Capri the latest star from rich seam of Aga Khan castoffs

The lure of Aga Khan drafts have long been a major feature of the breeding stock sales season. Breeders large and small have benefitted enormously over the years from the stud’s various culls, many of whom are the products of deep Aga Khan lines that also come with the promise of potential family updates down the road.

For example, victories by the Aga Khan’s Harzand in last year’s Epsom and Irish Derby also provided great cause for celebration at Newsells Park Stud, who had paid a sale-topping €480,000 for his dam Hazariya through Oliver St Lawrence at the 2014 Goffs November Sale. Then at the other end of the spectrum was Darkova, an unraced Maria’s Mon mare sold for €16,000 to Canirola Bloodstock at Arqana in December 2011; her first foal is Almanzor.

Harzand descends from an old Major Lionel Holliday line, that of Lost Soul, while Darkova’s heritage is rooted in the Marcel Boussac stock incorporated into the Aga Khan Studs during the late 1970’s.