IT was certainly a good week for French-bred horses.

Their 12 winners comprised eight who were successful at Grade 1 level, Grade B winner Dinoblue (Doctor Dino), the unbeaten Grade 3 bumper winner Junta Marvel (Masked Marvel), Predator’s Gold (Masked Marvel) who won the valuable Goffs Defender Bumper on his debut, and the lightly-raced 10-year-old Aione (Coastal Path), winner of the Colm Quinn BMW Chase.

Impaire Et Passe remains unbeaten after five starts, adding the Grade 1 Alanna Homes Champion Novice Hurdle to his Cheltenham success in the Grade 1 Ballymore Novices’ Hurdle.

Bred by Haras de Peyre and Mrs Pascale Papon, he is the outstanding runner to date for his sire, Diamond Boy (Mansonnien). He is busy at Con and Claire O’Keeffe’s Kilbarry Lodge Stud in Waterford and Impaire Et Passe is the stallion’s second winner at this level, following the dual Grade 1-winning chaser L’Homme Presse.

A winner on the flat at Nancy, Impaire Et Passe was sold at an Arqana Online Sale last April for €155,000 to Highflyer Bloodstock and made his way to Willie Mullins. He won a Grade 2 hurdle race at Punchestown before heading to the Cotswolds.

Female line

Impaire Et Passe is the first foal and winner for his dam, Brune Ecossaise (Le Fou), and she was placed six times between the flat and jumps in France.

The female line is light on winners, but the only other blacktype performer in the first four generations of this family is Foudre Delta, and he too is a son of Diamond Boy,

Energumene (Denham Red), Klassical Dream (Dream Well), El Fabiolo (Spanish Moon), State Man (Doctor Dino), Echoes In Rain (Authorized) and Lossiemouth (Great Pretender) have all featured previously in these columns, but there was a new name to add to the Grade 1 roll of honour, and that was the Martin Brassil-trained Fastorslow.

Runner-up last year in the Grade 3 Coral Cup at Cheltenham to Commander Of Fleet, and occupying the same position a year ago at the Punchestown Festival, he was obviously held in high regard by connections.

He had won his only start in a chase on very soft ground at Auteuil back in September 2019, as a three-year-old, but even so he was certainly thrown in at the deep end on his first two runs over fences in Ireland.

Grade 1 form

These were a pair of Grade 1 contests, the John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase at Punchestown and the Ladbrokes Dublin Chase at the Dublin Racing Festival in Leopardstown.

He completed both runs, but few would have imagined that he would be winning a contest at this level so soon, if at all.

However, his neck defeat to the subsequent Randox Grand National winner Corach Rambler at Cheltenham showed that he possessed plenty of ability, and he was a worthy winner of the Grade 1 Ladbrokes Punchestown Gold Cup from the hot favourite, Galopin Des Champs.

Bred by Sydney Vidal, Fastorslow is a seven-year-old son of Saint Des Saints, and out of the Kahyasi mare Popova.

He was sold as a two-year-old at Arqana for €100,000, and this was months after his dam had passed through the same ring for just €7,000.

Little did people realise that she would go on to breed three winners since, and in addition to a Grade 1 winner she is also responsible for Meredith (Soldier Of Fortune), a four-time winner over jumps who was runner-up in a Grade 3 chase at Cagnes-Sur-Mer.

Even more puzzling about Popova’s small price is that she was a decent racemare herself, winning twice on the flat and twice more over hurdles in France, and she was twice placed in good company at Auteuil, finishing second in both the Grade 3 Prix Andre Michel Hurdle and the Listed Prix Rohan Hurdle.

Breeding route

The decision to go down the National Hunt breeding route was obviously taken when Popova showed her best over jumps, as the rest of her family is firmly rooted in the flat sector.

Her half-brother Prairie Star (Peintre Celebre) won the Group 3 Prix de Conde at two and the Group 2 Prix Hocquart the following season, and he was placed in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud.

Prairie Star was born two years before his half-sister Prairie Rim (Singspiel), and she too was a Group 2 winner, her success coming in the Prix de Malleret at Saint-Cloud.

She sold at Goffs seven years ago for €680,000, and since then her first foal Paths Of Glory (Mastercraftsman) has become a Group 3 winner in Australia.

Prairie Star, Prairie Rim and Popova are among seven winning offspring of the Group 3 Prix Minerve winner Prairie Runner (Alzao).

This is a solid blacktype family, with Popova’s first three dams all being stakes winners.

Prairie Runner is a full-sister to the stakes winner Poussin (Alzao) and he was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix d’Ispahan. Their dam Paix Blanche (Fabulous Dancer) was a listed winner at Evry and group-placed.