IT is usual that a stallion’s fee increases when he starts having success on the track, offspring with triple-digit ratings, blacktype earners or stakes winners. However, Elusive Pimpernel’s (by Elusive Quality) fee was €1,000 during his two seasons at his owner/breeder’s Islanmore Stud, and it has remained at that price ever since.
The half-brother to Palavicini (by Giant’s Causeway) comes from the family of Snow Fairy (by Intikhab) and Big Bad Bob (by Bob Back) and is now at the start of his sixth year at the Irish National Stud.
His oldest offspring turned six last month, and we got an early sign of their sire’s potential when They Seek Him Here made a winning debut, quickly followed by fourth-place finishes in the Group 2 July Stakes and Group 3 Solario Stakes. He did not earn blacktype, but Elusive Janice did when taking third in a listed contest at San Siro that July.
That first crop also includes dual listed-placed gelding Elusive Heights plus Kabaw, who picked up third in the Listed UAE 1000 Guineas at Meydan.
Elusive Beauty and Elegant Pose head his second crop. The first-named, whom Ken Condon trained, won a listed contest over seven furlongs at Carlisle and was a close third to subsequent triple Group 1 star Roly Poly in a Group 3 at the Curragh. Elegant Pose won three of her six starts, short-headed Making Light in a mile listed contest at Naas, and was twice blacktype-placed, notably when third in the Group 3 Park Express Stakes over that same course and distance.
Elusive Pimpernel has also been catching the attention of National Hunt breeders, and three of his first-crop sons have good ratings. The Nick Gifford-trained Fairway Freddy won twice over hurdles in five days in late November, and by an aggregate margin of 11 and a half lengths. He’s rated 120.
Niven won three times on the flat and once over hurdles when trained by Noel Meade and chased home Delta Work in a novice chase at Down Royal in early November. He joined the Philip Kirby team in mid-December, won by eight lengths over fences at Hexham and then finished third in a two-and-a-half-mile novice chase at Huntingdon. He’s rated 132.
Then there’s the Ellmarie Holden-trained Ex Patriot, currently on a handicap mark of 145. He was relegated to second when pipping Dinaria Des Obeaux by a nose in a Grade 3 juvenile hurdle, was third to Jezki in the Grade 3 Istabraq Hurdle at Tipperary, Grade 2-placed at Fairyhouse, and was fourth to Defi Du Seuil in 2017’s Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham.
The story is just beginning for Elusive Pimpernel.
ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL (USA). Won three races, £151,356, from 7 furlongs to 1 mile, at 2 and 3 years including, Racing Post Craven Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.3, Watch Races on Racing UK Acomb Stakes, York, Gr.3, also placed second in Racing Post Trophy, Doncaster, Gr.1, Rose of Lancaster Stakes, Haydock Park, Gr.3, and third in Weatherbys Earl of Sefton Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.3, Toteexacta August Stakes, Windsor, L.
Retired to Stud in 2012, and sire of the winners of 81 races, and £750,704, including ELEGANT POSE, ELUSIVE BEAUTY, Elusive Heights, Kabaw and Elusive Janice; and sire of the winners of 10 races, and £145,553 under N.H. Rules, including Coeur Sublime, Elusive Belle and Ex Patriot.
Stands at: Irish National Stud, Tully, Kildare, Co Kildare, Ireland.
Contact: Cathal Beale, Sinead Hyland, Gary Swift, Patrick Diamond or Helen Boyce
Telephone: +353 (0)45 521251
Email: reception@irishnationalstud.ie
Web: www.irishnationalstud.ie
Fee: €1,000