CONGRATULATIONS to Warren Ewing and Barry and Paula Geraghty on their great sale at the Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham Sale with Cesar Collonges. The French-bred four-year-old gelding won a point-to-point at Kirkistown on his debut and was despatched days later to England where he sold for £200,000.

Eight months previously he was bought at the DBS Spring Sale for £14,500, so his value went up almost 14-fold in that time. Not a bad investment by the team!

This is a horse with undoubted potential and he also has the pedigree of a Cheltenham, Aintree or Punchestown Festival winner. His sire has enjoyed success at Cheltenham with last year’s Grade 1 Ryanair Chase winner Uxizandre, while the female side of the pedigree has produced plenty of winners and placed horses there, in spite of it being a largely French family.

Cesar Collonges is by Fragrant Mix, a son of Linamix who won the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and a pair of Group 2 races, the Grand Prix de Chantilly and the Prix Noailles. He was the best older horse in France as a four-year-old over middle distances, but it is as a jumping sire that he will be best remembered at stud.

Prouesse Collonges is the dam of Cesar Collonges and she won over jumps in France. Her first foal Baladin Collonges (by Dom Alco) is also a winner over jumps in his native country, while younger stock on the ground include an unraced three-year-old filly by Alberto Giacometti, a two-year-old filly by Kap Rock and a yearling colt by Saddler Maker.

A daughter of the Bikala horse Apple Tree, Prouesse Collonges is one of five winners from seven foals and runners out of Castille Collonges. Two of these stand head and shoulders above the rest, Neptune Collonges and Quadrette Collonges. The last named, like the recent sale-topper, is by Fragrant Mix and her seven victories include a listed hurdle race.

Neptune Collonges is a more familiar name and this son of Dom Alco bowed out of racing with a memorable win in the Aintree Grand National. That was just one of 16 triumphs he enjoyed in a great career that started with a Grade 3 win over jumps in France, progressed through a hurdle career in England that saw him win a number of times at Grade 2 level, and ended with three Grade 1 successes in Ireland.

The latter were in the Hennessy Gold Cup at Leopardstown and twice in the Punchestown Gold Cup. He was also placed in the Gold Cup at Cheltenham. He won more than £1.3 million during his racing career.

If you go back a few more generations you will see a number of black type winners popping up. Two names stand out and both were sons of Video Rock. Nunuphar Collonges won the Grade 1 Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle for Alan King in 2008, six years after a distant cousin Hussard Collonges was successful in the Royal & SunAlliance Chase for Peter Beaumont.

In a few years’ time it will be no surprise at all to see the name Cesar Collonges winning at the Festival, and joining Bobs Worth as another example of Barry Geraghty’s magic in spotting young, raw talent.