Emma Berry | Horse Racing Free Tips

David Doing A Wonderful Job Against Goliath

Triumph and disaster. In racing, the two are rarely far from each other. For David Menuisier to cast his mind back to last autumn will doubtless bring mixed emotions.

At his local course of Goodwood on Sept. 23 he lost the horse who played an enormous part in the growing success of his stable, Thundering Blue (Exchange Rate). The 7-year-old's fatal injury in the listed Foundation S. was a cruel blow which brought the trainer and his partner Kim to tears. But when the racing gods take, they so often give something back and, while nothing could fully compensate the Menuisier team for the death of the much-loved grey, less than a fortnight later the trainer celebrated his first Group 1 success in his home country of France.

The progression of Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) from a “lanky, unfurnished” yearling to a fully-flegded Group 1 star has not gone unnoticed. As we speak, Menuisier is occupied overseeing a yard extension. His excellent grasp of idiomatic English leads him to explain that he is “dotting the 'i's and crossing the 't's so that we can have a smooth transition from having 45 horses to about 70 or 75.”

He adds, “It's about making sure we hit the ground running.”

Menuisier certainly ended the 2020 season in some style. Following her victory in the G1 Qatar Prix de Royallieu on Arc weekend, Wonderful Tonight backed up a fortnight later to win the G1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares S. to set the seal on her trainer's most successful year since he set up at Pulborough in 2014. From his relatively small team, he is now responsible for one of the best middle-distance fillies in Europe, with Wonderful Tonight's official rating of 117 placing her behind only the Oaks winner Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in this sphere.

“Last year was just a weird year,” says Menuisier. “In a normal season she probably could have prepared for races like the French Oaks but because of the lockdown it was just very hard to get your head around things and get the horses to peak. This filly is very active, so not knowing when the races were going to start again I just kept the lid on her for as long as possible and she wasn't ready for those Classics when they came up. We just built her up as we went along and at the end of the day she did herself justice.”

With Wonderful Tonight's main target of this year being the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Menuisier is giving her an extended nearby break nearby at Arundel and will bring her back into training later this month.

“She gets fit really quickly because she's so active so I don't want to bring her in too early. She's only down the road so I pop in and see her regularly,” he adds.

Wonderful Tonight runs in the colours of successful owner-breeder Chris Wright and, like so many runners owned by the co-founder of Chrysalis Records, she has a song title for a name. In her case, however, she is not a product of Wright's Stratford Place Stud. Her acquisition at the Arqana August Yearling Sale could be said to have been fortuitous. Wright had just sold the day's top lot for €360,000 to Godolphin. Meanwhile Menuisier had been approached by Wonderful Tonight's breeders, Sylvain Vidal and Mathieu Alex, after the filly had been led out of the ring unsold in the same session.

“I saw the filly and I'm not going to lie: she was a lanky, unfurnished filly and she didn't look much in fairness, but she was a half-sister to a stakes horse already and it's the family line of Camelot (GB). Her dam is by Montjeu (Ire), which is something I've always liked, and of course she is by Le Havre, the same sire as my first stakes winner, Havre De Paix (Fr),” Menuisier recalls.

“I bumped into Chris and I wasn't really thinking of that at the time but I said to him that she was really very little risk if we could buy her for €40,000. He said if I liked her then I should have her vetted, and my feeling was that if she won her maiden she would retain her value. Two Group 1s later it's a dream come true really.”

Wright, who has previously raced Dark Angel (Ire), the homebred Bungle Inthejungle (GB), and Breeders' Cup winner Chriselliam (Ire), now has another four horses in training with Menuisier in Sussex and has been a patron of the trainer almost from the outset of his career.

“Chris sent us our first yearling when we had only 16 or 17 horses,” Menuisier adds. “For a major owner like him to support a small trainer was very flattering. I couldn't be more pleased that I managed to find him such a fantastic filly to thank him for his support.”

