A NEW arrival at the Pim family’s Anngrove Stud in Co Laois this spring is the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy winner Marcel, who spent his first two years as a stallion at the National Stud at Newmarket. He had excellent fertility in his first season there in 2017, with a figure of 82%, and a colt from his first crop born in 2018 sold for €18,000 at the Goffs November Sale.
Alastair Pim said “Marcel is a smashing-looking individual with size and scope and the foals by him I saw at the sales have inherited his good looks and athleticism. He certainly stamps his stock.”
Sadly, Marcel had to be retired early from a very promising racing career because of an injury. Trained by Peter Chapple-Hyam, Marcel raced just three times as a two-year-old, starting with a creditable fifth of 13 at Ascot in July, and then winning his second start, a maiden over seven furlongs at Newcastle, when he was eased in the final furlong but still won by three and a quarter lengths.
He then made a huge step up in class with a scintillating performance in his third and final start that season, the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy over a mile at Doncaster.
Marcel’s jockey Andrea Atzeni was winning this race for the third consecutive year and he waited patiently before bringing his mount from last to first with a tremendous run on the outside down the Doncaster straight which kept him clear of any trouble, overtaking each of Aidan O’Brien’s three runners to score impressively by a length and a half from Group 1 star Johannes Vermeer, with Foundation another two and a half lengths away third and Deauville only fifth.
In the Free Handicap, Marcel was rated the joint fifth best two-year-old colt of 2015, above Ribchester and Galileo Gold. Six months later he made his reappearance at Newmarket in the Group 1 2000 Guineas, but unfortunately a serious injury sustained during that race ended his racing career and he retired to stud.
Lawman, the sire of Marcel, won the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby) and Group 1 Prix Jean Prat in 2007 and he is already sire of 28 blacktype winners, including champion Harbour Law and the brilliant filly Just The Judge, whose successes included the Group 1 Irish 1000 Guineas and the Grade 1 E P Taylor Stakes in Canada. Invincible Spirit, the sire of Lawman, is a son of Green Desert, while Lawman’s maternal grandsire is the American sire Gulch.
Marcel has a pedigree which is free of both Sadler’s Wells and Danehill. His unraced dam Mauresmo is by Marju (son of Last Tycoon) out of the winning American-bred Absaar, a half-sister by Alleged to 10 winners, including Annoconnor, a triple Grade 1 star in California, and to At Talaq, who completed the remarkable Group 1 double of the Grand Prix de Paris and the Melbourne Cup before becoming a successful sire.
MARCEL (IRE). Won two races, £117,495, from 7 furlongs to 1 mile, at 2 years including, Racing Post Trophy, Doncaster, Gr.1.
Retired to Stud in 2017, first crop now yearlings.
Stands at: Anngrove Stud, Mountmellick, Co Laois, Ireland
Contact: Alastair Pim
Telephone: +353 87 290 2188 or 057 862 4122
Email: anngrovestud@eircom.net
Web: www.anngrove.com
Fee: On Application