Frodon nicked it

The son of Nickname stole Kempton’s Christmas highlight, and the late French sire gained further honours in the New Year period as a Grade 1-winning damsire, writes Aisling Crowe

FRODON’S THRILLING all-the-way success in the King George at Kempton provided not only a Christmas racing highlight for jockey Bryony Frost and racing fans but served as a reminder of how great a loss his sire Nickname’s early death was to NH breeding.

French breeder Philippe Gasdoue sent his homebred Country Reel filly Miss Country, a winner over hurdles on her final start at three, to Nickname for her first covering in what was the young stallion’s third and final season at stud. The resulting foal was Frodon, now a nine-year-old, and the best of Miss Country’s four foals to run so far.

She also has a four-year-old Great Pretender gelding named Paolo, and he made a winning debut over hurdles at Fontainebleu, exactly a month before Frodon’s Kempton triumph.

Nickname sadly stood for just three seasons at Haras de Victot, a consequence of both his untimely death at 12 and his unusual career trajectory for a NH stallion who raced in Ireland.

He was the best son of Lost World, a Group 1-winning two-year-old by Last Tycoon, who is also the sire of Nadiya De La Vega, Tatenen and Free World.

Bred by Sylvie Wildenstein, Nickname made his debut over hurdles at three and won the Grade 3 Prix General de SaintDidier that season, adding the Grade 1 Prix Alain Du Breuil-Course des Haies d’Ete des Quatre Ans the following season.

He reappeared at five, no longer under the Wildenstein silks, and won the Grade 2 Prix Leon Rambaud for his new owner Antoine Van De Beuque.

He changed hands once more, this time to Claudia Jungo, and moved to Ireland and the yard of Martin Brassil, who also trained that season’s Grand National winner Numbersixvalverde.

Nickname was a rare specimen in Irish NH racing as an entire horse, but that did not prevent him becoming a high-class 2m chaser.

His Irish career spanned three seasons and 15 races – in 14 completed starts he was first or second 12 times with the highlight of his Irish sojourn his triumph in the Grade 1 2m1f chase at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival. He also won back-to-back renewals of the Normans Grove Chase, the Fortria Chase, the Newlands Chase, the Tied Cottage Chase andt he Paddy Fitzpatrick Memorial Novice Chase (all Grade 2s), as well as the Grade 3 An Uaimh Chase.

Nickname returned to France for his stud career and he left 185 foals behind from those three seasons at stud. As well as Frodon, now a dual Grade 1 winner, he is the sire of Grade 1 Ascot Chase winner Cyrname, who is a stable companion of Frodon.

The exploits of the early crops by his incredibly promising younger half-brother, No Risk At All, who was a Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed on the Flat, combined with the talent his own offspring undoubtedly possess, makes his early death in 2011 appear a greater loss with each passing year.

Many of Nickname’s daughters were classy racemares, which should help him remain in pedigrees for years to come.

One of the best of them, the multiple Grade 3 winner Corscia, should have her

Main picture and inset, Frodon, a son of the late Nickname, gallops to an unexpected Grade 1 King George VI Chase victory under regular jockey Bryony Frost, and, bottom inset, Bravemansgame takes the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle. He is out of Genifique, a mare by Nickname

first runner later this year. Her first foal, a three-year-old filly named Dee Day One, is by Saint Des Saints.

However, Nickname has already made his mark in that sphere – he is broodmare sire of Bravemansgame, who won the Challow Hurdle (G1) at Newbury on his fourth start over timber. A point-to-point winner and a £3740,000 Tom Malone/ Pauk Nicholls Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale purchase in March 2019 from Monbeg Stables (previously bought as a store horse at the Derby Sale), he only made his debut over hurdles in October. His future must be a exciting for owners John Dance and Bryan Drew.

SAINT DES SAINTS’ position as one of the very best living NH sires is securely cemented, but he is another French sire – this time one that is alive – that is a stand out as a broodmare sire, too.

Saint des Saints has 48 registered yearlings with 59 two-year-olds and 68 three-year-olds

The daughters of Haras d’Etreham’s gorgeous black son of Cadoudal have produced six individual Grade 1 winners with the latest of them coming at Leopardstown over Christmas. Appreciate It, who hails from the final crop of Jeremy, won the Future Champions’ Novice Hurdle for Willie Mullins and Paul Townend, and was bred in Ireland by Barmakin Limited and South Lodge Stud out of Sainte Baronnes.

