POPULARITY and success mean that the 15-year-old Cokoriko (Robin Des Champs) will stand the 2025 season at Haras de Cercy at a new high of €15,000.

He has just completed his eleventh season at the farm at a covering fee of €12,000, and that was a 50% rise from the previous year. This is all a long way from the first four years when he was covering for €1,700, but he made the best of his humble start, and now ranks among the very best jumping stallions in France.

It is fair to say that he has done particularly well with his runners in France, though some have filtered through to racing in Ireland and Britain.

His son Coko Beach won the Grade A Thyestes Handicap Chase, the Grade B Grand National Trial Chase at Punchestown, Grade 2 Ten Up Novice Chase at Navan, and the Troytown Handicap Chase. Homme Public was successful in the Grade 2 November Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham, while Cokoriko’s Grade 3 winners in Ireland and England are Iberico Lord (Betfair Handicap Hurdle, Newbury, and Greatwood Handicap Hurdle, Cheltenham), Bleu De Vassy (For Auction Novice Hurdle, Navan), Icare Allen (Winning Fair Juvenile Hurdle, Fairyhouse), Fakiera (Monksfield Novice Hurdle, Navan) and Five O’Clock (Michael Purcell Memorial Novice Hurdle, Thurles).

Cokoriko sired his fourth winner at the highest level on Sunday when Kingland, who was foaled in Ireland, took his tally of victories to five in just nine starts, adding the Grade 1 Prix Renaud du Vivier Hurdle for four-year-olds to three Grade 3 wins and a listed success. His winnings now amount to £400,000, and he is well on his way to hopefully one day overtaking the achievements of his half-brother.

That sibling is the dual Grade 1 winner Figuero (Yeats), and it was that horse’s achievements which resulted in their dam Annaland (Saint Des Saints) being in Ireland at the time of Kingland’s birth. The result of that tryst is the three-year-old filly La Horra (Yeats), and she has been placed twice over jumps this year. Annaland did not race, but she is the dam of three winners, and a non-winning daughter who was placed in a Grade 3 hurdle race at Auteuil.

Figuero’s 10 wins, including in 2024 at the age of nine, have earned more than £900,000 for connections. Six of those wins have been in blacktype races over fences, and they include the Grade 1 Prix La Haye Jousselin Chase and Prix Maurice Gillois Chase. His placed efforts are headed by his second-place finish in the Grade 1 Grand Steeplechase de Paris.

There are blacktype winners in every one of the first four generations of this family, and the vast majority have done their winning in France. Two exceptions appear in the third and fourth removes however. Vicente (Dom Alco) won two editions of the Grade 3 Scottish Grand National, while a few years previously Valfinet (Maiymad) recorded a trio of Grade 2 wins, all at Wincanton where he won the Elite Hurdle and two running’s of the Kingwell Hurdle.

Kingland was bred by Thierry Cypres who still retains an ownership interest in the gelding.

Royale Pagaille shows bravery in Grade 1 win

AT the age of 10, Royale Pagaille came back from a 10-month absence to win a second successive Grade 1 Betfair Chase at Haydock, and what a servant he has been for the Venetia Williams stable.

Seven years, almost to the day, since he made his debut at Auteuil, he still has relatively few miles on the clock, and this was just his 27th career start, and seventh win. A listed-placed winner in France where he won nearly £60,000, his six chase wins in England have been worth almost £500,000, a nice reward for the €70,000 Guy Petit paid for him as a four-year-old at Arqana.

In addition to winning the Betfair Chase twice, he has also been runner-up in the race, has shown a profound liking for Haydock by winning their Grade 2 Peter Marsh Chase twice, and was gifted second place in the Grade 1 King George VI Chase at Kempton when his stablemate L’Homme Presse unseated his rider in landing in the 2022 race.

Bred by Philippe Mace, Royale Pagaille has a rock-solid National Hunt pedigree. His sire Blue Bresil (Smadoun) stands at Rathbarry Stud’s Glenview, his home since 2020. He has covered immense books of mares since he moved to Ireland, is hugely popular with breeders and buyers at the sales, and with large numbers set to represent him in the years ahead, we could be talking about a potential champion sire in a few seasons’ time? The odds must be good.

After all, his first crop included the Grade 1 Ryanair December Hurdle winner Mick Jazz, and Cheltenham Festival winner Le Prezien. It was a few crops later that Royale Pagaille emerged, followed in 2015 by a crop than contained Grade 1 Arkle Chase winner Blue Lord and the multiple French Grade 1 winner L’Autonomie. The talented Good Land was born in 2016, while the crop of now seven-year-olds contains the unbeaten Constitution Hill, Grade 1 novice hurdle winner Inthepocket, and this year’s Grade 1 Punchestown bumper winner Redemption Day.

Talented sire

Being a son of a talented sire is one half of the equation, but Royale Pagaille can boast of having an equally impressive dam line. His Villez (Lyphard’s Wish) dam Royal Cazoumaille can claim an Auteuil listed hurdle win among her four victories, while four of her five winners at stud have won at least one graded National Hunt race.

Royale Pagaille’s younger half-sister Royale Margaux (Doctor Dino) won a Grade 1 hurdle race at Merano in Italy in 2022. She is a seven-time winner, but that is some way behind the 11 victories compiled by her sibling Royale Astarania (Astarabad), while his best achievement was winning the Grade 2 Prix Murat Chase at Auteuil. This year yet another sibling won a graded race, over fences in France, and this was the four-year-old Royal Saga (Choeur Du Nord). In addition to winning a Grade 3 chase, he was placed in a Grade 1.

Royale Cazoumaille’s own-sister Inoxe Royale (Villez) won a listed chase, while their unplaced own-sister Royale Lombok (Villez) bred the Grade 1 four-year-old hurdle winner Roll On Has (Policy Maker). That Grade 1 win was among nine victories in all for Roll On Has, and she made a fine start at stud when her first foal, Roberta Has (Saint Des Saints), counts a Grade 3 and two listed wins among her six successes. Royale Cazoumaille’s dam Atreide (Son Of Silver) has been responsible for lifting this family out of the ordinary, and the Listed Prix Sagan Hurdle at Auteuil was among her couple of wins over jumps.