Unusually for a future champion stayer, Zarathustra demonstrated precocious speed, winning three times as a two-year-old over the minimum distance of five furlongs.
After one unsuccessful run in early 1956 he was transferred to England where he was trained at Newmarket, Suffolk by Cecil Boyd-Rochfort.
By the end of the season he had won four races in Britain including the Ascot Stakes (by five lengths)[2] and the Goodwood Cup.
The stable jockey, Harry Carr preferred to ride the Queen's runner Atlas, leaving Zarathustra to be ridden by Lester Piggott.
[4] Bapsybanoo Pavry, the former Marchioness of Winchester and a Parsee, protested that the horse's being named after the prophet Zarathustra was offensive to her religion and ought to be changed.