CRACKSMAN’S racing profile was always suggestive that whatever he achieved with his juvenile runners, they would be better with time.

In late May last year, the Dalham Hall Stud sire got off the mark, and by the season’s end he had been responsible for no less than 15 winners. Two of his daughters were successful at stakes level, Dance In The Grass, out of a Sir Percy (Mark Of Esteem) mare, won the seven-furlong Listed Star Stakes at Sandown, and on her seasonal bow this year ran fifth in the Group 1 1000 Guineas.

Meanwhile, Aloa, whose dam is by Lawman (Invincible Spirit), ended her juvenile season in Italy as the winner of four of her five starts, notably capturing the Group 2 Premio Dormello.

Cracksman started this year well, and in late April sired a third stakes winner when Cracksmania won a listed race in Toulouse, while three weeks later yet another daughter, the classic hopeful Weracruz, was a listed winner at Hannover in Germany.

In between the latter two winners, Ace Impact was starting to live up to his name, and his victory in the Listed Prix de Suresnes in Chantilly was his third in succession, all gained in 2023.

The first son of Cracksman to earn blacktype, he returned to Chantilly last week where he won the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club, the French Derby. Not only did he win the race, but he did so in a new record time, and remains unbeaten, He also enhanced Jean-Claude Rouget’s incredible record in the classic, and is the fifth winner of the race he has trained in the last eight years, and his sixth in all. It is worth naming his previous winners too; Le Havre (in 2009), Almanzor, Brametot, Sottsass and Last year’s winner, Vadeni.

Rouget bought Ace Impact as a yearling at the Arqana Yearling Sale for €75,000 for Ecurie Serge Stempniak, and his weekend win took his earnings past the €900,000 mark. He was bred by Waltraut and Karl Spanner from Absolutely Me (Anabaa Blue). She is one of four mares owned by the couple, and cost them €16,500 when purchased by Henri-Alex Pantell as a yearling at Osarus 13 years ago. She raced in France, winning at two and three, and gained valuable blacktype when placing at Baden-Baden (where the Spanners live) and Nantes.

Ace broodmare

While she made her mark on the track, Absolutly Me is proving to be an ace broodmare, and the French Derby winner is her fifth offspring, and fifth winner. The breeder’s choice of stallions varies each year, and to date the mares’ winners are by Cracksman (Frankel), Australia (Galileo), Rock Of Gibraltar (Danehill), Motivator (Montjeu) and Nathaniel (Galileo). Her sixth produce is a two-year-old, named Arrow Eagle, by Gleneagles (Galileo).

However, Ace Impact is not her first stakes performer. Her first runner, Apollo Flight (Rock Of Gibraltar), won five times and placed in a couple of listed races, while the Rouget-trained Alessandro (Australia), an €80,000 yearling buy, has won that back with four victories and a runner-up finish is a listed race at Cagnes-Sur-Mer.

While there is nothing amiss with the next two generations of the family, it didn’t reach the heights of the fourth remove. Absolutly Me is the best of five winners out of Tadawul (Diesis), though there are a few other Rouget connections to the family, Absolutly Me’s half-sister Mrs Nobody (Footstepsinthesand) won eight times after the trainer purchased her as a yearling.

Successful progeny

Barakat (Bustino), Ace Impact’s third dam was once sold for $5,000, and that was the year she foaled Mabadi (Sahm). She turned out to be her dam’s only stakes winner, among 11 successful progeny, and Mabadi’s winners include the Rouget-trained Salai (Myboycharlie). Two of that colt’s four wins were in listed races, and he was group-placed a number of times.

This takes us to the fourth dam, Rosia Bay (High Top), a dual winner, producer of seven winners, and the ancestress of many stakes winners. Her son Ibn Bey (Mill Reef) won Group 1 races in Ireland, Italy and Germany, and he was placed at the highest levels in England, the USA and France. Foaled 39 years ago, Ibn Bey was bred by Lord Porchester. The colt’s dam was a daughter of Ouija (Silly Season), who was also the dam of Teleprompter (Welsh Pageant), the grandam of Ouija Board (Cape Cross) and the great-grandam of Australia.

As a yearling, Ibn Bey was sold for 210,000gns to Fahd Salman and sent into training with Paul Cole at Whatcombe in Oxfordshire. His 10 victories and many placings saw him retire to stud in Japan, where he had minor success, with winnings of more than $3.7 million.

Two years after the birth of Ibn Bey, Rosia Bay foaled her best daughter, the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks winner Roseate Tern (Blakeney). She was still a maiden when she contested the 1989 Oaks, in which she crossed the line in third place. She was later promoted to second when the winner, Aliysha, was disqualified, a decision that led to the Aga Khan removing all of his horses in training in Britain.

Best son

Cracksman is still the highest-rated son or daughter of Frankel, who is the best son himself of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells). Judged solely by the market’s reaction to the second-crop yearlings by dual champion Cracksman last year, buyers both liked what they saw on the ground, and were hugely encouraged by the start the sire made with his first runners. Their median was almost €60,000, up by nearly 50% on his first crop.

Cracksman was a world champion at three and four, yet he stands at Sheikh Mohammed’s Dalham Hall Stud at a very attractive fee of £17,500, while his sire commands £275,000. Unlike the undefeated Frankel, Cracksman won eight of his 11 starts, including four Group 1 races, and was second twice and third once at the highest level.

Raced by Anthony Oppenheimer who bred him at his Hascombe and Valiant Studs, Cracksman was trained by John Gosden and ran once as a two-year-old, comfortably winning a maiden race at Newmarket. He reappeared at Epsom where he beat Permian in the Derby Trial Stakes, and was having only his third outing in the Derby itself, beaten only a length by Wings Of Eagles when finishing third. He took his revenge on the winner a month later in the Irish Derby, but was beaten a neck by Capri. These were Cracksman’s only defeats in 2017.

Procession

In the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes at York, Cracksman turned the race into a procession and came home six lengths clear, before going to Chantilly and winning the Group 2 Prix Niel by three and a half lengths.

He set the seal on a remarkable season in the Group 1 Champion Stakes, romping home seven lengths ahead of top-class performers Poet’s Word and Highland Reel. Cracksman was rated the champion three-year-old colt on 130.

Remaining in training at four, Cracksman was again a world champion, sharing top spot on 130 with the brilliant Australian mare Winx. He won the Group 1 Prix Ganay at Longchamp by four lengths, the Group 1 Coronation Cup at Epsom, before finishing second to Poet’s Word in the Group 1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot, with Hawkbill eight lengths away third. Cracksman returned to his best form on his final outing, winning the Group 1 Champion Stakes at Ascot for the second time, six lengths ahead of Crystal Ocean.