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If the most exciting sight in Flat racing is to watch a horse with a real turn of foot played daringly late, then it is possible that Zarigana might produce more than her share of thrills as the season progresses.

Mickael Barzalona has learned the Aga Khan Studs' regally bred daughter of Siyouni needs to be the last to attack and, with energy pent up in the 189 days since her fractional defeat in the Prix Marcel Boussac, he left Zarigana with barely a furlong and a half of the Prix de la Grotte to work with before he let her at the front-running Shes Perfect.

That may have been more than early enough as having raced by her rival, the granddaughter of Zarkava felt no compulsion to labour the point in the final few strides of the Longchamp Group 3 contest on Sunday, winning by a neck.

"She has such a powerful action that takes her into her races and then when you ask her the turbo really kicks in," said trainer Francis Graffard. "When Mickael asked her to stretch clear she thought the job was done, and she's not typical in that sense.

"Mentally, that will have done her a lot of good because she really needed to go back to the races. I think that, with a view to the Poule [d'Essai des Pouliches] in four weeks, it's great to have her back on track and for her to win.

"She has such a turn of foot and you need to be patient, you don't want to get there too soon. She's all quality and on good ground she's extremely effective. I hope everything goes well between now and the main objective."

Graffard and the watching Princess Zahra Aga Khan will have been pleased with how calm Zarigana was when reshod down at the start, the red hood she carried before the race and her restless impatience with the photographers afterwards both testament to the fact she can go from 0-60 just as fast temperament-wise as in terms of her physical acceleration.

If Zarigana arrived at Longchamp carrying the weight of expectation then Ridari's last-gasp victory in the Prix de Fontainebleau was more of a surprise, for all that he showed plenty of promise in two prior starts on going much different to the good ground he encountered here.