Zahrann under consideration for King Edward VII challenge

North Wales Chronicle

a day ago

Narrowly beaten on his Navan debut before bolting up at Cork, the Johnny Murtagh-trained three-year-old faced a significant step up in class for the Listed King George V Cup but overcame signs of inexperience to come from last to first and win going away in the colours of the late Aga Khan.
Murtagh raised the option of a trip to Ascot in the immediate aftermath and Pat Downes, general manager at the Aga Khan's Irish studs, said on Tuesday: 'He will certainly have an entry in the King Edward and beyond that we're just going to see how he is over the next few days.
Smooth from Zahrann in the Listed King George V Cup @LeopardstownRC 👇🏻 pic.twitter.com/UTeZPQY4py
— Racing TV (@RacingTV) June 5, 2025
'He was obviously still a little bit raw when winning at Leopardstown and we'll just have to think what is in the best interests of the horse for his next race, but certainly the King Edward is a possibility as we speak now.
'We were delighted with him in Leopardstown, the race was run at a pretty sedate pace so he was a bit further back than ideal and came wide into the straight as well, so I thought he did well to pick them up and win well at the line.'
The possibility of Zahrann being supplemented for the Irish Derby was also mooted, but given the Curragh Classic comes just nine days after his potential Royal Ascot engagement he appears highly unlikely to do both.
'It would be one or the other and I would say, given how he ran at Leopardstown it might be better to take a smaller step with him than a bigger step just at this point in his career,' Downes added.
'He's got some nice entries for the second half of the year and he's certainly a horse we would see being effective over 10 or 12 furlongs, so hopefully there's some good days ahead with him.'
Zahrann could be part of a small but select team of horses to carry the famous green and red silks at the Royal meeting, with his stablemate Reyenzi also pencilled in alongside some major challengers from France.
Reyenzi was first past the post in the Group Three Gallinule Stakes last month before being demoted to third by the stewards after causing interference.
Downes said: 'The plan for Reyenzi at the moment is that he'll run in the Hampton Court. He ran around a bit the last day for sure, but it was only his third lifetime start and hopefully he'll have learned from that and he's been in good form since.
'Then the two main ones from France would be Zarigana in the Coronation Stakes and Candelari in the Gold Cup and we'll probably have a couple of others as well.'