“THERE’S now one question journalists won’t be able to ask me anymore: when are you going to win the [Grade 1] Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris?” said François Nicolle with a smile, just seconds after his charge Diamond Carl (Diamond Boy) captured France’s most prestigious jumps race on Sunday at Auteuil.

The renowned trainer had never previously won this race, despite a résumé filled with victories in all of France’s other top hurdle and chase events. Winning rider Clément Lefebvre, stepping in at the last minute to replace the injured Bertrand Lestrade, rode a textbook waiting race, sweeping past his opponents between the final two fences, and opening a decisive gap that only grew on the run-in.

The victory marked a fourth Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris for the gelding’s owners the Papot family, after wins for Sel Jem (2022), On The Go (2018), and Bel La Vie (2013).

Most of the credit for Diamond Carl’s success has to go to Diamond Boy (Mansonnien), as the gelding is one of just two blacktype winners in the family going back four generations.

The only other, Filoucyos (Sicyos), is a listed flat winner at Marseille and is out of Diamond Carl’s fourth dam, the unraced Raise A Flower (Raise A Native). Diamond Carl is the only blacktype runner of any kind in the first three generations of his female family, but this is a line that has been carefully cultivated by the gelding’s breeder.

Diamond Carl was born at Laurence Gagneux’s Haras des Éclos, and she has had the family for three generations. The best four-year-old chaser of his generation, Diamond Carl missed his five-year-old year, and the spring of the next year, due to health problems. The now seven-year-old won the Grade 2 Prix Georges Courtois five months ago, and earned his first Grade 1 success on Sunday.

This was a magnificent return on their investment for the Papot family who bought Diamond Carl for €210,000 at an online flash sale held by Auctav in December 2021. At the time, the three-year-old had run twice, winning at Compiègne and finishing second in the Grade 3 Prix General de Saint-Didier at the same track. Now he has won nine of his 14 starts, been placed four times, and has winnings of €962,350.

Diamond Carl is the best horse bred by Gagneux, who has been based at Haras des Éclos in Orne since 1988. She has bred others, one of whom will be familiar to readers. That is the Grade 3 Irish chase winner Gin On Lime (Doctor Dino) who carried the Robcour colours when trained by Henry de Bromhead.

Diamond Boy

The Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris winner is from the final French-conceived crop by Diamond Boy, who left Haras de la Croix Sonnet during the summer of 2017 to stand in Ireland, at Con O’Keeffe’s Kilbarry Lodge Stud. Since then, the sire’s reputation has gone from strength to strength, and he has been represented by such as multiple Grade 1 winners Impaire Et Passe and L’Homme Presse.

Gagneux explained her attraction to the sire. “I really liked Diamond Boy’s profile as a son of Mansonnien (Tip Moss), and he is also very well-bred on the maternal side, being a full-brother to two Grade 1 winners over jumps. What’s more, he was close to home at the time!”

Diamond Carl’s dam, Sa Carla (Satri), almost ended up in Kazakhstan as a yearling after she was offered for sale at Arqana, and Gagneux retained her for €1,500. She explained: “I needed to make some space at the time, and entered quite a few horses in the Deauville sales. Many customers from Kazakhstan were buying there for ridiculously low prices, so I was lucky to keep Sa Carla. She was bad tempered at the sale, so no one put in a bid!”

Sa Carla was then put in training at Maisons-Laffitte with Guy Cherel. She won a pair of chases in the provinces, finished third at Auteuil, and ran fifth in the Listed Prix Fifrelet. She is a daughter of Satri (Mujadil), a stallion in which Gagneux bought a share but who was ignored in France. He is enjoying some success as a broodmare sire with limited opportunities.

Third winner

Diamond Carl is Sa Carla’s third foal and one of her three winners. She is also dam of Sa Carlex (Saddex) who won three races over hurdles and a chase, and the filly Sarabend (Sommerabend) who was sold to Diamond Carl’s previous owners, Stéphane Ruel, Christophe Dubourg and Noël Dubief. She won twice over hurdles last year. Sa Carla is responsible for a couple of placed runners and has some well-bred youngsters coming along.

This family has been at Haras des Éclos for a long time. Gagneux ‘acquired’ Diamond Carl’s third dam, Fleur Boreale (Sicyos). She won eight flat races from two to five, including two at Longchamp. Her former owner, who boarded her at Éclos, gave her to Gagneux. Though from a flat family, Gagneux chose to go the National Hunt route with Fleur Boreale as one of her siblings had produced a useful runner named Le Frestynet (Caerwent). He was placed several times at listed level at Auteuil.

Fleur Boreale bred six winners, her son Jim De Fleur (Jimble) winning five, while Diamond Carl’s grandam Acarla (Akarad) won just once and placed 14 times. She had three successful offspring and Sa Carla was the only one of them to win more than once.