coolagown stud Way To Paris by Champs Elysees
Navigate your Way To Paris!
Irish NH breeders have been finding that the best Way To Paris is via Cork, writes Aisling Crowe Photography courtesy of Coolagown Stud
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HE WAY TO PARIS is, at least for Irish-based NH breeders, not to board a flight or ferry to France, but to travel down the M8 to Cork where they will find the exciting new stallion bearing that name, who was one of the sensations of 2020 when winning the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint Cloud. Now an eight-year-old, the son of Champs Elysees mixed it with the best middledistance performers in France, running the last two Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winners close on a number of occasions most notably when Sottsass had to work hard for his narrow victory over Way To Paris in the Group 1 Prix Ganay last season. The striking grey, who gets his colouring from his broodmare sire Linamix, an influential presence in the pedigrees of some top-class performers and sires, was on David Stack and agent Richard Venn’s radar for a long time as the pair searched for new stallions to bolster the Coolagown roster that is now at its strongest since the Stack family made their first foray into the stallion arena 24 years ago.
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“Way To aris’s first mares have been scanned in foal and we have a lot of good mares booked into him “We were tracking him, myself and Richard Venn, and he was able to get the deal brokered for us,” remarks the affable Stack. “Way To Paris is a tall, good-looking horse with plenty of size and scope and is sound of wind and limb. “As well as his race record, he has the looks and the pedigree to back it up. Champs Elysees has made his mark and he is Champs Elysees’s only son at stud.”
Champs Elysees covered around 400 mares in his two seasons in Ireland as a predominantly NH stallion, standing just a few miles away from where his son now resides. The Group 1 winner and full-brother of the brilliant Dansili leaves a strong legacy that includes Way To Paris, the 1,000 Guineas and Sun Chariot Stakes winner Billesdon Brook and the Australian Group 1 winner Harlem on the Flat. That, combined with Way To Paris’s own race record and good looks, has seen a significant amount of Flat breeders make a date for their mares with him. “Way To Paris’s first mares have been scanned in-foal and we have a lot of good mares booked into him, we are pleasantly surprised at the level of mares he is attracting,” reveals Stack. “There are a lot of half-sisters to good black-type horses and good black-type performers, he is getting Flat and NH mares. “In-foal to him already is a mare who was a Listed winner at two and has bred a Listed winner on the Flat and over hurdles already. “Flat breeders aiming to get 1m2f to 1m4f are sending him nice mares; his book will
