WINNER of the Group 1 Prix Jean Luc Lagardere, Camille Pissaro is surely an exciting stallion prospect for Coolmore Stud.

The son of Wootton Bassett (Iffraaj) beat a field that had quality in depth, yet this was only Camille Pissarro’s second win in seven starts, and the first since taking a maiden at Navan on his debut over six furlongs in late April.

Beaten by a head in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes, he was half a length behind Babouche in the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes, and denied a big payday when going down a nose in the Weatherbys Scientific £300,000 Stakes at Doncaster.

Bred by James Cloney in the name of Cn Farm Ltd, Camille Pissarro first made an impact when he sold last year in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Sale, realising 1,250,000gns to M.V. Magnier and Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm.

The son of the winning Pivotal (Polar Falcon) mare Entreat was knocked down to Magnier after a bidding duel with Mohamed Al Mansour. Cloney, present to see the colt consigned by his family’s Co Kilkenny farm, which is run by his father-in-law, Michéal Nolan, was succinct after the sale. “The horse really sold himself,” said the breeder.

Wootton winners

When it comes to having a stallion’s pedigree, Camille Pissarro is not lacking. He is one of no fewer than 33 individual juvenile winners from the first Coolmore-conceived crop by his sire, and a remarkable 10 of them are blacktype winners. He joins Al Riffa as a 2024 Group 1 winner, is one of 10 lifetime winners for the stallion at the highest level, and what a deep crop of two-year-olds Wootton Bassett has.

Throw in Henri Matisse, dual Group 2 winner and Group 1 runner-up, Group 2 winner Green Impact, unbeaten French Group 3 winner Maranoa Charlie, further Group 3 winners Angeal, Houquetot and Ides Of March, and you get a sense of why Wootton Bassett is so highly valued at Coolmore.

An indication of the esteem in which Wootton Bassett is held was revealed by M.V. Magnier to me at the Goffs Orby Sale. He said: “He is a very good sire, the leading sire of two-year-olds with his first Irish crop. He gets horses to go on soft ground and good ground, and they win over five furlongs and a mile and a half. He is a special sire.”

Galileo outcross

On the suggestion that Coolmore’s purchase of Wootton Bassett was both inspired and a gamble, he added: “I suppose he was, but he was completely free of Galileo, and we had to do something pretty quickly, with so many mares with Galileo blood. Thankfully, himself, Justify and No Nay Never are working out very well.”

One of four stakes winners among the eight successful offspring from Entreat, Camille Pissarro joins Golden Horde (Lethal Force) as her second winner at the highest level. Now a Sumbe sire in France, Golden Horde has his first runners this year and is off the mark with three winners. Their half-sister Exhort (Dutch Art) was a stakes-winner, while another sibling Line Of Departure (Mehmas) won a listed race in Britain.

This past week, Cloney was due to offer a yearling half-sister to Camille Pissarro for sale, but the daughter of Dark Angel (Acclamation) was withdrawn.

This is a female line which has enjoyed huge international success. Entreat’s half-brother Producer (Dutch Art) was a Group 2 winner, while Golden Horde’s third dam Imagining (Northfields) bred the champion Serena’s Song (Rahy), herself dam of the Group 1 Royal Ascot Coronation Stakes heroine Sophisticat (Storm Cat). Other Group and Grade 1 winners in the immediate family include the US champion Honor Code (A P Indy), champion filly Rizeena (Iffraaj), and Prix d’Ispahan winner Zabeel Prince (Lope De Vega).

NEWS of the death last year of the brilliant Tepin (Bernstein) emerged during the post-race briefing from Aidan O’Brien, following the breakthrough win at the highest level for Grateful (Galileo).

What a racemare Tepin was, and thankfully she has left Coolmore with a Group 1-winning daughter.

Victory in the Group 1 Prix de Royallieu was surely also a relief for the team in Ballydoyle and Coolmore, as they had invested $8 million in Tepin seven years ago, purchasing her at the end of a stellar racing career and carrying her first foal by Curlin (Smart Strike). Her first two foals, both fillies, did not race, and are in the USA at the start of their breeding careers.

The second filly was, not surprisingly, by Galileo (Sadler’s Wells), as was her third successive filly, the now three-year-old Grateful. A maiden winner back in June, on her second start, Grateful has made some progress since, taking the Group 3 Darley Irish EBF Stanerra Stakes at Fairyhouse, being placed in the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster, and now winning a Group 1 in France. She could be a filly just at the start of a great career, but she is also an immensely valuable broodmare prospect.

Following the birth of Grateful, Tepin had just one more produce, this year’s two-year-old Delacroix (Dubawi). Runner-up to Green Impact on his debut in a Leopardstown maiden, Delacroix beat stablemate and subsequent winner Acapulco Bay over seven furlongs at the Curragh in August, despite being upset in the starting stalls.

On his only run since, on Irish Champions’ weekend, Delacroix got closer to Green Impact when they met again, this time in the Group 2 KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes, going down by half a length. He runs in a Group 3 today.

Royal Ascot winner

Twice a champion in the USA, Tepin won 13 of her 23 starts, and made her mark at the highest level of racing in the USA, Canada and England.

Bought by Robert Masterson as a yearling for $140,000, she won the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, adding to her five Grade 1 victories across the Atlantic. Those included the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Keeneland, the Woodbine Mile in Canada, and she also was runner-up in the Breeders’ Cup Mile when it was run at Santa Anita. With earnings of some $4.5 million, and a jackpot sale price, Masterson was well-rewarded for his original investment.

It is hard to believe now that Tepin’s unraced dam Life Happened (Stravinsky) once sold for $4,500, at the same sale that her colt foal by Bernstein (Storm Cat) realised $55,000. Following the emergence of Tepin, his full-sister, as a Grade 1 winner, Prime Cut resold as a yearling for $475,000. He went on to win three times, place in the Grade 2 Peter Pan Stakes at Belmont, before suffering the indignity of being sold for $1,000 at auction.

In addition to the full-siblings Tepin and Prime Cut, Life Happened is also dam of eight-time winner Vy Jack (Into Mischief). Three of his victories were gained at Grade 2 level, while his placed efforts saw him on the board in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes and Grade 1 Wood Memorial Stakes. His efforts saw him earn more than £900,000 in prize money.