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Young French stallions
Adrien Cugnasse casts his eye over the young talent in France
FRENCH RACING HAS ITS WEAKNESSES, but among the things that the French industry knows how to do well is the breeding of jumpers and, in particular, bring forward young jump stallions.
At this year’s Cheltenham, French breeding achieved its best score ever: 12 graded race victories.
In France, a young sire can reach the top having started his career with medium-sized books. Walk In The Park (Montjeu) covered 58 mares in his first season at stud, Blue Bresil (Smadoun) 55, Network (Monsun) 48 and Saddler Maker (Sadler’s Wells) just nine.
Given that there is no need to cover huge books when starting out to be successful in France, this means that many young stallions (but not all) will have a reasonable chance of success, but, of course as we know, only a minority actually succeed.
Unfortunately (for French breeders), Martinborough (Deep Impact) has left for Ireland. He is a very good stallion, perhaps he was the best of the young sires in our country, and an outcross, too.
He has 55 per cent winners-torunners over jumps. Seven are blacktype performers, or 17 per cent, which is remarkable and the Grade 1 Arkle Chase third-placed Majborough (Martinborough) is a talented horse.
Martinborough has never covered many mares and in only two of his eight French seasons he saw no more than 70 mares. Well done to the Irish breeders for getting their hands on him.
They have first three-year-olds In 2025, we will see the first three-year-olds run over jumps by Headman (Kingman),
Moises Has (Martaline), For Fun (Motivator), King Edward (Martaline), Latrobe (Camelot), Gary Du Chenet (Martaline) and Telecaster (New Approach).
At the time of writing, only a few races for three-year-olds over hurdles have taken place. Of the aforementioned young sires, Telecaster has had a runner and Moises Has a daughter called Manita, who was
runner-up in one of the best three-yearold beginners’ hurdle races. Latrobe’s first runner was fourth in the same race.
To be able to judge them correctly, it will be necessary to wait for spring 2026 and their first four-year-olds.
In the meantime, these young stallions will have to produce good three-year-olds because that is really what French breeders are looking for – last year these first French three-year-old races launched the career of Goliath Du Berlais (Saint Des Saints), a young stallion who, just a year later, many consider to be exceptional.
They have first four-year-olds
In living memory never has a young stallion had such a spectacular start to his career as Goliath Du Berlais.
As a racehorse, he ran eight times at three, but he was mainly considered a good four-year-old when he won his four Group victories.
A horse with an impressive physique, no one expected Goliath Du Berlais to produce early three-year-olds jumpers –yet before the end of March 2024, he was already the sire of two winners.
And that was only the beginning because a year later, Goliath Du Berlais has continued to show that was no flash in the pan and has gone on to more than confirm that early promise.
To date, with his first four-year-olds, he has 49 runners over jumps, but already 18 winners (37 per cent), a lot at this stage of his career. Those who have not yet won will have plenty of opportunities in four-year-old races to open their account.
Seven of his progeny are black-type performers (14 per cent) which is remarkable for such a young stallion, because the French programme offers a low proportion of Listed and graded races.
His flag bearer is Sobriquette, the recent winner of the Prix Duc d’Anjou (G3) and who is among the favourites for the Prix Ferdinand Dufaure (G1).
Admittedly, Goliath Du Berlais did begin his career seeing a book of good mares, but this was the case for other beginners before him, and few have achieved such results!
His covering fee for 2025 is €12,500, a sum which is unheard of for a stallion with his first crop of four-year-olds. This is the price for a proven stallion, and the young sire of Haras d’Etreham has enormous pressure to live up to with much expected of him now.
I have read in the Anglo-Irish press that one of the secrets of the success of French jumping breeding lies in the AQPS mares. I think this is poor judgment – in the case of Goliath Du Berlais, only one of his 18 winners is out of a mare bearing the AQPS suffix!
Admittedly, the AQPS breed does contribute to their building of the French jumping scene, but we must not overestimate its importance. This year, the breed has had something of a slump with just a quarter of the French-breds in the Anglo-Irish top 100.
But, if we look at the last three seasons, these French non-thoroughbreds correspond to almost a third of the French-born horses in this top 100. This is a relatively logical success rate because it is generally estimated that AQPS roughly represent a third of the births of jumpers in France.
Born at the same stud as Goliath, Nirvana Du Berlais (Martaline) is also represented by his first four-year-olds.
His first crop was smaller (77 foals against 101 for Goliath), and so he logically had fewer runners (29, or 38 per cent of his foals against 48 for Goliath, or 48 per cent).
In general, Nirvana du Berlais’ progeny are seeming to need a little more time and it is no coincidence that his flag bearer Lulamba started at the end of his three-yearold year and is in training in England.
The Nicky Henderson-trained Lulamba, who was sent off as an 11/4 shot for the Triumph Hurdle (G1), put in an excellent performance to finish a neck second.