With four wins—three of those coming in her native country—from eight runs, Wonderful Tonight could yet make an even bigger name for herself. Clearly very effective on soft or heavy turf, a campaign geared towards the autumn seems sensible and, if she is able to return to ParisLongchamp this October for the main event, perhaps her trainer will be able to accompany her this time around. For the French-bred trainer to take his French-bred star back home, there is not just the pandemic to worry about this year, but also the extra complications posed by Britain no longer being a member of the EU.

He says, “The main plan will be the Arc de Triomphe. Then it's a case of planning towards the Arc. Technically I don't know how just yet because the consequences of Brexit are a bit of a problem. At the moment it's just getting my head around the situation. I will give it another four to six weeks and see how things go. Obviously she is one who ideally would go back to France to run, perhaps in a race like the Prix de Pomone in Deauville in August. She goes on any ground but she's better on softer ground and that's also a part of the equation. But I have a fair few others I want to campaign in France this year so it's a matter of seeing how things go in the next month and then trying to make it happen as smoothly as possible.”

Despite the better prize-money on offer in France and increased travel restrictions post-Brexit, Menuisier insists he has no intention of leaving Britain to train in his home country, where he was formerly an assistant to Criquette Head.

“I'm happy where I am and I will do my utmost to stay here and keep on having a flourishing business, ” he says. “As long as circumstances allow, this will always be my main aim. I would only contemplate going elsewhere if at any point I was feeling that my business or my life was affected by it. I'm very happy here. My partner Kim and I have a daughter and we love Sussex. There's no reason for me to go to France.”

There are indeed plenty of reasons to keep Menuisier at his Pulborough stable as, alongside Wonderful Tonight, he has a number of horses that he is itching to get back to the racecourse this spring.

He says, “Last year was weird but exceptional for us really. We had our first treble at Sandown, a double at Salisbury with 2-year-olds winning for the first time. There have been a lot of firsts: I've had my first winner at Wolverhampton as well!”

Menuisier continues, “When people ask me what was the highlight, of course 'Wonderful' comes first but there were a lot of other horses that made me proud. Bellocio (Fr) (Belardo {Ire} is a horse we've always liked. He won at Salisbury and then I was meant to run him in the Group 1 at Saint-Cloud but he had a problem with the transport so he was unable to take part. Then we sent him to Toulouse three weeks later and he won the listed race really convincingly. So fingers crossed he could be a flag-bearer this year.”

Among the new recruits to the stable is Xaario (Fr) (Kendargent {Fr}), who was runner-up to subsequent G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner Sealiway (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) on debut last May before winning and then having to have a break with a small injury.

“I hope to target the Stewards' Cup with Atalanta's Boy (GB) (Paco Boy {Ire}) this year,” Menuisier adds. “We had bad luck with him last year when it mattered because he missed the break. He missed it in the Stewards' Cup and also in the Ayr Silver Cup, so it was quite unfortunate but I know he has the ability to run really well in those races. Nuits St Georges (Fr) (Mount Nelson {GB}) ran well in the November Handicap and I would expect him to have a decent year, as well as 3-year-old Rewired (GB) (Power {GB}), who got beaten a head by a horse of Godolphin's at Newmarket last year. He's another exciting horse to follow and I'd like to believe we have a strongish team with about 35 2-year-olds.”

The trainer is also keen to return to Australia following a successful visit in 2019 when Chief Ironside (GB) (Lawman {Fr}) won the G2 Schweppes Crystal Mile at Moonee Valley. It was Danceteria (Fr) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}), for the same owners, Australian Bloodstock, who became Menuisier's first ever Group 1 winner in Germany that same year, but Wonderful Tonight's first strike at the top level in Paris was understandably extra special for the Frenchman.

“It was a shame I couldn't attend because of the [Covid] restrictions and I needed to be at Tattersalls two days later. It was a little bit frustrating, but to watch on TV from here was just unbelievable. Speaking to Chris afterwards, he was crying on the phone, and when you deal with someone who's had horses for four decades and you see what it means to them, it was really moving,” he says.

“Most Group 1s in the season end up going to very few stables and I think it's good for racing when it happens to a smaller set-up. It was fantastic to see Archie Watson winning at the Champions Day meeting, and by the same token it was fantastic to see Roger Teal doing well last season. It's David against Goliath most of the time in this business and sometimes it's good when David wins.”

