BACK in January 2021, I wrote the following in this column.

“I wonder how many Irish stud farms have attempted to acquire Cokoriko, one of eight stallions set to cover at Haras de Cercy this year. If they haven’t been trying to do so in the past, I am sure that they are sitting up and taking notice of him now.

“The son of Robin Des Champs (Garde Royale) commenced stud duties in 2014 at a fee of €1,700, had a small increase to €2,000 in 2018, jumped to €6,000 for the past two seasons, and now settles at €8,000 in 2021. He has not lacked for support either, covering well over 100 mares in each of his first four years at stud, doubling to some 234 mares in 2018, while at his much bigger fee for the recent two seasons he has covered almost 400 mares. Breeders love him, and no wonder.”

Well the story keeps getting better, and I doubt that he will ever move from Cercy, where next year he is set to cover at a fee that jumps from €8,000 to €12,000. He covered more than 400 mares during the three seasons he stood for €8,000, and he is still a young stallion, in National Hunt terms, turning 15 in January.

What of Cokoriko’s own race record? He won two of his four starts over jumps at the age of four, one of them being the Listed Prix Gerald de Rochefort Hurdle at Auteuil. He shares his sire, Robin Des Champs, with such Grade 1 luminaries as Blow By Blow, Quevega, Sir Des Champs, Sous Les Cieux, Un Atout, Un Temps Pour Tout and Vautour. An impressive list.

On his dam side of the family, Cokoriko is very closely related to Cana (Robin Des Champs) – she is a half-sister to his dam – and that mare is the dam of the four-time Grade 1 hurdle winner Benie Des Dieux (Great Pretender).

What is fascinating about the popularity of Cokoriko with breeders is that he has not sired a host of Grade 1 winners. In fact, his best runner, Coko Beach, is credited with a Grade 1 victory, but that was in what we know as a Grade A race, the Goffs Thyestes Chase. Last weekend he took his number of victories to six when he added the Grade 3 Bar One Racing Troytown Chase at Navan.

It is the consistency with which Cokoriko gets his blacktype winners that is most notable. He has so far averaged more than three blacktype winners in his first six crops racing, including a trio of such winners among his three-year-olds, and is averaging seven blacktype horses per crop if you include those placed in listed or graded races.

Most successful

His first crop has been the most successful so far and includes five blacktype winners, three of which are known to us in Ireland. The Willie Mullins-trained Five O’Clock won a Grade 3 novice hurdle at Thurles, while the Gordon Elliott-trained Fakiera did the same at Navan. Elliott also handles the Gigginstown House Stud-owned Coko Beach, and all of his chase wins have been in blacktype races. He was no slouch over hurdles, winning at Nantes as a three-year-old and adding to that after his move to Ireland, and he was runner-up in the Grade 2 WKD Hurdle at Down Royal and Grade 3 Fred Winter Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival.

Bred by Jean-Louis Berger, Coko Beach is from a very happening family. He is out of the four-time flat winning Take Risks (Highest Honor) mare Solana Beach, and she is now dam of four winners. Prior to Coko Beach, her offspring included the listed hurdle winner Coastal Beach (Coastal Path), and that mare added to the family’s success story this year when her three-year-old daughter Flying Chaser (Masterstroke) won a Grade 1 hurdle race at Merano.

These big race winners under the first dam are examples of the quality of this family. Solana Beach is one of seven winners from the unraced Lhotse (Sarhoob), and one horse stands out among them.

Top Of The Sky (Kahyasi) only won three times, but at the age of four he landed the Grade 1 Prix Maurice Gillois Grand Steeplechase. Lhotse is also grandam of the Grade 3 Cheltenham chase winner Torn And Frayed (Califet).

Acclaimed

Back one more remove and Coko Beach’s third dam was the winning mare Acclaimed (Luthier). She has three winning daughters, including the Group 3-placed Kruguy (Try My Best), and though she came from a smart flat family, her lasting legacy will be that she is now the taproot of a number of good quality National Hunt winners.

Acclaimed’s grandson Don’t Be Shy (Trempolino) was a Grade 2 winner in France before moving to Martin Pipe and winning the Grade 2 Game Spirit at Lingfield. Her granddaughter Kruguyrova (Muhtathir) moved from France to Charlie Egerton for whom she won a Grade 2 chase and was runner-up to Tidal Bay in the Grade 1 Arkle Chase at Cheltenham.

Other smart runners descending from Acclaimed include another winner of the Grade 1 Prix Maurice Gillois Grand Steeplechase, Halley (Loup Solitaire), Grade 2 hurdle winner here Derrinross (Scorpion), and the Grade 3 Grand Annual Chase winner at Cheltenham, Solar Impulse (Westerner).

A notable feat for Cokoriko on Sunday was that he sired blacktype winners over jumps in three countries, Coko Beach at Navan, Iberico Lord at Cheltenham, and Genesis As in France.

Iberico Lord

The five-year-old Iberico Lord was bred by Thierry Adenot and he has been transformed since undergoing wind surgery, now celebrating his third success with victory in the Greatwood Hurdle. He is the first winner out of Valcelita (Voix Du Nord), and she was a winner nine times, five on the flat and the rest over jumps.

This has been an ordinary enough family in recent generations, but the story is very different when you go back a few removes. The unraced Jolivette (Laniste) bred 10 winners, but via a number of daughters she appears in the back pedigree of such as dual Grade 1-winning chaser Notre Pere (Kadalko), Osana (video Rock), a Grade 2 hurdle winner and runner-up in the Grade 1 Champion Hurdle, and Grade 2 chase winner Pencilfulloflead (Shantou).

Meanwhile, in France, Genesis As gained the biggest win of his career when his seventh success came in the Listed Grand Steeplechase de Bordeaux. He was one of three winners on the day in France bred by Patrick Joubert and Paul Couderc. The seven-year-old is one of a pair of winners out of the three-time jumps winner Lovely As, a daughter of Assessor (Niniski).

Net Lovely

Lovely As is a half-sister to the multiple Grade 3 chase and hurdle winner Net Lovely (Network) and she was runner-up in the Grade 1 Prix La Haye Jousselin Chase at Auteuil. One of the three winners bred last Sunday by Joubert and Couderc was Net Lovely’s son Kind Lovely (Authorized). Lovely As also has several other good jumpers among her siblings, including Lovely Kiss (Epalo), winner of seven races and third in Switzerland in the Listed Grosser Preis von Schweiz.

A notable sibling to Net Lovely, Lovely Kiss and Lovely As is Lucky Net Love (Network), a notable runner cross-country in France. He is a seven-time winner, including this year at the age of 10, and he earned blacktype in one of France’s best cross-country races at Pau.

All of these good runners are out of the unraced Line Lovely (Mansonnien), and she was purchased by Pierre Boulard as an unraced three-year-old for just €4,000 at Arqana with a very light pedigree. She has made her own pedigree now, with five multiple winners, four of which are mares. This is a family set to grow in status, and Genesis As can add further lustre to the pedigree.