To really get an opinion on Nirvana du Berlais, the second half of 2025 will be decisive. His second crop (100 foals) and third (134 foals) are larger than the first and he will therefore have more runners so that we can form an opinion on him.
Perhaps, like a number of French stallions, his progeny might be better suited to racing Ireland and Britain.
The stallion has a first black-type performer at Auteuil, but to date his best offspring in training in France seems to be Leader Sport. This four-year-old won well at Compiègne, carrying the colors of Walter Connors, who has had great success with his horses trained in France and already has had four individual winners this year.
Bande (Authorized) was a fairly latematuring racehorse, and much more so than his brother Doctor Dino (Muhtathir).
He had 87 foals in his first crop, the year he stood for €3,000, and the stallion covered a very modest quality of mares.
His three-year-olds did not shine, but things now seem to be taking off as his first runners turn four and many have shown class over the last weeks.
Lucky Nonantais finished second in the Prix Duc d’Anjou (G3) at Auteuil, while Color Ritano (Bande) is a recent 15l winner over fences. Lucky Nonantais’s trainer is now targeting the Grade 1 races for the horse.
Two rather unexpected stallions have shone in recent weeks. The full-brother of Gleneagles (Galileo), Taj Mahal (Galileo) was somewhat handicapped by the fact that French jump breeders do not like the blood of Galileo (even if Galiway is a success).
From a low quality book, Taj Mahal has produced six jump winners from eight runners – Proud Lucy who, despite a completely empty maternal pedigree, has recently finished second in the Prix d’Indy (G3) at Auteuil.
No one saw Taj Mahal coming!
Another surprise sire Earnshaw (Medaglia D’Oro) also covered a book of poor quality mares in the south-west.
With just four runners over the jumps, he has already produced Kaldoun Des Rocs, who was second in one of the good races for early three-year-olds over hurdles at Compiègne.
Another offspring of Earnshaw, Xena Du Moun started her career with a 9l victory over hurdles. The US-bred Earnshaw has a lot black-type jumpers in his own dam line and that’s maybe an explanation for his surprisingly good start.
The stallion was unearthed by vet Marc Semirot, the man who bought Walk In The Park (Montjeu) for €195,000 at the Arc Sale as a stallion prospect.
They have first five-year-olds
In 2019, Beaumec De Houelle (Martaline) was clearly the most anticipated beginner over jumps and he covered a lot of mares in his first three years at stud. He seems more
gifted at producing four-year-olds and fiveyear-olds than three-year-olds.
After a little slow start the stallion has really taken off in recent months and his progeny have restored his image.
To date, he has had 75 runners over jumps, but nine are already black-type performers, or 12 per cent, including two horses who picked up black-type at Pau and Cagnes sur Mer in 2025.
At €5,000, Beaumec De Houelle is a good value for money option for breeders this season.
He has not yet produced the Grade 1 horse who will allow him to explode commercially, but he can already count on the good Mamisuz De Houelle (Beaumec De Houelle), winner of the Prix Magalen Bryant (G2) at Auteuil last autumn.
Tunis (Estejo) had four three-year-old stores who sold for €100,000 or more in 2024. And his covering fee has increased from €4,000 to €10,000. In France, the stallion has 17 jump winners from 59 runners (29 per cent) and three black-type performers (five per cent).
Tunis himself was not a backward horse – he won over a mile as a two-year-old in Poland – and he then finished second in the first three-year-old hurdle race in France. But he stands in a region where the mares are known for not being early. It will be interesting to see how his production evolves over time.
A number of stallions who started out in the Flat market have produced black-type performers over jumps.
This is the case of Cloth Of Stars (Sea The Stars), Dschingis Secret (Soldier Hollow), whose Shuttle Diplomacy finished third in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper, Seahenge (Scat Daddy) and Seabhac (Scat Daddy), and Seabhac looks interesting
We don’t necessarily expect a son of Scat Daddy (Johannesburg) to get jumpers, but he has had eight runners over jumps in France, including four winners, two blacktype and a three-time graded-placed filly.
He is also the sire of Shokdor, an impressive winner of the Prix le Prix Touquet (L) in Auteuil, and now being targeted at the Prix Ferdinand Dufaure (G1).
Some of the best French jump breeders, such as Guy Cherel, Pierre de Maleissye Melun, Francois-Marie Cottin or Gheorghe Codre, are sending him mares.
Coolmore out to launch stallions who have jumped
Susan Magnier has sent several well-bred three-year-old colts to Noel George and Amanda Zetterholm in the hope of producing a jump stallion by Walk In The Park.
The first runner Wild Bill Hickok was a stylish winner of the first three-year-old hurdle race in the French programme, the Prix d’Essai des Poulains.
After the race George said that some of the other stallion prospects Susan Magnier sent him were even better!
And so it proved – The Mighty Celt made a 4l winning debut in the middle of March. The interest of Anglo-Irish stallion owners to stand sires who have won over jumps is clearly growing.