She is also the dam of the Grade 2 Kennel Gate Novices’ Hurdle second Danny Kirwan (Scorpion) and her Soldier Of Fortune four-year-old Saphir Blue Star is in training with François Nicolle.

Her Jukebox Jury yearling made €70,000 to Richard Rohan of Ballincurrig House Stud at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale in December and she was covered by Westerner last year.

Second to stable companion Ferny Hollow in last season’s Champion Bumper, Appreciate It won the Grade 2 bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival and was third to Envoi Allen, another star with Saint Des Saints as his broodmare sire, in a four-yearold maiden point-to-point at Ballinaboola when trained by Pat Doyle. He had bought him from Walter Connors’ Sladoo farm for €60,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland Derby Sale.

Cheveley Park Stud’s unbeaten superstar Envoi Allen, winner of November’s Grade 1 Drinmore Chase to add a fifth top level triumph to his haul, is not the only giant of the game with Haras d’Etreham’s NH kingpin as his broodmare sire.

The brilliant Douvan was probably the first great horse to advertise what Saint Des Saints’ daughters can achieve in the breeding paddocks.

Saint Des Saints is also the damsire of Grade 1 Grande Course des Haies des Tres Ans winner De Bon Couer and Adrien Du Pont, who won the Grade 1 Finale Juvenile Hurdle.

Last season’s Grade 3 County Hurdle winner Saint Roi was second in the Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle this season and is another with Saint Des Saints as his broodmare sire.

As is Figuero who won the Grande Steeple-chase des Quatres Ans last season and was second in the Grade 1 Grand Steeple-chase de Paris. Both horses are Grade 3 winners this season.

Now 21, Saint Des Saints is standing for €15,000, the fifth year in a row he has stood at this fee and a reflection of his status.

Last season he covered 78 mares, the same number as in 2019. Saint des Saints has 48 registered yearlings with 59 two-yearolds and 68 three-year-olds, who are sure to bring high prices if they find themselves in a store sale in the summer.

Spain joins the Christmas party

The novelty factor of a Spanish suffix attached to a graded winner in England is negated by the obvious talent that Nube Negra, winner of the Grade 2 Desert Orchid Chase for the Skelton brothers and owner Tom Spraggett, possesses.

His victory was a little overshadowned by his beating of Altior, but Nube Negra has enough of his own ability for the result to stand inspection.

Nube Negra’s birth in Spain is also tempered by his French heritage, but his defeat of Altior had those not familiar with the Spanish bloodstock scene frantically searching for information.

Nube Negra: bred by Spanish breeder Cuadra Internorte takes the Desert Orchid Chase (G2)

He is by Dink, who was champion three-year-old miler of Spain with victory in the Premio Cimera, the Spanish 2000 Guineas, and was later successful over jumps.

Dink is a very well-bred son of Poliglote and a half-brother to the dam of Listed Seymour Cup winner Sysmo. His Woodman dam comes from one of the greatest female families in the stud book – her second dam is a half-sister to the Group 1 Prix SaintAlary winner Comtesse De Loir and to Santa Quilla, who is the dam of Pasadoble, herself the dam of the legendary Miesque.

Dink stands at Haras de la Bareliere and for 2020 his fee was €1,500.

Nube Negra is out of the Highest Honor mare Manly Dream, who was bred in France and purchased as a yearling for €18,000 at Arqana by Stamina Turf. She raced in Spain and France and was successful over 1m2f on the Flat in Madrid.

A previous runner-up in the Grade 1 Henry VII Novice Chase, Nube Negra became only the second horse to lower the colours of Altior. After the victory jockey Harry Skelton explained that it was through a Spanish showjumping friend of his Olympic champion father Nick that Nube Negra was purchased from the Flat in Spain.

Tom Spraggett, who owns Nube Negra, subsequently bought his four-year-old full-brother Noche Negra and he has joined his elder brother, while Skelton also acquired their two-year-old full-brother.

Three in a row for Sharjah in the Matheson Hurdle (G1). The son of Doctor Dino was runner-up in last year’s Champion Hurdle. Can he go one place better this March?

Dam Manly Dream is in-foal to Dink again and currently resides at Yeguada Torreduero, but she is entered in the Arqana February Sale where the 14-year-old is sure to spark plenty of interest from NH breeders across Europe.

Incidentially, although there was a Spanish-bred NH graded race winner over the Christmas period, there was not one GB-bred winner of a NH stakes race and the only British-based stallion to be successful was Nathaniel.

