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Sosie: Arc ready
THE WERTHEIMER BROTHERS’ Sosie became the new ante-post favourite for the Group 1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with his decisive length and a half victory of the Prix Niel (G2) at ParisLongchamp on September 15, writes Jocelyn De Moubray.
The André Fabre-trained son of Sea The Stars had finished third in the Prix du Jockey Club (G1), two lengths and a neck behind Look De Vega, but turned the tables three months later beating that rival by three and a half lengths into third place.
Delius, who had been runner-up to Sosie in the Grand Prix de Paris (G1), finished between this pair.
The Niel is always a difficult race to read. Has Sosie improved since the Jockey Club in early June? Or will Look De Vega, who was making his first start since his Chantilly win, return to a new peak on the first Sunday in October?
In the face of such questions the safest option is to trust Fabre. After all the master trainer has won the Arc de Triomphe eight times – seven of his winners ran in the Niel, six winning the race, while Peintre Celebre was second when an odds-on favourite in 1997.
Fabre first won the Niel in 1984 with Cariellor, who beat Darshaan among others and went on to finish an excellent sixth in the Arc behind Sagace and Northern Trick.
Then Fabre had only just stopped training jumpers – he won four Grand Steeple de Paris between 1980 and 1983, although he had already picked up a first Flat Group 1 success with Al Nasr in the Prix d’Ispahan in 1982.
Fabre, who is 79, is a close contemporary of Sir Henry Cecil and Sir Michael Stoute, the leading British trainers born towards the end of World War 2.
In comparison to the British pair, Fabre was a late developer on the training front – when the other two began training winners of top races in the 1970s, Fabre was still riding as a jumps jockey.
Once he turned to training, however, success at the top level was instant, and has remained consistent for more than 40 years since.
This year, Fabre, and his wife and partner Elizabeth, are more or less sure of yet another training championship as they are well ahead of nearest rival, Francis Graffard.
This season, from 120 different runners, they have won 76 races and no fewer than 26 Group and Listed races, and have produced three Group 1 winners – Sosie, Tribalist and Mqse De Sevigne.
The years may pass but Fabre, and many of those who work with him, remain more or less the same – he hasn’t, for instance, spoken to the French racing press or racing channel this century, and yet it remains as true as ever to say that there is nobody better to prepare a top-class racehorse for the day which counts the most.
Sosie will be at his best on the day of the Arc, and so will the stable’s other possible runners Mqse De Sevigne, who is unbeaten in three Group 1 races as a five-year-old in 2024, and the four-year-old Sevenna’s Knight, who was a brilliant winner of the Prix Gladiateur under a 2kg penalty.
Tribalist’s win in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin at the beginning of September was another example of the brilliance of the Fabre stable.
Godolphin’s five-year-old son of Farhh started as an outsider, despite having won on five of his last seven starts in Group races at a mile.
On the day which mattered, this was the colt’s fourth start in a Group 1 in four years of racing, Tribalist was ready – he jumped the stalls to set a regular pace from start to finish. He ran the final 200m in his race average time, but it was a pace which gave him a decisive lead before his rivals threatened to catch him and he defeated Charyn, Henry Longfellow and the others for his first Group 1 success.
Nothing lasts forever but, for the time being, the future of the Fabre stable looks much like the past.
Two-year-old Group wins have not been targeted by the stable for years, neither Sosie, Mqse De Sevigny or Tribalist ran in a Group race at two, however this year’s two-year-old crop already includes several high-class prospects including the Juddmonte-owned Oasis Dream filly Better Together and the Frankel colt Gun Of Brixton, who both impressed winning in Deauville this summer.
If 2024 has been yet another good year for the Fabre stable, it has been exceptional for Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, the owners and breeders of Sosie.
The Wertheimer family has played a major role in breeding and racing in France for more than a 100 years. The brothers’ grandfather Peirre had his first winner before the First World War and bred his first champion soon afterwards with Epinard.
He took championship status as a twoyear-old in France in 1922 but, because he had not been given any Classic entries, he ran in handicaps in England at three winning the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood and finishing only a neck behind Verdict, to whom he was giving 18lb, in the Cambridgeshire. That winner went on to win the Coronation Cup the following year.
One of the horses on the merry-go-round in the Jardin de Luxembourg in Paris is still called Epinard, although I suppose most of those who ride him think he is named after the vegetable (spinach) rather than one of the first international racing superstars!
