THIS week I bumped into Lisa-Jane Graffard, the Irish-born wife of Francois-Henri, and that same day the French-based trainer, and fellow Flying Start graduate, saddled the first two home in the Listed Prix Jacques de Bremond over a mile at Vichy.
The winner was the Al Shaqab-owned Lbretha, a four-year-old daughter of Exceed And Excel who is yet another sire featured in this week’s column who stands at Kildangan Stud. His fee was €50,000 this year and that price is justified given his outstanding record at stud. A son of Danehill (Danzig) and out of a winning daughter of Lomond (Northern Dancer), he was champion sprinter in Australia with victories in the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap and Dubai Racing Club Cup and he has gone on at stud to be a phenomenal sire of youngsters in particular.
Darley stand two of his best sons in Helmet and Outstrip, the latter winning the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf and about whom there are good reports of his first foals, so much so that he has covered some 150 mares this year for the second successive time. Helmet’s great start at stud is matched by that of another son of Exceed And Excel and that is Coolmore’s Excelebration.
FRANKEL
The Group 1 Prix du Moulin and Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner was unfortunate to race in the same year as Frankel. Had he not done so his tally of Group 1 wins would mean that he would be spoken about with the same reverence as his conqueror.
Bred in France by Sylvain Vidal, Lbretha is the first stakes winners for her dam who comes from a great family, most famously associated with the Wildenstein family. The winning filly’s third dam was Allez France (Sea Bird II), one of the greatest racemares of all time. She won 13 of her 21 starts.
Allez France became the first really important horse owned by Daniel Wildenstein, a famous French art dealer, and provided the spur for his substantial investment in racehorses and bloodstock, his principal vehicle being Dayton Investments Limited.
During her racing career over five seasons, which included a disappointing year in the USA, Allez France was the pre-eminent filly in France, rivalled only by Dahlia (who failed to beat her all six times they met). The long list of big race victories enjoyed by Allez France includes the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the Prix Ganay twice, the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane (French 1000 Guineas and French Oaks), Prix Vermeille and Prix d’Ispahan.
Bred to the best, Allez France was not as good a broodmare as a racemare but she did produce the Group 3 winner Action Française (Nureyev) and she cemented the family reputation by producing nine winners, five of whom were at stakes level. Though none won at better than Group 3 standard, two of them were placed in Group 1s. Article Rare (El Prado) was runner-up in the Prix Saint-Alary, while Android (Riverman) was third in the Grand Prix de Paris.
Their stakes-winning sibling Airline (Woodman) is dam of another family member who came close to Group 1 success, Argentina (Sadler’s Wells) second in the Prix de Diane and Prix Saint-Alary in France and also finishing runner-up in the Grade 1 Diana Handicap in the USA.
She is now a member of the Barronstown Stud broodmare band following her purchase last November at Goffs, ironically in foal to Lbretha’s sire Exceed And Excel.