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Thursday
The email bloodstock wakes up to
It has been gratifying to see the masterful French National Hunt nursery Haras de Faydeau in such fine form of late, as I can think of no other breeding operation that is more deserving of a little good fortune.
Leicestershire native Lune Vergette, who puts her heart and soul into running the stud in south-west France, endured a truly awful sequence of events last year that puts all our own minor gripes and grumbles into perspective.
First, her husband George took his own life and then, a few months later, her son Rufus received a kick to the head from a horse with both its hind legs, shattering his face. As if that weren’t enough, Lune herself suffered a blood clot that caused blindness in one eye, all while living under France’s strict lockdown rules that cut her off from family and friends.
When I spoke to Lune earlier this year, she was determined not to be defined by those tragedies, or to be seen as an object of pity, and was adamant that it was business as usual at Faydeau – a renowned source of beautifully bred and expertly reared National Hunt horses.
So let’s not dwell on the past, and instead look to the present success of the stud and the bright futures that lie ahead of its in-form graduates.
Consistent Faydeau homebred Cancan (pictured below far side) kicked things off by travelling smoothly and jumping well to win a mares’ novice hurdle for Nick Alexander at Ayr on Monday.
The Al Namix five-year-old is a half-sister to three winners in France or in point-to-points out of Kestrel Mail, a hard-knocking daughter of Cricket Ball who raced 79 times over eight consecutive seasons and won ten races on the Flat and four over obstacles.
Kestrel Mail’s dam Favilla Mail, an unraced daughter of River Mist, evidently bred them tough as she produced seven foals who made a total of 253 starts between them for 38 victories and 97 placings.
Kestrel Mail is also a half-sister to Queenly Mail, who is the dam of three winners including the Faydeau-reared Elvis Mail.
That seven-year-old son of Great Pretender, also trained by Alexander, was progressive over fences last season and was running a cracker behind Shiskhin when he fell in the Maghull Novices’ Chase at Aintree in April. He caught the eye staying on into fifth in a Carlisle graduation chase on his seasonal reappearance this month.
Faydeau’s good week continued yesterday when another homebred, Le Chiffre D’Or, eased to a wide-margin success in a Hereford novice hurdle for Paul Nicholls.
The exciting five-year-old, owned by regular Faydeau supporters Gordon and Su Hall, is by brilliant young jumps sire No Risk At All – also the source of Allaho, Epatante and Esprit Du Large – out of the Kaldounevees mare Miss Vitoria, making him a half-brother to French hurdle winners Accomplice and Tazmo.
Miss Vitoria is a half-sister to Miss Salvador, winner of the Prix de Flore, and Blue Bresil, who was Group 2-placed on the Flat and Grade 2-placed over hurdles and now stands at Glenview Stud, with his best progeny including Saturday’s Betfair Chase runner-up Royal Pagaille.
Le Chiffre D’Or, who looks every inch a high-class chaser of the future, is also from the family of Poule d’Essai des Poulains hero Tin Horse, recent German champion two-year-old Rubaiyat and Auteuil Grade 1 winner Oeil Du Maitre.
With that combination of sire and maternal family, not to mention his own emergent talent, it almost makes you wish he had been left entire to make a jumps stallion one day, as is the custom in his native France.
November has been kind to Haras de Faydeau in general, as it also had a hand in Grand Steeple-Chase-Cross-Country de Compiegne victor Prengarde, now an easy winner on all his five starts in 2021, and it bred Saumur chase scorer Ricochet.
Here’s to more richly deserved racecourse success for the hard-working and highly accomplished Vergette family for the rest of the year and beyond.
by RacingPost
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