ORIGINALLY at Haras du Quesnay, where his fee had doubled from a starting point of €7,500 in 2015 to €15,000 four seasons later, Anodin (Anabaa) did not maintain that momentum, and last year he moved to Haras De La Haie Neuve, at a much reduced fee of €4,000, and it is there that he has just completed a second season.

His sixth crop of racing age are juveniles, and Anodin has sired a total of 10 blacktype winners, all of whom have come from his first two crops. Those born in 2016 are headed by the Group 2 Prix Kergorlay winner Goya Senora, Group 3 winners Insandi and Anador, the dual listed winner Harmless, and the Grade 3 winning chaser Thyme White. Anador was placed at Group 1 level at two, and that initial crop by Anodin placed him at the head of the first season sires in France in 2018.

However, it is a member of his second crop who has made the breakthrough to the highest level, thanks to the six-year-old King Gold’s victory in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, and he was adding this, his eighth win, to a previous best success at Group 3 level.

Anodin’s second crop also includes the Group 3 Prix Penelope winner Neige Blanche, and she has gone on to win four times at Grade 3 level in the USA, notably taking the Santa Barbara Handicap at Santa Anita for the second time in May. She was placed in the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks.

The second crop by Anodin additionally includes Group 3 French winner Directa, and a pair of his sons who gained their best win at listed level in France, Narcos and Hayzum.

Small books

Anodin has not been helped by covering small books of mares in his last couple of seasons in Quesnay, though the numbers jumped significantly last year when his fee was reduced. Figures for the numbers covered this year have not yet been published, but he is likely to have a couple of quieter seasons on the track before the large number of foals born this year have had a chance to show their prowess.

Bred and raced by the Wertheimer brothers, Anodin went to stud as a Group 3 winner of just two races, though this would be an unfair summation of the racing career of a horse who raced 14 times and earned more than £500,000 in prize-money. Runner-up on both his starts at two, Anodin opened his racing account at Longchamp at three before adding the Group 3 Prix Paul de Moussac at Chantilly, both victories coming over a mile. He ran third behind Maxios in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp.

As a full-brother to the brilliant Goldikova (Anabaa), and a half-brother to three other pattern winners, most notably the Group 1 Prix Vermeille heroine Galikova (Galileo), a win at the highest level would have been an enormous boost to Anodin’s stallion prospects.

A third, and best season, racing failed to gain him another victory, though he was runner-up three times at the highest level, to Kingman in the Prix Jacques Le Marois, behind Cirrus Des Aigles in the Prix d’Ispahan, and to Karakonite in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile. Anodin also placed in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Sprint distances

Though he has won at up to a mile, King Gold, who was running for the eighth time this season, and for the 31st time in all, is best at sprint distances, and he is one of a pair of winners from four foals of racing age out of the unraced Kingsalsa (Kingmambo) mare Miss Gandelia. She has six winning siblings, all of whom were successful as two-year-olds. A pair of that half-dozen were also by Kingsalsa, the best of which was Queensalsa. She was placed in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin, bred the stakes-winning juvenile Whip And Win (Whipper), and is grandam of the listed winner Pas De Soucis (Footstepsinthesand).

Miss Gandelia, a daughter of Gandelia (Ganges), is a half-sister to Queen America (American Post), who was a listed winner at two and group-placed in France. Gandelia won three races in France, spread over four seasons, and she was one of a quartet of successful offspring out of Nadelia (Nadjar). The latter mare won on the flat and over jumps, and her best winner was Bamarok (Loup Solitaire). Though he won a couple of times on the level, Bamarok was a better jumper and numbered listed successes at Auteuil and Clairefontaine among his eight wins over obstacles.