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Fergal O'Brien

Fergal O'Brien

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

THE 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.

“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 be about 70 per cent NH mares but there is a good number of Flat mares going to him, too.”

There is quite an Anglo-French air in the Coolagown stallion yard as Way To Paris has joined compatriots Carlotamix and Zambezi Sun in the Blackwater Valley, with Coolagown’s stallion line-up completed by Shantaram, who raced not under the Tricoleur but the red, white and blue of the British flag.

Carlotamix was a Group 1 winner at two and is the sire of dual French champion hurdle winner Gemix, who is now an exciting young stallion in France. A son of Linamix, like Martaline, he offers an outcross for Sadler’s Wells and Danehill-line mares; he some beautiful breeding lines that include two strains of the great Nasrullah on his dam’s side.

BRED BY JUDDMONTE, Zambezi Sun boasts a typically strong pedigree for one produced by the breeding empire.

Successful in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris and the Group 2 Prix Foy, he is one of four stakes performers out of the Zafonic mare Imbabala, a winning half-sister to the dams of the Group 1 winners Continent and Rinterval. His first Coolagown crop is just three this year.

Richard Venn sourced Way To Paris and Zambezi Sun for Stack and with “Le Stallion Man” there is an honesty that allows for a deep sense of trust between Stack and Venn.

“If you can’t trust your agent in this game then you’re at nothing,” remarks Stack. “I’ve bought mares, foals and stallions with Richard and if he tells me he has found something nice, that’s enough for me. I know the horse will be good before I even look at all the information or see it.”

And then there is Shantaram, the odd one out in this French confection but the Britishbred Group 3 Bahrain Trophy winner offers strong qualities all of his own, not least the fact that he is a handsome son of Galileo.

Out of a mare by Darshaan and with a second dam by Be My Guest, Shantaram has a proven pedigree that offers NH breeders every element that they require in a stallion. “Shantaram is a gorgeous son of Galileo

who is 16.3h but has a heart about four times that. He has an unbelievable temperament, he is one of the nicest horses you will ever come across,” enthused Stack.

“He loves his job, has an unbelievable mind, he has a great nature. His attitude is second to none, he is a credit to John Gosden and his staff because it has to be down to the way he was cared for and handled, as well as his own nature.”

The striking grey Way To Paris was on the David Stack and Richard Venn stallion radar for some time

A full-brother to the 2,000 Guineas third Gan Amhras, Shantaram’s oldest crop is just six and from a handful of opportunities has some promising youngsters already

The Carpenter made a good debut in a bumper at Navan in March when a good second for the Crawfords and he looks very promising.

He has a very nice pedigree as his dam is a half-sister to Kemboy.

Air Display was the first stallion to call Coolagown Stud home when Stack’s father Bernie decided to develop that aspect of his breeding enterprise.

“In 1997 we stood Air Display who we bought off Hugo Merry,” recalls Stack. “My dad had a lot of broodmares and we thought it would be more economically viable to have our own stallion and it’s gone from there.

“In theory this was the plan to keep going upwards but we have hit a few bumps along the way!” he laughs.

“We have been improving as we go along, but collectively this is the best group of stallions that I have stood. There are three French Group 1 winners, who were all sound and tough horses, and a well-bred son of Galileo.”

The way to success may also be found alongside Way To Paris in the north Cork countryside.

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