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Siyouni Comes Of Age

It is only a decade since the most expensive stallion at stud in France was Elusive City at €15,000. Yet to have runners at that stage were Le Havre (Ire) and Kendargent (Fr), who entered stud in 2010, followed by Siyouni (Fr) in 2011 and then Wootton Bassett (GB) the next year. Those are the four names who dominated the French sires’ championship in 2020 and can take a large part of the credit for an increasingly dynamic stallion scene in France.

Siyouni, who now commands a fee of €140,000 having started his career at €7,000, is the French champion sire and was second overall in Europe to Galileo (Ire). He had to play second fiddle to Galileo in his home country last year and to an extent that could be put down to what a difference an Arc makes. Galileo sired the 2019 Arc winner Waldgeist (GB), while new Coolmore stallion Sottsass (Fr) enjoyed the biggest day of his career in front of an almost empty ParisLongchamp grandstand in October 2020. He made a huge contribution to Siyouni’s overall progeny earnings of just over €4 million—double that of Le Havre—but the Aga Khan Studs stallion had plenty of other winners, 63 in total in France including nine stakes winners and 17 black-type performers in France, with 27 of the latter throughout Europe.

While Sottsass was the stand-out, Siyouni also sired his second winner of the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, Dream And Do (Fr), who is now in the ownership of Katsumi Yoshida. His reputation farther afield was bolstered by the G1 Dewhurst S. winner St Mark’s Basilica (Ire) and GI EP Taylor S. victrix Etoile (Fr).

The 62 winners for Le Havre were led by a filly trained outside France but by a Frenchman. The G1 Prix de Royallieu and G1 QIPCO British Champion Fillies & Mares S. Winner Wonderful Tonight (Fr) is the stable star for Sussex-based David Menuisier and she was a another feather in the cap of her breeders Sylvain Vidal and Mathieu Alex, who have played a major role in the rejuvenation of the French stallion scene at what was originally known as Haras de la Cauvinière and is now Haras de Montfort et Préaux. Now under the ownership of Nurlan Bizakov, the stud has a further name to grapple with this year in Sumbé, the title which now unites Montfort et Préaux with Bizakov’s original breeding base of Hesmonds Stud in England.

Le Havre, who was tenth overall in the European table, notched 11 black-type winners in Europe last season included the hugely promising Normandy Bridge (Fr), winner of the G3 Prix Thomas Bryon and runner-up to Van Gogh (American Pharoah) in the G1 Criterium International. A tall colt with plenty of scope, he could be one to put his young trainer Stephanie Nigge firmly on the map in 2021.

Kendargent has been one of the great success stories of the French ranks in recent years. The non-stakes winner who started out at a fee of €1,000, he received significant backing from his passionate owner Guy Pariente, whose Haras de Colleville, near Deauville, has blossomed into a breeding operation of some repute.

Now 18, Kendargent is in danger of being upstaged by his son Goken (Fr), who was France’s leading first-season sire of 2020, and Kendargent has also featured as the broodmare sire of several stakes winner by his other Colleville companion, Galiway (GB). His fee peaked at €22,000 and is down to €10,000 for 2021. His leading performer from 63 French winners last season was the globe-trotting Skalleti (Fr), who beat Sottsass when winning the Prix Gontaut-Biron, followed that up by winning the G2 Prix Dollar and was then second to Adeyybb (Ire) in the G1 QIPCO British Champion S.

Wootton Bassett has also been a real success story for French breeding, so much so that he was headhunted by Coolmore last year and is about to serve his first season in Ireland at a fee of €100,000, having stood for as little as €4,000 in this third and fourth seasons. The James Fanshawe-trained Audarya (Fr) followed up her G1 Prix Jean Romanet win with a memorable victory at the Breeders’ Cup, while Wooded (Fr) won the G1 Prix de l’Abbaye before being whisked off to stud himself. There were also close calls for Wootton Bassett’s offspring in the French Classics: his daughters Speak Of The Devil (Fr) and Mageva (Fr) were second and third in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and The Summit (Fr) was runner-up (Ire) in the Poulains.

