefully he can follow the
02:27tracks of Siyouni.
02:28He comes from a very, the true Aga Khan family.
02:33He descends from Mumtaz Mahal.
02:36We are next year celebrating the 100 years of the Aga Khan's breeding operation.
02:42And this is quite interesting that it's coming into the 100 years next year with Zarak's
02:47three-year-olds, who hopefully will do well.
02:51So everything comes into place.
02:54But the yearling sales have also been very good.
02:57The first one selling 100,000, 110,000, 95,000 this year.
03:03For a price of 12,000, this was a very good return for these people.
03:08He produces very nice horses, very nice-looking horses.
03:12It's always a nice surprise when a stallion does well.
03:16But should we really be surprised?
03:18Not really, because he's extremely well-bred.
03:21He's covered some nice mares, a good number of them, and he has the results that he has.
03:26And then people are very, very keen to use him.
03:29So he's very full this year.