John Ingles looks at some of the more obscure sires who are set to be represented at next month's Cheltenham Festival.
Whereas many of the top races on the Flat tend to be won by horses whose sires come from a fairly restricted pool of the leading stallions, there is much more diversity when it comes to leading Cheltenham Festival contenders. One reason for that is that many of those are French imports. French jumps sires, it seems, can come from all sorts of backgrounds and breeders there are apparently open to supporting sires with ‘different’ origins, more so, perhaps than their British and Irish counterparts. The results, though, speak for themselves as the following examples go to show.
Galopin des Champs, odds on to win his third Cheltenham Gold Cup this year, remains the sole representative of his sire Timos to have raced in Britain or Ireland. The German-bred Timos was a son of Sholokhov, best known in jumping circles for the likes of 2016 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Don Cossack, Shishkin and Bob Olinger. Perhaps Timos himself, a big horse, would have been tried over jumps had he not quickly proved himself a smart Flat performer in France, earning a Timeform rating of 118.
After all, his connections were best known for their jumpers as he was owned by the Marquesa de Moratalla and trained by Thierry Doumen. Timos gained his biggest wins in a couple of listed races at Saint-Cloud and was placed in Group company but finished down the field as a five-year-old in the Arc and Japan Cup. According to France Galop, Galopin des Champs comes from a crop of just 14 foals Timos sired in 2016. But the future Gold Cup winner’s success came too late to save his sire’s career and Timos eventually ended up in Libya.
Galopin des Champs’ stablemate Majborough is another bidding to build on earlier Festival success, with last year’s Triumph Hurdle winner a hot favourite for the Arkle. Majborough is a son of the Japanese horse Martinborough who is himself by Japan’s multiple champion sire Deep Impact.
A dual Group 3 winner in his native country, Martinborough (from the same family as Singspiel and a more recent Japan Cup winner Cheval Grand) would likely have struggled to establish himself at stud in Japan up against Group 1-winning sons of Deep Impact, so sired his first French crop in 2018 and has had plenty of winners there, both on the Flat and, less predictably perhaps, over jumps. His best Flat performer is the smart filly Elusive Princess who was runner-up in Group 1 company in the Prix Saint-Alary and successful in a Grade 3 contest in the States.
Majborough is one of just four individual winners to date for Martinborough over jumps in Britain and Ireland – interestingly, two of the others now have Timeform ‘squiggles’, meaning they’re not ones to trust – but the other, Bella Scintilla, was runner-up in a listed mares’ novice hurdle for Joseph O’Brien having begun her career, like Majborough, in France with Daniela Mele.
Presumably, Willie Mullins must be well used to his stable stars having some rather obscure origins by now and one who could make more of a name for himself is another French import, Kawaboomga, prominent in the betting for the Turners Novices’ Hurdle after a cosy success at Fairyhouse recently.
He’s by the Polish-bred sire Tunis who has an impressive record with a handful of runners in Britain and Ireland for the first time this season, boasting five wins and five seconds from 14 runs. Another son of Tunis to make a successful Irish debut at Fairyhouse for Mullins last month was fellow Festival entry Kiss Will whose impressive performance earned him the ‘large P’ symbol indicating scope for considerable improvement.
Tunis is also the sire of Kovanis, a very expensive Gigginstown purchase who made a winning debut in a bumper at Leopardstown after Christmas. While Tunis (by German sire Estejo, a Group 1 winner in Italy!) was bred in Poland where he won on the Flat, he enjoyed a very successful hurdling career once joining Guillaume Macaire in France, earning a Timeform rating of 149 and proving one of the best hurdlers of his generation. Like a number of top juvenile hurdlers in France, he was kept as an entire and began what is looking a promising stallion career in 2019.
Smart German miler Konig Turf (Timeform rating 116) wasn’t an obvious type to make his mark as a sire of jumpers but at the age of 23 he is well-established at stud in France by now and has a high-profile Festival contender this year in Queen Mother Champion Chase hope Solness.
Not surprisingly given his sire, Solness has shown plenty of speed over fences, putting up high-class efforts from the front at Leopardstown to win the Paddy’s Rewards Club Chase and the Dublin Chase. But he’s not the first good chaser by Konig Turf to join Joseph O’Brien from France as his former stablemate Darasso did well too, showing smart form over both hurdles and fences and winning eight races in Ireland for J. P. McManus.
McManus is also the owner of useful chaser Hasthing, a dual winner at Windsor this winter for Jonjo & A. J. O’Neill, but he’d have stamina to prove if taking up either of his Cheltenham engagements in the National Hunt Novices’ Handicap Chase or the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir.
Majborough’s chief Arkle rival is L’Eau du Sud, last season’s County Hurdle runner-up and unbeaten in four starts over fences this season. He’s also the only winner in Britain this season for his French sire Lord du Sud.
L’Eau du Sud has done most of his racing around two miles so far but there’s a chance he’d prove effective over longer distances as his sire, who is also responsible for last year’s Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris runner-up Grandeur Nature, was a smart stayer on the Flat in France, earning a Timeform rating of 119, and was in his element in soft or heavy ground which L’Eau du Sud handles well too.
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