The winner of that race, Victor Ludorum (Ire), helped his late sire Shamardal to a fifth place in the French sires’ table, his 10 black-type winners including the Aga Khan’s classy Tarnawa (Ire) and Pinatubo (Ire), winner of the G1 Prix Jean Prat.

Rajsaman (Fr) is another to have left France and is now at Ireland’s Longford House Stud but he still sires plenty of winners in his native country, with 60 last year, to put him in sixth place.

Completing the top ten were Juddmonte’s Kingman (GB), whose outstanding French representative was Persian King (Ire); Haras du Quesnay’s Anodin (Ire), who sired four stakes winners in 2020 including G3 Prix de Fille de l’Air winner Directa (Fr); Dabirsim (Fr) and the now Japanese-based Makfi (GB).

The aforementioned Goken was not only leading first-season sire in France but also the country’s leading sire of 2-year-olds, with his 15 winners putting him three ahead of Siyouni in the juvenile category.

Leading sires in Germany
That Sadler’s Wells is a major influence is hardly newsflash material. His reach in Germany is predominantly through one of his lesser-heralded sons, the late In The Wings (GB), whose best sire son, arguably, was Singspiel (Ire). The German ranks are headed by two of his other sons, Adlerflug (Ger), who is champion for the first time ahead of Soldier Hollow (GB), the title holder in the previous two years as well as in 2016.

Physically they are chalk and cheese. Adlerflug, a tall, flashy chestnut, is a product of Germany’s oldest stud farm, Gestut Schlenderhan. Meanwhile, the diminutive bay Soldier Hollow, was bred in England by Car Colston Hall Stud and has spent his stud career initially at Gestut Rottgen before moving to Karl-Dieter Ellerbracke’s Gestut Auenquelle in 2012, whence he has been Germany’s busiest and most expensive stallion for a number of years. Incidentally, Soldier Hollow’s owner Helmut von Finck, who has had notable success with his offspring, has commissioned a video to celebrate the stallion’s 20th birthday, which can be found here.

Adlerflug covered 39 mares in 2020 and he really is a stallion who should be taken more seriously outside Germany. For a start, he is bred very similarly to Galileo (Ire): beyond the Sadler’s Wells top line they share a third dam, Anatevka (Ger), with Adlerflug’s grandam Alya (Ger) being a full-sister to Allegretta (GB).

Ranking 20th overall in the European sires’ championship with markedly fewer runners than all the stallions above him, Adlerflug was responsible for the first two home in the G1 Deutsches Derby, Schlenderhan’s In Swoop (Ire), who was subsequently runner-up in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris and G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, and Torquator Tasso (Ger), who went on to win the G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin. A rare runner for him in Britain in 2020 was the William Haggas-trained juvenile Alenquer (Fr), an easy winner on debut at Newbury who followed up with second in the listed Ascendant S. and looks a colt to follow in 2021.

Alenquer is out of a mare by former German champion sire and classy sprinter Areion (Ger), a veteran son of Big Shuffe (Ger) who was third in the table in 2020 and, now 25, has spent the last three seasons at Gestut Etzean.

Among the younger stallions to note is Gestut Ohlerweierhof’s Isfahan (Ger), the leading German-based first-season sire in 2020. Like Adlerflug, he is a former winner of the Deutsches Derby, and from his 10 runners in 2020, five were winners, including Isfahani (Ger), who won the G3 Premio Guido Berardelli on debut in the colours of her sire’s owner Stefan Oschmann of Darius Racing. Isfahan should be expected to make a bigger impression with his first 3-year-olds, and the same can be said for Gestut Rottgen’s Melbourne Cup winner Protectionist (Ger), the lone son of Monsun (Ger) remaining at stud in Germany.

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Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

It has been a year of change at Haras d’Etreham. In August it was announced that the farm’s flagship stallion Wootton Bassett (GB) had been sold to Coolmore. The dominant Irish operation was wise to catch a rising tide but it is Etreham, and in particular Nicolas de Chambure, who must be credited with establishing the increasingly popular stallion.

