If you follow the fortunes of Aga Khan Stud bred bluebloods, one of their current stars is 2025 Arc winner Daryz and his three year-old half-brother was a dazzling debut winner overnight at Saint-Cloud.
Trained by Francis-Henri Graffard, Zarak colt Daryzan was favourite for the Prix Mendez (1600m) for newcomers and scored a breathtaking five length win to keep his blue hen dam Daryana perfect with eight foals to race all winners!
Daryzan found another gear for Mickael Barzalona making for a win that was visually impressive and will have connections lifting the bar for his next start.
"The second came at him pretty hard. Mickael gave him one flick to see how he would react, and he just took off. The [soft] ground obviously didn't bother him. I'd be keen to step him up in trip but Mickael said he could stay at a mile,” said Francis- Henri Graffard.
“We'll see where the programme book dictates and how he comes out of the race.
"Obviously his mother is incredible. It's nice to be at the races with him, to win and to have a nice horse."
Daryzan is a half-brother to Group I winners Daryz (Sea the Stars) and Dariyan (Shamardal) as well as Group II winners Devamani (Dubawi) and Darkaniya (Frankel), plus stakes-winners Dariyza (Dawn Approach) and Darabad (Dansili), so six of the eight winners from Group I winner Daryana are Black Type winners – amazing!
Interestingly, those six stakes-winners are all by different stallions.
