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european stallions
Zarak’s progeny will reach the racecourse in 2021.
Shalaa has attracted strong support from breeders and in the sales ring. Using him in 2020 will be a risk if he doesn’t produce two-year-old winners as his commercial star will wane quickly; but if his first crop get good reslts, he will be more popular still in 2022.
Almanzor is the best racehorse at stud in continental Europe, and Zarak is probably the best bred one, and so it is not surprising they have both attracted strong support at Etreham and Bonneval.
Recorder only ran three times, but he is a two-year-old Group winner by Galileo out of a two-year-old Group-winning dam, and at Montfort & Preaux he attracted a big first book of mares.
Olympic fillies popular
Boquetot’s Olympic Glory has always been popular with breeders as he has averaged 150 mares a year over his first five seasons at stud.
In the sales ring things have become more difficult for those offering his progeny and in 2019 his yearling fillies recorded an average price twice as high as his colts.
For the time being Olympic Glory’s best progeny have been the Group 1-performing fillies Watch Me and Grand Glory.
With only one crop of three-year-olds to race it is too soon to see if this bias towards females will be a long-term trend.
A more surprising trend to emerge from his first crop of three-year-olds is that his progeny do not seem to be the fast precocious two-year-olds he was himself. No less than 40 per cent of the wins by his three-year-olds came over further than 2000m and only 10 per cent at less than a mile.
Wootton Bassett: an international sire?
By 2022 it is very likely that Etreham’s Wootton Bassett will have joined Siyouni and Le Havre as an international sire.
The son of Iffraaj’s last crop produced at
a low fee, he stood at €6,000 in 2016, were two-year-olds of 2019 and included several high-class performers such as Helter Skelter, Wooded, The Summit and Guildsman among a total of 19 two-year-old winners.
For the next two years Wootton Bassett stood at €20,000 and received plenty of support from his new international syndicate.
His progeny act on all types of ground and the All-Weather and, while they are mainly milers, he does get middle-distance horses from mares with stamina.
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Wootton Bassett
has the advantage of being an outcross to a large proportion of European-based mares as he has
no Danehill or Sadler’s Wells
in his pedigree
Wootton Bassett has the advantage of being an outcross to a large proportion of European-based mares as he has no Danehill or Sadler’s Wells in his pedigree.
His best horses to date are not out of mares from these sire lines either, but that is probably only a reflection of the mares a horse standing at €6,000 in France is likely to receive.
Protectionist: Group performer from two to six
Le Havre: likely to improve further
Montfort & Preaux’s Le Havre is another hugely successful outcross sire. His three- year-olds of 2019 were his first since he was re-syndicated and his fee went from €7,000 to €20,000.
The result was a string of high-class performers headed by the Group 1 winner Villa Marina. His next three crops of three-year-olds were conceived at €35,000 and then for two years he stood at €60,000 and so his results are very likely to improve further.
Le Havre’s progeny tend not to be precocious and, while many are middle- distance performers, he has some excellent fast horses from fast mares. They act on all types of ground, but have a slight preference for soft ground and the All-Weather.
French imports on the up
Annebault’s Reliable Man and Grandcamp’s Dream Ahead started their stud careers in Germany and Ireland, but both will have significant representation in France between now and the 2022 yearling sales.
Reliable Man has proved to be a sire of middle-distance horses, even if his best progeny are more than capable of winning as two-year-olds.
His first two German crops included three Group winners and his son Erasmus, who retires to stud in France in 2020, could have become the best recent German-bred runner, if his career had not been prematurely ended.
Reliable Man has also produced two Group 1 winners in Australia and the very useful Reliable Team in Hong Kong. It will be a surprise if there are not some good-class performers from his large first French crop, who will be three in 2022.
Dream Ahead is a sire of sprinters and was represented by no fewer than four Group 1 speedsters in 2019.
His first French-sired progeny will be two-year-olds of 2020 and he will have a large crop of French-bred three-year-olds to race for him in 2022.
Dream Ahead’s progeny tend to act well on both soft ground and the All-Weather which tends to make them well suited to racing in France.
Next year will be key for many
The Haras de Bouquetot’s Al Wukair,
a son of Dream Ahead who won the Group 1 Prix Jacques le Marois, is from the same generation of sires as Recorder,