If we accept the conservative estimate that only one in ten stallions really make it, then it is clear that finding Wootton Bassett’s replacement will be no easy task. Perhaps Etreham already has a worthy successor in his first-crop champion son Almanzor (Fr). Time will tell. And as back up, the farm welcomes two new stallions this year, both Group 1 winners, both by hugely popular sires, and one of them a Classic winner.

Most farms would welcome the chance to start the career of Persian King (GB) or Hello Youmzain (Fr). Etreham has the golden opportunity of launching them both together, having kept the latter in training for 2020 after buying him the previous season in partnership with New Zealand’s Cambridge Stud. Persian King, who was raced by Godolphin in partnership with his breeder Ballymore Thoroughbred, also raced on at four, adding the G1 Prix d’Ispahan and G1 Prix du Moulin to his victory in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains at three, as well as finishing an honourable third in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe as his parting shot before retirement.

“Persian King is one of the best sons of Kingman so he was attractive to many studs around Europe,” says de Chambure. “I think the dynamism of France recently helped us to be able to buy into him and for his owners to be happy about the idea of our partnership, and for the horse to stand in France.”

Persian King was one of the early stars among Kingman’s offspring, winning three of his four starts at two, including beating subsequent 2000 Guineas winner Magna Grecia (Ire) in the G3 Autumn S. at Newmarket. While that outing from his native France suggested that his trainer Andre Fabre may well target the 2000 Guineas with the imposing colt, Persian King stayed at home as a 3-year-old, winning the G3 Prix de Fontainebleau en route to his Classic success and then finishing second to Sottsass (Fr) in the Prix du Jockey Club.

De Chambure says, “He came back better than ever this year as a 4-year-old. I think his run in the Arc was a bit special for the breeders. They saw something that they didn’t think he was capable of doing. We don’t see that much these days, trainers trying something a bit different with their horses. I think people like the fact that he tried and ran very well in the Arc.”

He adds, “When we buy a stallion prospect their sire is very important so the fact that he is by Kingman is a big plus. It gives French breeders access to that sireline.”

Thanks to Haras d’Etreham and Cambridge Stud, French breeders now also have easy access to a son of Kodiac (GB) in the dual Group 1-winning sprinter Hello Youmzain. While there is a growing throng of Kodiac’s stallion sons in Ireland and Britain, the former Kevin Ryan trainee is the first to retire to stud in France.

“There was never much of a culture of sprinters in France,” de Chambure explains. “The last really good one to retire was Anabaa. This is something a little bit new, and when we found out that he could be bought last year as a 3-year-old it didn’t take us too long to make up our minds. And we were very happy also to keep him in training this year because he won another Group 1 for us and was second in the Maurice de Gheest. So even though we couldn’t go racing, it was a very good year for us and Kevin Ryan did a very good job with him.”

Though sprinting was clearly his game, Hello Youmzain could well be multi-dimensional as a stallion prospect. His dam Spasha (GB) (Shamardal) has produced another two stakes winners on the Flat, including the G2 Gran Criterium winner and G1 Deutsches Derby place-getter Royal Youmzain (Fr) (Youmzain {Ire}), as well as that colt’s full-brother, the Grade 2-winning hurdler Saglawy (Fr). Furthermore, though his first two dams are unraced, his third dam, the G3 Lancashire Oaks winner Sandy Island (GB), is a Mill Reef half-sister to Lord Howard de Walden’s Derby winner Slip Anchor (GB) (Shirley Heights {GB}).

“For a sprinter he has a lot of scope,” de Chambure says. “He’s a good size for a Kodiac and a very good walker, so this, as well as the fact that he’s out of a Shamardal mare with a bit of pedigree as well, I think he ticks a lot of the boxes. I’m sure he’ll get some good 2-year-olds but I can see him getting good milers, and even ten-furlong horses, because he’s got a great mind, and bred with mares with a just a little bit more stamina I’m sure he will be able to. And we hope for that because I always like a stallion who can produce horses that can stay a bit more.”

The winner of the G2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte in his debut season, Hello Youmzain made two successful trips to Haydock at three to win the G2 Sandy Lane S. followed by the G1 Betfair Sprint Cup. For most stallion operations that would have been enough but, in announcing their purchase of him in October 2019, the partners also declared that he would remain in training at four.