The Wertheimer brothers have raced 82 different horses this season winning 69 races. The 82 include 28 Group or Listed performers and 17 Group or Listed winners of 24 black-type races.
The best season the pair have enjoyed in recent years was in 2019 when they won 21 black-type races, a figure which will they will surely leave far behind them before the end of the year with horses such as Sosie, Aventure, Bright Picture, Junko and Double Major to run for them.
They also have several decent two-year-olds such as Madero, a son of Lope De Vega, who won the Criterium de Lyon in early September to become the first stakes winners trained for them by Christopher Head.
To finish with Sosie it has also been an excellent season for his sire Sea The Stars whose three-year-olds of 2024 are from his 11th crop and the first bred from a fee of €150,000 at the Aga Khan Studs in Ireland.
There are 155 three-year-olds by Sea The Stars and, to date, 13 of these are blacktype performers this year (13 per cent of his runners), while three are Group 1 performers and include the Wertheimers’ filly Aventure, who finished an excellent second in the Prix Vermeille run on the same day as Sosie’s Niel victory.
The average-winning distance for Sea The Stars’ three-year-olds is 10.56 furlongs, which puts him squarely in the category of middledistance sires. Now that Galileo has gone his closest challengers in this category are Frankel, and the Coolmore sires of Camelot and Gleneagles together with the Britishbased sires Nathaniel and Sea The Moon.
The younger sires with an averagewinning distance of more than 1m2f, and also currently making a mark, include Study Of Man, Saxon Warrior and Galiway.
Sosie is the fifth foal of the Shamardal mare Sosia, who comes herself from the Sacarina family developed by Gestüt Karlshof.
This family has produced a string of excellent Classic middle-distance horses, including Samum, Schiaparelli, Salve Regina, Sea The Moon, Sosie and Spanish Eyes, who was second in the Prix de Diana this year; all are by middle -distance sires. Whenever and whereever Sosie stands as a stallion he will be sent many of Germany’s Classic mares as this is what German breeders would call a real “mutter” line.
If the Niel is a particularly significant trial for the Arc de Triomphe when it is won by a Fabre-trained horse, this year’s Prix Vermeille was a particularly strong one. Twelve runners, several Group 1 winners of all ages, and a pacemaker, who ensured it was run at a good pace from start to finish, went to post.
The final time was only the median one for the race over the last ten years, but then the ground was very definitely soft and the winner Bluestocking ran the final 400m seven per cent faster than her race average.
Juddmonte’s four-year-old Camelot filly Bluestocking took over in front from the pacemaker, but looked for a moment to be beaten when Aventure drew alongside, however she has more experience and is a tough filly to pass. She went on again to win by three-quarters of length with the fiveyear-old Emily Upjohn finishing best of all to be a close third.
Bluestocking’s trainer Ralph Beckett suggested his filly may well be supplemented to the Arc and she will have a first-class chance of at least a place if she does.
Beckett has an excellent record as a trainer everywhere, but he has done particularly well in France – this was his stable’s fifth French Group 1 in the last four years and he did, of course, saddle Westover to finish second in the Arc last year.
Two-year-olds of note
It is early for juveniles in France or Germany to make a name for themselves, but two fillies have made more than a mark.
The Aga Khan’s Siyouni filly Zargiana, a grand-daughter of Zarkava trained by Francis Graffard, has looked like a potential champion on both her starts to date.
She won on her debut on good ground over 7f in July, unchallenged by 4l and returned in a Group 3 over a mile in September and won in much the same style, coming from behind and cruising past her rivals to win without coming off the bridle.
This time the ground was very soft and throughout the day every other horse seemed to struggle, but Zargiana floated as if she was running on perfect ground.
If she stays healthy and sound Zargiana will be winning Group 1 races sooner rather than later as this was a strong field and the three Christopher Head-trained fillies who chased her home had proven high-class form.
Gestüt Park Wiedingen’s Soldier Hollow filly Santagada has been almost as impressive on her two winning starts to date.
Bred by Gestüt Hony Hof, she has a similar pedigree, too, as she comes from the Sacarina family and her third dam Salve Regina won the Diana.
The Peter Schiergen-trained filly won her debut in July over 7f in Munich and then won a Group 3 in Baden-Baden over the same distance in September coming from behind to beat colts and runners from England and France.
She may not have quite the same brilliance as Zargiana but at this stage she deserves to be at he head of the Classics at the moment.
