RACEGOERS will recall the brilliant Quevega (Robin Des Champs) with great affection, and she retired from racing with her name firmly near the top of the list of greatest mares ever to race over hurdles.
Quevega started her racing career in France where she won on the flat, and bowed out having been successful 13 times over the smaller obstacles, winning the Grade 2 David Nicholson Mares’ Hurdle for a sixth time, before failing to overcome Jetson in her attempt to land the Grade 1 World Series Hurdle over three miles at the 2014 Punchestown Festival for a fifth time.
Six starts in bumpers in France for Bertrand de Watrigant ended with three consecutive wins, having been placed twice and finishing fourth on her debut, one of just three times she finished outside the top three in her 24-race career. After moving to Willie Mullins, Quevega only raced over hurdles, never fell, and won almost £730,000 for the Hammer & Trowel Syndicate of Ger O’Brien and Sean Deane. She won every year from the age of three until she retired as a 10-year-old, and arguably improved each season that she raced.
Could we now see the same happening with her daughter, Aurora Vega (Walk In The Park)? In the ownership of O’Brien and Deane and the care of Willie Mullins, Aurora Vega put up a career-best performance at Fairyhouse to win the Grade 1 Irish Stallion Farms EBF Honeysuckle Mares Novice Hurdle, and take her race record to seven wins in 11 starts. In doing so, she also credited her dam with a second Grade 1 winner. Who knows what is to come, with a number of youngstock by Walk In The Park (Montjeu) waiting in the wings.
Prior to this win, Aurora Vega’s three bumper wins (same as her dam) included a listed contest at Gowran Park, while I recall her trainer’s surprise with the performance she put in when she won the Grade 3 Solerina Mares Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse in January, and in the immediate aftermath he said that the race she won at the weekend would be her target. As ever, he hit that target. Aurora Vega has now won four times over hurdles, and she is on an upward curve.
Irish National Stud
O’Brien and Deane board Quevega at the Irish National Stud, and what a queen they have on their hands. She has a perfect record to date with her offspring, all of her first four having run and won. Her first, Princess Vega (Beat Hollow), also raced for the Hammer and Trowel Syndicate and made a winning hurdle debut at Tramore. Three more starts failed to build on that and she was off to stud. After two filly foals, Princess Vega was sold in February 2024 at Goffs to Swanbridge Bloodstock for a sale-topping €150,000, and her subsequent colt by Walk In The Park cost Gerry Aherne £70,000 at Doncaster.
After missing a year, Quevega had a colt in 2017 by Walk In The Park, and he was named Facile Vega. One of the most talked about horses to hit the track in recent years, he lived up to all of the hype. Undefeated in four bumpers, he beat American Mike in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper at Cheltenham before adding its Grade 1 equivalent at Punchestown.
He collected a pair of Grade 1 hurdle wins and ran second to Marine Nationale in the Supreme Novices’ at Cheltenham. Sadly, he died at the age of seven, after he was placed at the highest level over fences when third to It Etait Temps and Found A Fifty in the Grade 1 Arkle Chase at Leopardstown.
Aurora Vega is the third produce of Quevega, while the fourth is another mare, Cameletta Vega (Camelot). The latter’s race career to date has been very similar to Princess Vega. Cameletta Vega won a Galway bumper in August 2024 on her debut, but her three starts since have yielded nowt.
Quevega’s fifth offspring is an unnamed five-year-old daughter of Australia (Galileo), and she is followed by two sons, a three-year-old gelding and his year-younger full-brother.
Outstanding members
Quevega and her progeny are the outstanding members of this family. Foaled in 1970, Quevega’s third dam, the unraced Escarbille II (Or De Chine) had no winning siblings. She bred a single winner herself, Mir II (Signani), who won four races over jumps in France and Switzerland. Mir II had an unraced full-sister, Negrilla (Signani), and she gave the family line a boost, breeding six winners and all but one of them were multiple winners.
Numerically, the most successful was Vega IV (Cap Martin), and she complied a decent record of six victories over jumps, winning until the age of nine. She is the dam of five winners, Quevega being the best, while another daughter, Quevega’s full-sister to Sivega (Robin Des Champs), is the dam of the Auteuil listed hurdle winner Flip De Vega (Laverock), and another potential blacktype winner, Lady Vega Allen (Saint Des Saints).
Winner of her only start in France, Lady Vega Allen’s three starts to date for Willie Mullins saw her beaten a shorthead by Hello Neighbour in a Grade 2, finish a length and a half behind the same horse in a Grade 1 at Leopardstown, and run fourth in the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle. Keep an eye on her!
ONE of the leading bloodstock and racing sites attributes the breeding of Six Figures to a group of French people, when the weekend Grade 2 winner was bred in Ireland by Louis Vambeck. Hopefully someone will point this out to them and get it changed. With so much quality National Hunt racing at home and in Britain, it might have passed unnoticed that the four-year-old Six Figures credited his Kilbarry Lodge sire Harzand (Sea The Stars) with yet another quality blacktype winner.
The Grade 2 Prix Amadou Hurdle at Auteuil is a key stepping stone to the championship Grade 1 Prix Alain du Breil in a month’s time, and last weekend’s race saw Kivala Du Berlais, winner of last year’s Grade 2 Prix Georges de Talhouët-Roy, return to the track, looking to reestablish himself at the top level. He ran well, but ended up some four lengths behind the winner, Six Figures, in second place.
Last November, Six Figures was a well-beaten third in the Grade 1 Prix Cambacérès behind the best young hurdler of his generation in France, Sain D’Esprit, and Nietzsche Has (who has commenced his stud career at a fee of €7,000), with Kivala Du Berlais among the vanquished. A fall on his return this year didn’t dent Six Figures’ confidence, and his recent win came on just his fifth start. He is a horse who can go all the way to the top in France.
A €36,000 foal at Tattersalls Ireland, Six Figures didn’t sell when offered at Arqana two years later, and connections have leased him for his racing career, while still retaining a major interest. He is one of three winners from the unraced Izzy Du Berlais (Kayf Tara), and that mare’s dam, Isis Du Berlais (Cadoudal), was a dual listed hurdle winner who bred nine winners. One of her sons, Ipsos Du Berlais (Poliglote), had Jetson behind when finishing third of four in a Grade 1 novice hurdle at Navan.
Space will not allow me to give due credit to the success that this female line has enjoyed, and I could fill a couple of pages of Breeding Insights detailing it. If and when Six Figures gains his Grade 1 victory, I will endeavour to provide a comprehensive review.
Meanwhile, just a note that Harzand, in his new role as an emerging force with his runners over jumps, has another exceptional talent in the Grade 1 juvenile hurdle winner Hello Neighbour. He and Six Figures are from the same crop.