“I think I’ll always do that,” says de Chambure of a decision which was not without its risks. “With Almanzor, we bought into him when he was three and he won the Champion Stakes, and everybody through that we were going to retire him because it was the easy thing to do. But I feel we are all retiring horses too soon these days—stallions and mares. We are driven by the whole economy of the thing but we are all in the industry to have horses to win races, and for me that must be the most important thing rather than the economy around it. When you are lucky enough to own part of a Group 1 horse I think it is important to keep them in training, and horses still progress from three to four. We have enough stallions, we have enough mares, and I think we need to enjoy the sport more. Obviously prize-money doesn’t help in Europe but I still think we need to give the horses more exposure and keep them running more. So in the end, yes, it was a little bit of a risk, but we were happy to do it.”

Of course, this investment in enticing stallion prospects would have been harder to do without the trading of Wootton Bassett. Now firmly established in the vanguard of European stallions, when he retired to stud in 2012 following a winless 3-year-old season he was no easy sell.

De Chambure reflects, “He was very hard work the first couple of years. He was the first stallion I bought when I took over the stud in 2011. I guess people didn’t know me then and the horse wasn’t perfect and there was a question mark over [his sire] Iffraaj (GB) at the time, and so all that together made him not that attractive for breeders.”

He continues, “Everything he did was from very little opportunity but then he got bigger numbers of mares and he has just shown that he is an exceptional stallion. It’s good to see all the French breeders who used him at €4,000, €6,000, €20,000 doing well. He has helped them at the sales and with their families, and there were a lot of French people who bought into him over the years. It’s really a success story for France and it was good to be able to share it with breeders.”

Following a year in which Wootton Bassett has been represented by the Group 1 winners Audarya (Fr) and Wooded (Ire), the horse who was the first to score for him at the top level, Almanzor, will now be faced with another test as his first runners take to the track in 2021.

Of his yearlings, de Chambure says, “It wasn’t the easiest year to be launching a stallion with their first yearlings but I think they were well received. Obviously the reputation now of Wootton Bassett is different to a few years ago and that has given Almanzor even more credit.

“They have a bit of size and quality and there’s a good vibe. Obviously we bred him and we raced him for a while so there’s huge expectations for his first 2-year-olds but there’s not a lot we can do now, we just have to wait and watch them run next spring.”

Haras d’Etreham actually welcomes three new stallions for 2021 as its National Hunt wing, Haras de la Tuilerie, is the new home of the Irish Derby winner Latrobe (Ire) (Camelot {GB}). The operation has a history of standing top-class dual-purpose and jump sires, with Poliglote (GB) and Saint Des Saints (Fr) being two stand-outs in this division in recent years. Last year the stud recruited Goliath Du Berlais (Fr)-a relatively rare National Hunt stallion with jumping form himself— to stand alongside his sire Saint Des Saints and the St Leger winner Masked Marvel (GB).

“Goliath Du Berlais won over fences in France so I was kind of looking for a Flat horse who could bring something different. The Montjeu (Ire) sireline has done really well [in jump racing] and there’s no reason that Camelot won’t. Funnily enough, Latrobe is also out of a Shamardal mare, the same as Hello Youmzain. He is a beautiful horse with a lot of quality, and plenty of size and scope for the National Hunt mares.”

With the size of modern-day stallion books being a bone of contention in the industry, breeders may take some comfort in the knowledge that the Etreham horses are limited to 140 mares in a season, including the newcomers.

“We do the same for all our stallions, the National Hunt stallions as well,” de Chambure says. “We just feel it is creating a little bit of a rarity and it’s a way to respect the breeders’ investment in a share, or a nomination. They know they have a foal or a yearling that has a certain value because the market is not loaded with them. There are different ways to help breeders and I feel it is one of the good ways to help them to create value.”

