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Zahrann is emerging as a serious contender for next week's King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot after his commanding performance in the Listed King George V Cup at Leopardstown continues attracting attention from connections.
The Johnny Murtagh trained colt has been making significant progress since narrowly losing his debut at Navan before securing an easy victory at Cork. His most recent outing saw him face a considerable class increase for the Listed contest, where he demonstrated remarkable improvement by overcoming early inexperience to surge from last position and win convincingly in the famous colours of the late Aga Khan.
Murtagh immediately suggested Royal Ascot as a potential target following the Leopardstown success, with Pat Downes, general manager at the Aga Khan's Irish studs, confirming ongoing discussions about the King Edward VII Stakes entry.
"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," Downes explained on Tuesday. "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."
The performance at Leopardstown particularly impressed connections despite the challenging circumstances. "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," Downes added.
While supplementation for the Irish Derby has been discussed, the proximity of the Curragh Classic just nine days after Royal Ascot makes attempting both engagements highly improbable for the developing 3YO.
"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 confirmed. "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 form part of a quality team representing the famous green and red silks at Royal Ascot, with stablemate Reyenzi also being considered alongside major French challengers.
Reyenzi finished first in the Gr.3 Gallinule Stakes before stewards demoted him to third following interference issues. "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," Downes revealed.
The French contingent includes Zarigana targeting the Coronation Stakes and Candelari being aimed at the Gold Cup, with additional runners likely joining the Royal Ascot team.