THE team that entered the Darley (now Godolphin) Flying Start programme in 2003 was pretty impressive. It was made up of Tan Kah Soon (now a successful trainer in Singapore), Stuart Boman (bloodstock agent), Henry Field (managing director Newgate Farm, Australia), Kate Grimwade, Andriy Ostapchuk (Imperial Bloodstock), Lisa Jane Graffard (Godolphin, France), Edward Sackville (principal at SackvilleDonald Bloodstock), Tina Rau (bloodstock agent), Hanako Varian (director Varian), Michael Dilger (racehorse trainer, USA), Amy Lanigan (David Lanigan Racing/photographer) and Francis-Henri Graffard.

Then last-named established a racing stable in Chantilly in October 2011, having long held the ambition to be a trainer. Graffard picked up a passion for horses through his grandfather, the noted National Hunt breeder, Dr Henri Champliau. Starting his career at Arqana in France, he joined Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley team after Flying Start, before spending three years as assistant trainer to Alain de Royer-Dupré. He met his wife Lisa Jane on the Flying Start course.

Graffard has grown his string year on year, and with it has come increasing success. His first Grade 1 success came in Canada with Erupt, and this has been followed by a trio of Group 1 winning fillies, starting with Bateel, while 2019 saw top-level victories for Channel and Watch Me. Last weekend, as the curtain fell on racing in France until mid-April, Graffard showed how well his string is when he trained the winners of two of the three blacktype races at Saint-Cloud.

The day’s feature was the Group 3 Prix Exbury, and this provided a perfect result for owner-breeders Nigel and Carolyn Elwes as their four-year-old Simona captured the prize and the even more valuable blacktype. She is now the best of the four winning progeny from Monava, a mare bought through Kern/Lillingston Bloodstock for €35,000 a decade ago.

A daughter of El Prado (Sadler’s Wells), Monava was carrying her first foal, a filly by Gold Away (Goldneyev), and she became the four-time winnerMongolia. All four of her winners have been successful at least three times, while this year will see the appearance of the two-year-old Anoushka (Anodin).

Just as Monava was sold carrying a winner by Gold Away, so too was her dam Moiava (Bering). In this case that winner was Indignant, a listed winner in England and group-placed a few times. She was bred and raced by the McIntyre family’s Theakston Stud in Yorkshire, an operation that has been in the same ownership for four generations. Moiava was quite a bargain at just €18,000, given that she was rated the best two-year-old filly of her year in France. Indignant is the best of her eight winners.

The family is top-class going further back, Moiava being one of three blacktype winners on the flat for her Group 2 Prix de l’Opera winning dam Mona Stella (Nureyev). That trio of successful offspring is headed by Special Quest (Rainbow Quest), winner at two of the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud and adding the Group 2 Prix Noailles the next year.

The best of Mona Stella’s siblings was the classic winner Dancing Maid (Lyphard), winner of the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and the Group 1 Prix Vermeille.

Siyouni has been an outstanding success since retiring to stud in 2011. A Group 1 winner at two and placed at that level the next season, he stood his first four seasons at the Aga Khan’s Haras de Bonneval for what now seems an unbelievable €7,000. This year, for the second time, he commands €100,000! His rise has been nothing short of meteoric, though it arguably was predictable.

Siyouni at Haras de Bonneval \ Zuzanna Lupa

He is one of 30 Group 1 winners for his sire, the champion sprinter Pivotal (Polar Falcon), while he is one of four stakes winners, the first four living offspring, of his listed-winning dam Sichilla (Danehill). His siblings include Siyouma (Medicean), winner of the Group 1 Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket and the Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes in Canada, while another is the listed winner Siyenica (Azamour) and she bred last year’s Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary heroine Siyarafina, a daughter of the aforementioned Pivotal.

Siyouni’s first crop included classic and three-time Group 1 winner Ervedya, and she was followed a few years later by Laurens, the admirable racemare who annexed no fewer than six Group 1s in her career. Last year, Siyouni’s first Group 1 winning son emerged in the shape of Sottsass, the Prix du Jockey Club – French Derby victor.

Simona’s Group 3 win saw a coming-of-age for her sire on that front, providing him with his 21st winner at pattern level. Two-thirds, or 14, of that number have been fillies. Last year he was the leading sire in France for the third time in a row, while the demand for his yearling was unwavering, and they sold for up to 1,300,000gns.

Graffard’s second stakes winner on the day was provided by the three-year-old Emoji, a German-bred daughter of Soldier Hollow (In The Wings) out of the Manduro (Monsun) mare Exotic Rose. A 14-length winner of her only start at two, a maiden over a mile in Germany, Emoji was acquired by Team Valor and she looks a most exciting prospect given the manner of her win in the Listed Prix La Camargo on her first start for her new connections

Nigel Elwes, owner and breeder of Simona

A winner at Group 1 level four times, twice in Germany and twice in Italy, Soldier Hollow is the sire of five Group 1 winners, the three-time top-level winner Pastorius being one of them. He is out of a Monsun (Konigsstuhl) mare. Soldier Hollow sired Emoji’s now two-year-old full-sister who was unsold at just €3,000 last October at the BBAG Sale.

Exotic Rose was placed a number of times and she is a half-sister to Group 3 winner Enzio (Next Desert). Their dam Elle Diva (Big Shuffle) found her way to Turkey where she bred a number of winners in recent years.

250 not out!

THIS week marks the 250th Breeding Insights column, one that has had an uninterrupted run. The pages have told the stories of many winners, large and small, and the breeders who have been responsible for them.

Many future Group 1 winners have been identified well in advance of their achievements, while at times the column had told the story of leading stallions who have passed on. Whatever the tale has been, the column has celebrated success and I would like to thank all those who have helped over the past five years.

I wish all breeders the best for the coming season and look forward to bringing more tales of success to the fore in the years to come.

Simona wins the Group 3 Prix Exbury at Saint-Cloud

Leo Powell, Editor