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Across The Codes: Late Starter, Supa Finisher

Emma Berry’s occasional look at the narrow divide between the Flat and National Hunt

Supasundae (GB) was bred for those high summer days at Epsom, Ascot and Goodwood. By Galileo (Ire) and out of a Danehill half-sister to Group 1 winners Nathaniel (Ire) and Great Heavens (Ire), both of whom are also by Galileo, it was no stretch for his breeder Newsells Park Stud to have Classic aspirations for him when he arrived in this world in January 2010.

Plan A didn’t quite work out: Supasundae was bought in at 195,000gns when failing to reach his Book 1 reserve at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and, two years later, he was bought for a now scarcely believable £5,000 at Goffs UK as an unnamed and unraced gelding.

The note on his catalogue page that day read, “This gelding is a fine individual whose looks and appearance clearly indicate that he has needed time”. He transpired to have been a shrewd purchase by Tim Fitzgerald and, given that time, he gave back in spades.

Supasundae won his first two bumpers readily—the first for Fitzgerald and the second on his sole start for Andrew Balding. Then, bought privately by the late Ann and Alan Potts, he was transferred to Ireland, initially to the care of Henry de Bromhead and subsequently, during 2016, to Jessica Harrington, who this week announced his retirement from racing.

Supasundae may have been a late starter but he has packed plenty into his six years of racing, with three Grade 1 triumphs to his credit, including the Irish Champion Hurdle (beating the mighty Faugheen (Ire)), victories at Aintree’s Grand National meeting and the Cheltenham Festival, at which he appeared in six consecutive years.

With 31 runs, eight wins, 11 places and more than £750,000 in prize-money to his credit, he now takes his bow from a successful career. Not the one he was intended for, but an honourable one nonetheless.

Mesnil Casts Potential New Star
As one jumping star is retired, another appears to be enjoying something of a renaissance. There was much consternation regarding the withdrawal of Altior (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) from last Saturday’s G1 Betfair Tingle Creek Chase but that should take nothing away from the winner, Politologue (Fr) (Poliglote {GB}), who made a superb start to this season, having ended the last one on his rousing G1 Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase victory at the Cheltenham Festival.

Now nine, the grey gelding made his first two starts as a 4-year-old in France in the colours of Sophie Devin, the daughter of his breeder Antonia Devin of Haras du Mesnil. Since then, he has been a stalwart of the Paul Nicholls stable, winning 11 of his 25 races in Britain, including two Tingle Creeks and the G1 Melling Chase at Aintree.

In the saddle for his last two Grade 1 wins has been Harry Skelton, more usually seen riding for his trainer brother Dan, a former assistant to Nicholls. The brothers have close links to Politologue’s owner John Hales, who, as well as consistently racing decent National Hunt horses over many years, is an ardent supporter of show jumping and owned Arko III, one of the best horses ridden by their Olympic gold medal-winning father Nick Skelton.

Politologue’s sire Poliglote, who died at Haras d’Etreham in 2018, was a true dual-purpose stallion and holds the rare distinction of having been champion sire both on the Flat and over jumps in France. The son of Sadler’s Wells was bred by the Wertheimer family and provided them with their 2012 Arc winner Solemia (Fr).

In similar vein, Antonia Devin and her husband Henri can be considered breeders of distinction in both codes. Two years in a row they have bred a Cheltenham Festival winner, with A Plus Tard (Fr) (Kapgrade {Fr}) having won there in the Cheveley Park Stud colours in 2019. They have also enjoyed much success with their own stallions over the years. Politologue is out of a mare by their former stalwart, Turgeon, who died last year at the age of 33 having covered 26 mares the previous season.

As he entered his twilight years, Turgeon’s stud mate Doctor Dino (Fr) came to the fore and is now one of France’s busiest stallions. In 2019 the dual G1 Hong Kong Vase winner was sent 155 mares and, while he is principally regarded as a Nation Hunt stallion, with the likes of Sceau Royal (Fr), Docteur De Ballon (Fr), Sharjah (Fr) and La Bague Au Roi (Fr) as his major flagbearers, he is also responsible for the Flat group winners Golden Legend (Fr), Villa Rosa (Fr) and G1 Prix de Diane runner-up Physiocrate (Fr), all three having been bred by the Devins and trained by their son Henri-Francois.

