SAINT Des Saints stands at Haras d’Etreham in France and for yet another season his fee is €15,000. The leading sire of jumpers in France, he is equally well-known outside that country and his long, and growing, list of big race winners was enhanced further on Monday when his six-year-old son Burrows Saint, bred by Julie Morgan in France, won the €500,000 BoyleSports Irish Grand National.

Unraced on the flat, Saint Des Saints showed his ability when faced with an obstacle and his seven victories over hurdles and fences from twice that many starts included the Grade 2 Prix Amadou Hurdle at Auteuil. His just missed out on winning at the highest level when he was runner-up to Great Love in the Grade 1 Prix Alain du Breil 4yo Summer Hurdle at Auteuil.

Trained by Guillaume Macaire, Saint Des Saints made all his starts at Auteuil and, apart from finishing fourth on his final start in Grade 1 company and falling once (over fences at the age of three!), he finished in the first three every time.

Saint Des Saints is a son of the phenomenally successful Cadoudal (Green Dancer), and he is well remembered as the sire of Long Run and Big Buck’s, though these are far from being the only high-class winners he got.

Cadoudal was not far off being top-class as a racehorse when he was trained by Bernard Secly. He won the Group 2 Prix Hocquart over a mile and a half as a three-year-old and maintained his form as a four-year-old, most notably when running second to Lancastrian in the Group 1 Prix Ganay over 10 and a half furlongs at Longchamp.

Cadoudal died at the age of 28 in 2007, having retired from duties a few seasons earlier. He was champion jumps sire in France 11 times, a mantle that has since been taken on by Saint Des Saints. The latter retired to stud in 2003 at a fee of €4,500, and while always under the umbrella of Etreham, he has been based at some other farms.

His fee did once drop to €3,000, but his continuing success means that it is at an all-time high today.

His very first crop certainly hit the track running, and more importantly winning. While they were making quite a splash in France, his best two runners from that first crop were Irish stars. The Willie Mullins-trained Quel Esprit won the Hennessy Gold Cup, while the Colin Murphy-trained Quito De La Roque was a Grade 1 novice chase winner at Punchestown before landing the Grade 1 Champion Chase at Down Royal.

Another Willie Mullins-trained son of Saint Des Saints is Djakadam, a horse who came close to Gold Cup glory but did win the Grade 1 John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase twice and the Goffs Thyestes Chase. Now Burrows Saint further cements Saint Des Saints’ reputation for siring high-class National Hunt horses on this side of the water.

Burrows Saint is the second foal from La Bombonera, a listed hurdle winner in France who was sold, along with her foal, in the year that Burrows Saint was born. She sold for €45,000 carrying a filly, now named Bonbonniere (Martaline), who races for her breeders, Nigel and Sarah Faulks, and has been placed twice over hurdles in England where she is trained by Dan Skelton.

La Bombonera’s first foal never ran, and her remaining offspring, to date, are a three-year-old daughter of Martaline (Linamix), a two-year-old filly by Montmartre (Montjeu) and a yearling colt by Saint Des Saints, a full-brother to last Monday’s feature race winner. The latter was sold last year at Tattersalls Ireland for €70,000 to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock through Harry and Lorna Fowler’s Rahinstown Stud. In 2018 La Bombonera was covered by Scorpion (Montjeu).

Having been purchased as a foal for €29,000 at Arqana, Burrows Saint was reoffered as a two-year-old and retained at €45,000. His dam La Bombonera is a daughter of Mansonnien (Tip Moss) and this makes her a full-sister to a smart chaser in France, the Grade 1 Prix Le Haye Jousselin winner Lagunak. His total of seven victories also included the Grade 2 Prix des Drags Chase at Auteuil. They are both out of the four-year-old flat winner Bab Khaldoun (Khaldoun), and she in turn is a daughter of Brune Babe (Fabulous Dancer).

That mare won at two and then went on to be successful six times over jumps in France.

At stud Brune Babe had six foals, all winners, and the best of these was Ginko Biloba (Villez), 13 times a winner over jumps in France and placed a number of times in listed races, though never at Auteuil.