WHEN will this happen in Irish National Hunt breeding?

No sooner had the three-year-old Jigme (Motivator) won the €278,000 Grade 1 Prix Cambacérès Hurdle at Auteuil on Sunday, but it was confirmed that he will enter stud for 2024.

The best three-year-old hurdler at Auteuil in 2023, he starts his new career as a stallion at Haras du Hoguenet, where he is expected to be one of the big attractions for French breeders at an opening fee of €8,000. He will be standing alongside his sire.

Undefeated in three outings in the spring at up to Grade 3 level, Jigme was surprisingly beaten on his return in September, but made no mistake on both his starts since, winning the Grade 2 Prix Georges de Talhouet-Roy Hurdle, and now the Cambacérès, pulverizing the opposition.

A winner on all types of going, and with an impressive ability to accelerate, Jigme has size and scope for breeders, and a pedigree that makes him easy to mate with. He will be the only son of Motivator (Montjeu) at stud in France.

It is hard to put in words how impressive Jigme was on Sunday, with some observers claiming it was one of the finest performances ever seen at Auteuil, in spite of the inclement weather. He races for a syndicate headed by Phoenix Eventing, belonging to Swiss eventer Stéphanie Hoffmann.

Big Rock

Jigme was bred by Yeguada Centurion (also responsible this year for Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup winner Hard To Justify, Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes winner Big Rock, classic winner Blue Rose Cen and Group 2 Prix Robert Papin winner Ramatuelle) and sold as a yearling for €90,000 at the Arqana October Sale to Frédéric Sauque, who became a partner along with Phoenix Eventing, Haras de l’Hôtellerie, and Marc Bridoux.

The dam of Jigme, Simawa (Anabaa), was bred by His Highness the Aga Khan. She won as a two-year-old for John Oxx and was placed in the Listed Martin Molony Stakes, but was sold at the age of 13 to Outsider Bloodstock at Goffs for €210,000. She has five winners, all of whom have some blacktype.

Apart from Jigme, her latest offspring, she bred Sinawann (Kingman), a Group 3 winner in Ireland and Australia, the Listed Loughbrown Stakes winner Silwana (Peintre Celebre), and the stakes-placed duo of Summaya (Azamour) and Simsir (Zoffany).

Aga Khan

Simawa is a daughter of listed winner Sinntara (Lashkari) and thus a half-sister to Sinndar (Grand Lodge), the Aga Khan’s dual Derby winner who won the Group 1 National Stakes at two and capped his three-year-old season with victory in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. He sired Group 1 winners Shareta, Youmzain, Rosanara and Shawanda.

Motivator will turn 22 at the end of the year, and breeders this season sent him 90 mares, and will presumably do so again next spring, at a fee of €5,000, the lowest of his career. Not bad value for flat and jumps breeders, given that he is also the sire of the wonder mare, dual Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Treve. She, like Jigme, is out of a mare by Anabaa (Danzig).

Star-studded weekend in Auteuil

WITH more than €2.5 million on offer at Auteuil over last weekend, there was great depth to the quality of the racing, though I venture that few would be able to name the winners of all the Grade 1 races on the two-day fixture.

Saturday’s programme had just one of the Grade 1 races being contested, and it provided a winner who has featured here before. Theleme, a previous winner of the Grade 1 Prix Cambacérès won by Jigme, was victorious for the second time in the Grade 1 Grand Prix d’Automne. He has now won five Grade 1 races, half of all his wins over jumps, having previously won on the flat at three. He has earned some €1.2 million, and every single victory over jumps has been in a graded race.

Incredibly, Theleme could not find a buyer when he was offered for sale as a yearling at Osarus, led out unsold at €3,000. Last autumn at Arqana, Theleme’s dam Utopia Jem (Okawango) sold privately for €80,000 carrying a filly by Grade 1-winning chaser Goliath Du Berlais (Saint Des Saints), and her son, a colt foal by Doctor Dino (Muhtathir), sold for €160,000. Utopia Gem is a 15-year-old who earned £115,000 from three wins in France and multiple placings. Theleme is her only winner to date.

Theleme is by Sidestep (Exceed And Excel), the champion two-year-old colt in Australia a decade or so ago when he won the Group 2 Pago Pago Stakes and was runner-up in the Group 1 Golden Slipper. The first champion juvenile for his sire, Sidestep won twice more, both over six furlongs. He had a bright start to his stud career and sired the Group 1 Golden Slipper Stakes winner Kiamichi in his first crop, helping him to be champion sire among his peers.

Sidestep stood for three seasons in France, at Haras du Logis, and sired Theleme and Group 2 Solonaway Stakes winner Real Appeal in his first European crop, while Group 2 Badener Meile winner Best Lightning was his best runner from his second crop. After shuttling for three seasons he did not return to France in 2019.

Surprise winner

The Grade 1 Prix Maurice Gillois 4YO Chase produced a surprise winner in the gelding, Amy Du Kiff (Kapgarde), who prevailed by four lengths. This was the fourteenth start for the four-year-old, who has been mixing it between hurdling and chasing. Prior to this success, his three wins had yielded a listed win over hurdles and fences.

Bred in Normandy by Pascal Noue at his Haras de la Hêtraie, Amy du Kiff was sold under the name Jewell Du Large for €20,000 at the Arqana Summer Sale in 2021 to Chauvigny Global Equine, and now races for his purchaser, alongside Écurie Nosat, Écurie Kerisel, SARL Arion, and Éric de Saint-Pierre.

Amy Du Kiff is the second of four foals out of his Yeats (Sadler’s Wells) dam Yellowstone Cay, She ran nine times in claiming hurdle races, winning three, and was claimed by Pascal Noue. He has bred her four times to Kapgarde (Garde Royale), twice after producing Amy Du Kiff, but none of her other foals have run yet.

The prestigious €580,000 Grade 1 Prix La Haye Jousselin Chase had a field of nine, none of whom had won at this level previously. The favourite and Grade 2 winner Gran Diose maintained a big lead into the final turn, with Grandeur Nature and Grand Oncle the only ones in with a chance of catching the runaway leader.

Impressively

Off the track for 218 days, Grandeur Nature (Lord Du Sud) impressively made up ground to overtake a weary Gran Diose. Bred in partnership by Haras de Saint-Voir, the seven-year-old grey gelding won by more than three lengths.

Runner-up in the 2021 Grade 1 La Haye Jousselin Chase, Grandeur Nature was contesting his 22nd race and notching up his sixth win.

Grandeur Nature’s dam, Radio Saint Voir (Robin des Champs), won on her debut over the hurdles at Langon, and she was also bred in partnership by Haras de Saint-Voir. She is the dam of five winners, including C’Est Le Bouquet (Coastal Path), successful in the Grade 3 Prix Montgomery Handicap Chase. Grandeur Nature’s half-sister, the winning En Cadeau (Coastal Path), was bought for €32,000 by Paul de Chevigny in foal at Deauville two years ago.

Radio Saint Voir is a daughter of Miss Noir Et Or (Noir Et Or), and she won 11 races over jumps in France and bred eight winner. Notable among them was Sleeping Jack (Sleeping Car), and that €3,000 purchase earned £600,000 in 13 wins, including the Grade 1 Gras Savoye Grand Steeplechase de Paris, while his half-brother Chercheur D’Or (Robin des Champs) won 12 races over jumps in Italy and France, his biggest success coming in the Grade 1 Gran Premio Merano Forst Chase.