The latest addition to the stallion yard at Mesnil is Telecaster (GB) (New Approach {GB}), who won the G2 Dante S. for his breeders Mark Weinfeld and Helena Ellingsen of Meon Valley Stud in 2019 before returning to post two wide-margin victories in France this season, including his swansong in the G2 Grand Prix de Deauville.

Meon Valley Stud has already provided arguably the best British-based National Hunt stallion of the modern era in the recently retired Kayf Tara (GB) (Sadler’s Wells). In Telecaster, who is out of the Oaks and Irish Oaks runner-up Shirocco Star (GB), we find not just Sadler’s Wells in his top line, but the much-vaunted Monsun (Ger) underneath. Though both these top-class stallions have been hugely influential on the Flat, they are also ubiquitous in the pedigrees of jumpers.

With the support in particular of the Devins’ own broodmare band, which features plenty of outcross daughters of their former stallions Turgeon, Kaldounevees (Fr) and his son Ange Gabriel (Fr), don’t be surprised to see Telecaster loom large in the jumps division in years to come.

Come On Eileen
In many respects, 2006 was a vintage year for those who enjoy seeing some of the game’s smaller players gain the upper hand in major races. The 16,000-guinea yearling Sir Percy (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire}) won the Derby for Victoria and Anthony Pakenham, whose previous star performer had been the prolific jumps winner The Dark Lord (Ire) (Lord Americo {Ire}).

A month earlier, Speciosa (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) had plotted a wayward course to triumph in the 1000 Guineas for her small dual-purpose trainer Pam Sly, who owned the filly with her son Michael and Dr Tom Davies. The victory not only made Sly the first British woman to train a British Classic winner, but Speciosa, bred by Kevin and Meta Cullen, became the first graduate of a breeze-up sale to win a Classic.

Having turned down a seven-figure offer for Speciosa before her Classic season, the Slys and Davies retained her as a broodmare and she is still at her former trainer’s farm near Thorney, some 40 miles from Newmarket. She has been joined in the paddocks by her three winning daughters Asteroidea (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), Vernatti (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}) and Specialty (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}). The latter is responsible for the latest exciting member of the dynasty in 3-year-old Eileendover (GB) (Canford Cliffs {Ire}), who has won her only two bumper starts to date by a collective 45 lengths in the colours made famous by her grandam.

Eileendover may be seen next in the listed juvenile bumper at Cheltenham on New Year’s Day, according to Pam Sly, who told TDN after last Saturday’s rout at Wetherby, “I’m going to try to get a bit of black type with her, then give her a break and have a go on the Flat as I think she goes on any sort of ground.”

The breeder/trainer has her horses in tremendous form and, as well as Eileendover, she has also won with her homebreds Xcitations (GB) (Universal {Ire}), Fransham (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}) and Takeit Easy (GB) Malinas {Ger}) in recent weeks. Furthermore, Rainyday Woman (GB) (Kayf Tara {GB}), whom she bred and trained for her first two starts, recently won on her bumper debut for champion trainer Paul Nicholls.

Sly says of her 17-year-old former stable star, “Speciosa had a Cracksman (GB) filly this year and is not in foal this time. She’s still as feisty as ever. Her 2-year-old by Nathaniel (Ire) is enormous and is in my front paddock. I’ll get on with him in the new year.”

Meanwhile, Speciosa’s daughter Asteroidea has a 3-year-old War Command filly named Bellica (GB), also described by the trainer as “enormous, so I’m going to try to run her in a bumper”.

The bumper-to-Flat route has worked well in the past for middle-distance fillies, with the Hughie Morrison-trained Urban Artist (GB) (Cityscape {GB}) winning last year’s listed mares’ bumper at Cheltenham before notching three consecutive wins and some black type on the Flat this season to push her rating to 98. The most notable example of all, however, was perhaps Turbo Linn (GB) (Turbo Speed {GB}), who was reared on a Scottish hillside by her owner-breeder James Nelson before being deftly trained by the late Alan Swinbank to progress from Carlisle bumper winner to G2 Lancashire Oaks winner from seven consecutive wins in nine months. The stuff of dreams for all small breeders.

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