THERE was great excitement in France when it was announced that the Group 3 winning juvenile Recorder, a son of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), was entering stud in 2018 at Haras de Montfort et Préaux, now under the Sumbe banner after its purchase by Nurlan Bizakov. At the time of Recorder’s arrival in France, Sylvain Vidal owned the farm where Le Havre was among the resident stallions.

When he went to stud Recorder was somewhat off the radar. He had only raced three times for his owner-breeder, Queen Elizabeth, and that was three years earlier. Placed on his debut, he had subsequent Group 1 winner Ventura Storm back in third place when landing a seven-furlong maiden at Newmarket, and then he captured the Group 3 Tattersalls Acomb Stakes. Sadly that was the last time we saw him.