JUST days before this year’s Group 1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, I spoke with Anthony Oppenheimer about his then upcoming sale of yearlings at Tattersalls. He remarked, in passing, that it would be something special were Cracksman (Frankel) to sire the winner of the race. Then it happened in spectacular fashion.

Though it was always likely that Cracksman would show his true colours as a sire when his stock got older, the Dalham Hall stallion was off the mark with his first runners in late May last year, and by the end of 2022 he had been responsible for 15 individual winners. Two of his daughters were successful at stakes level, Aloa winning the Group 2 Premio Dormello.

Cracksman started 2023 well, and in the space of just three weeks he had brought his tally of stakes winners to five, one of which was Ace Impact. His victory in the Listed Prix de Suresnes at Chantilly meant that he remained unbeaten in three outings, all this year. The first son of Cracksman to earn blacktype, he returned to Chantilly and elevated his sire to new heights, winning the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, and in record time.

Unblemished record

Between his classic win and his Arc triumph, Ace Impact added the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano, and his unblemished race record means that he has amassed some €4 million in earnings for connections. How Jean-Claude Rouget enjoyed winning this year’s Arc, and rightly so. He bought Ace Impact as a yearling at Arqana for €75,000.

The colt was bred by Waltraut and Karl Spanner from Absolutely Me (Anabaa Blue). She is one of four mares owned by the couple, and cost €16,500 when purchased by Henri Alex Pantell as a yearling. She raced in France, winning at two and three, and gained blacktype when placing at Baden-Baden (where the Spanners live) and Nantes.

Absolutely Me is proving her worth as a broodmare, and Ace Impact is her fifth produce and fifth winner. Her sixth produce is a two-year-old colt, named Arrow Eagle, by Gleneagles (Galileo). Ace Impact is not her first stakes performer. Her first runner, Apollo Flight (Rock Of Gibraltar), won five times and placed in a couple of listed races, while the Rouget-trained Alessandro (Australia) is also a five-time winner and was runner-up in a listed race at Cagnes-Sur-Mer.

Absolutely Me is the best of five winners out of Tadawul (Diesis), one of which, her half-sister Mrs Nobody (Footstepsinthesand), won eight times after Rouget purchased her as a yearling. Barakat (Bustino), Ace Impact’s third dam, sold for $5,000 in 2003, and that was the year she foaled Mabadi (Sahm). That filly turned out to be her dam’s only stakes winner, among 11 successful progeny, and Mabadi’s winners include the Rouget-trained, dual stakes winner Salai (Myboycharlie).

This takes us to Rosia Bay (High Top), a dual winner, dam of seven winners, and the taproot of many stakes winners. Her son, the Lord Porchester-bred Ibn Bey (Mill Reef), won Group 1 races in Ireland, Italy and Germany, and he was placed at the highest levels in England, the USA and France.

Rosia Bay was a daughter of Ouija (Silly Season), herself the dam of Teleprompter (Welsh Pageant), grandam of Ouija Board (Cape Cross) and great-grandam of Australia. Two years after Ibn Bey, Rosia Bay foaled her best daughter, the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks winner Roseate Tern (Blakeney).

Highest-rated

Cracksman is the highest-rated son or daughter of Frankel, himself the best by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). He was a world champion at three and four, yet he stood this year at a very attractive fee of £17,500. Cracksman won eight of his 11 starts, including four Group 1 races.

Raced by Anthony Oppenheimer who bred him at his Hascombe and Valiant Stud, Cracksman was having only his third start in the Group 1 Derby when he was beaten only a length by Wings Of Eagles finishing third. He took his revenge on the winner a month later in the Group 1 Irish Derby, but was beaten a neck by Capri. He set the seal on a fine second season in the Group 1 Champion Stakes, romping home seven lengths clear.

At four, Cracksman was again a world champion, sharing top spot with the brilliant Winx. He won the Group 1 Prix Ganay by four lengths, the Group 1 Coronation Cup, finished second in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, and returned to his best form on his final outing, winning the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot for the second time, six lengths ahead of Crystal Ocean.