Retired stars sire Grade 1-winning novices

The retirement of Shantou and Flemensfirth in 2020 brought an end to an era in NH breeding – they were the last sons of the great dual Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Alleged at stud.

The nature of the game means that both stallions will be represented at the highest level for another decade to come and with 37 yearlings from the final crop of Flemensfirth, and Shantou covering a handful of mares in 2020, there will surely be more Grade 1 winners to join the ranks of Imperial Call, Flemenstar, Tidal Bay, The Storyteller and Briar Hill.

The paternal half-siblings were born just a year apart, with Flemensfirth the elder of the two, and the Christmas meetings on both sides of the Irish Sea showcased the ability of the Group 1 winners’ best performers with both the sires recording Grade 1 novice chase wins on St Stephen’s Day.

First up was Burgage Stud’s Shantou whose Shan Blue put in an exhibition of jumping to claim Kempton’s Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase for the Skelton brothers and owner Colm Donlon.

A clean round of jumping by Shan Blue (Shantou) stretches The Big Breakaway’s chasing technique at the last in the Kauto Star Novices’ Chase (G1)

Now a seven-year-old, Shan Blue is an out and out product of the Conolly family’s Burgage Stud as he is out of a mare by the enormously influential Bob Back, Shantou’s predecessor at the Leighlinbridge-based farm.

Shan Blue was bred by Desmond Amond and consigned by Lorna and Harry Fowler’s Rahinston Stud as a foal at the Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale 2014 where he made €14,000 to Andy Slattery.

He won his point-to-point on debut at four for Slattery and was next seen in a bumper at Skelton’s local track Warwick where he finished third behind Chantry House. Second to Shishkin in the Listed Sidney Banks Memorial Novice Hurdle at Huntingdon, he was also third in the Grade 2 Leamington Novices’s Hurdle at Warwick.

Skelton always expected him to excel over fences and he hasn’t disappointed, the sixyear-old gelding unbeaten in three starts.

“I was delighted with his jumping and it is his jumping that won it for him, ultimately it is his jumping that makes him a good horse,” said Skelton. “As a hurdler he was better than average, of course, but not by a great deal. The public wouldn’t have heard of Shan Blue as a hurdler, but I think as a chaser he is significantly better. You perhaps might see him at 3m next time.”

Half an hour later in Limerick, Colreevy won the second Grade 1 of her career, the mare producing a brave comeback after making a hash of the second last to take the Faugheen Novice Chase for Willie and Danny Mullins.

Bred by the Flynn family of Dungarvan out of the Saddler’s Hall mare Poetic Girl (whose year-younger Presenting gelding January Jets won a 2m1f beginners’ chase for Henry de Bromhead at Leopardstown a day later) Colreevy was retained by her breeders and sent point-to-pointing. Unfortunately, she fell in the mares’ maiden at Lemonfield won by the subsequent Listed bumper and hurdles winner Posh Trish. Colreevy was next seen the following December at Fairyhouse where she won a mares’ bumper.

Impressive performance by Shishkin

THIRD BEHIND SUBSEQUENT Champion Bumper winner and the fellow Mullins-trained Flemensfirth mare Relegate in the Grade 2 mares’ bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival, she won the Grade 3 mares’ bumper at the Punchestown Festival of 2018.

Colreevy did not grace a racecourse then for almost a year, but on her second start at six won the Grade 1 bumper at the Punchestown Festival.

She had four starts over hurdles last season, winning once and placing second behind Minella Melody in a Grade 3 mares’ hurdle at Fairyhouse last January. She has run twice over fences this season and is unbeaten in both starts, looking another top class prospect for her sire as a fine, big scopey mare.

Winning rider Danny Mullins said: “It was a good performance. She was always very good to jump at home from day one, and the aim today was a clear round and hopefully we’d be in the mix down over the last two.

“I knew she’d keep galloping as she is very tough, but not fast — and once Paul [Townend, on Asterion Forlonge] fell, it opened things up. There is a good programme for mares nowadays, and the Flynns will be delighted because they will probably breed from her and she is now a Grade 1 winner in bumpers and over fences.”

Flemensfirth stood his final three seasons at €15,000, while Shantou’s fee was also at its highest for his last three breeding seasons at €10,000.

With the oldest of those crops aged just two in 2021, it is a fair assumption that their best runners are yet to come.