IT was an Arc like never before, and one that will never be forgotten. Sottsass, bearing the name of a famous Italian architect, improved on his effort in the race 12 months earlier when he was third to Waldgeist and Enable, and led home a French-trained 1-2-3 in one of the world’s most prestigious races.

Even as he did so without the formidable challenge of the Ballydoyle battalion, the race was one of the highest quality, and John Magnier and partners will have gained comfort from the fact that they own half of the winner and the four-year-old is destined for a stud career at Coolmore. Though he brings with him a new sire line for the world’s leading stallion farm, Sottsass is out of a mare by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), the multiple champion sire whose achievements are unsurpassed.

Bred at Henri Bozo’s Ecurie des Monceaux, Sottsass was sold as a yearling at Arqana in Deauville in August 2017. A son of the Group 1 winning juvenile Siyouni (Pivotal), he was conceived in the year that the Aga Khan Studs’ sire had his first crop of three-year-olds racing. That initial crop included the outstanding classic winner Ervedya, a three-time Group 1 winner who added the Coronation Stakes and Prix du Moulin de Longchamp to her victory in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-French 1000 Guineas.

Siyouni sired a second winner of that classic this year when his daughter Dream And Do won, while in between that pair he got the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks winner Laurens, and that was one of her six triumphs at the highest level. Last year Siyouni’s son Sottsass emerged as the stallion’s first Group 1 winning colt, and he too was a classic winner, landing the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby. He added the Group 1 Prix Ganay on his way to winning the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Sottsass raced in the colours of White Birch Farm’s Peter Brant and this week he announced the colt’s retirement. He said: “A world world champion at three and now an Arc winner at four, I have decided to retire Sottsass after what he has achieved. He has retired sound and right at the top of his game - this is important to me. I am looking forward to breeding some of my best mares to him. Coolmore purchased 50% of him earlier in the year and he will stand there for 2021.

“Back in 1971 I was working on a film in Paris and was lucky enough to witness Mill Reef win his Arc. I think it is the ultimate race to win and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have fulfilled a lifelong dream. Sottsass has an incredible turn of foot, as he showed when readily disposing of Persian King in the Prix du Jockey Club. He smashed the race record time and knocked nearly a second off the track record at Chantilly previously held by dual Arc winner Treve.”

Sistercharlie

Brant added: “Being a half-brother to Sistercharlie (Myboycharlie) who had run second for us in the Prix de Diane, Sottsass was always going to be of interest to us as a yearling and we were delighted when the individual matched up to his pedigree. Being by France’s leading sire Siyouni and out of a daughter of Galileo only added to his appeal. The rest as they say is history as Sistercharlie has gone on to win seven Grade 1 races in the USA for Chad Brown, and Sottsass has proved himself the ultimate champion. Jean-Claude Rouget has done a masterful job with Sottsass and it gave me great pleasure to share in his first Arc success.”

Sottsass’ victory in the Arc is a breeding story that started ‘humbly’ and has since become a dream. Sistercharlie was the first offspring of Starlet’s Sister who was placed at three in France. Mind you, she was far from humbly bred, being a full-sister to the Group 3 winner Leo’s Starlet (Galileo) and a half-sister to the listed winner and Grade 1 runner-up Anabaa’s Creation (Anabaa).

Starlet’s Sister was first mated with the Group 1 winning two-year-old Myboycharlie (Danetime) who had moved to stand in France from England and his fee in 2013 was €6,500. The resulting filly sold at the Arqana October Yearling Sale for €12,000 and, named Sistercharlie, is the earner of approaching $3.7 million and a seven-time Grade 1 winner, including the Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

No profit

Having sold the first offspring of Starlet’s Sister for so little, and no profit, Ecurie des Monceaux parted with the next, a daughter of Acclamation (Royal Applause), the following February for just €20,000. Named My Sister Nat, she won at Group/Grade 3 level in France and the USA.

Sottsass is the third foal and stakes winner for Starlet’s Sister and at the time of his sale as a yearling Sistercharlie had won the Group 3 Prix Penelope for Peter Brant and run second in the Group 1 Prix de Diane-French Oaks. Brant was therefore determined to have him at the sale and paid €340,000 for the colt.

This upward trend in sale prices has continued, the three-year-old Radiant Child (Charm Spirit) selling for €400,000 and the two-year-old Parliament (Fastnet Rock) realising €700,000.

These prices pale by comparison with this autumn’s yearling. The Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) half-sister to Sottsass was the star of the recent Arqana Select Yearling Sale when she sold for a cool €2.5 million to Oliver St Lawrence. David Redvers, who bought Parliament last year, was among the contenders for the filly, along with Godolphin representative Anthony Stroud. St Lawrence trumped both on behalf of Nasser Al Khalifa and KHK Racing.

The agent was in the company of Bahraini owner and trainer Fawzi Nass who said afterwards: “She’s a lovely filly with an exceptional pedigree. She’ll come back to England but we haven’t got a trainer in mind for her yet – we’ll decide soon. These types of fillies are very rare and difficult to get because there is an enormous amount of interest in them. We never doubted that we could get her and we’re delighted to have succeeded.”

How pleased that purchasing party will have been to see Sottsass put his run in the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes behind him and land one of the jewels in the crown of international racing.

Sottsass’ six career wins also include the Group 2 Prix Niel and he retires to stud having accumulated earnings which are just a sale-ring bid short of £3 million, eclipsing the winnings of his older sibling.

Starlet’s Sister foaled a Dubawi filly in late April this year and was covered by Siyouni. No point in changing a winning formula.

The grandam of Sottsass, Premiere Creation (Green Tune), won in France and the USA and stateside she was placed in the Grade 1 Del Mar Oaks. She was the best runner out of the unraced Allwaki (Miswaki), a half-sister to the French listed winner and Grade 1 San Luis Rey Stakes-third Fast Cure (Cure The Blues).

Two of that colt’s full-sisters were stakes producers, one of them South Sea Blues (Cure The Blues) breeding the Canadian champion juvenile colt Leonnatus Anteas (Stormy Atlantic).