Hard to fault Zarkava

By Ian Carnaby

With the Carnaby seller at Brighton over for another year, attention turns to the magnificent occasion on the first Sunday in October which just shades it in this writer’s affections, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp.

Living in Paris is not an option, more’s the pity. Then again, I’d probably spend my time seeking out Hemingway’s old haunts, especially the Closeries des Lilas, where he used to write in the mornings, or sit in the Place des Vosges, which Henry Miller thought one of the most beautiful and peaceful places in the city. Both will have changed out of all recognition, no doubt. Proust thought that even the Bois de Boulogne had changed, over a much shorter period of time. It hadn’t really, of course; it was simply his way of saying that places appear to change because our mood is different. “The memory of a particular image is but regret for a particular moment. And houses, roads, avenues, are as fugitive, alas, as the years”.

Longchamp never disappoints me. I suppose the best moment has to be Dancing Brave’s victory in 1986 because he beat one of the best fields ever assembled, though the most poignant was Nijinsky’s narrow defeat by Sassafras in 1970. Even Vincent O’Brien thought that Lester Piggott had ridden a poorly-judged race that day and the abiding memory is of Vincent, with his liquid eyes and sad, mournful expression, looking for all the world like a man whose two heroes in life had chosen the same afternoon to let him down.

‘Never complain, never explain’ is a quote generally attributed to Henry Ford II, though Katharine Hepburn made good use of it, as well. For Lester’s part, he saw the validity of that approach from a very early age. The fact is, he ‘finessed’ Nijinsky home in the St Leger, making the Doncaster victory look far easier than was actually the case. The horse had only recently recovered from a bout of ringworm and it says much for his reserves of courage that he went so close in the Arc. Lester said hardly anything on the day but years later I asked him about the race. “Well, he wasn’t the same horse that day, you know?” he said.

Zarkava was quite magnificent in the Prix Vermeille

I thought of Nijinsky when Zarkava overtook the whole field in the Prix Vermeille to become a very warm favourite for this year’s showpiece. She was quite magnificent, making up the deficit following a slow start and cruising past the entire field to score by a tidy couple of lengths in course record time.

Whether 6 to 4 will be value when she takes on the colts is a moot point and she will probably not be able to concede as much ground at the start. But this was a dazzling display and there will be foreign visitors on October 5, looking for value elsewhere but still getting ready to roar her home as she seeks to preserve her unbeaten record.

Zarkava’s trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre does not necessarily agree that he is a better trainer of fillies than colts - think of Dalakhani in the Arc and Lashkari in the Breeders’ Cup Turf - but he has an enviably patient approach with them and knows Zarkava’s family well, having saddled half-sister Zarkiya to win the Prix de Sandringham.

“They all have plenty of speed but also a good deal of character”, he said. “Like a genius in any field, the family has a strong spirit which must be managed carefully. Zarkava’s capacity to change gear in just a matter of strides and then produce a second devastating acceleration sets her apart from other horses”.

Of course, there is no telling whether she will remain in training at four, though it would not be a typical move by the Aga Khan and he has Montmartre to represent him in top middle-distance races anyway. Funnily enough, Vermeille winners have sometimes needed another twelve months to come good in the Arc - Allez France, Ivanjica and All Along fit into that category, though San San and Three Troikas won both races in the same year. It’s time it happened again and Zarkava unquestionably has the ability to make sure it does.