ENGLISH TEXTS
first foal Mandour by smart strike is the only two to get black type as he won a listed race in Sandown and finished third in the group one prix d’ ispahan. The Graffard team and Princess Zahra will be hoping that Mandanaba can fulfil her potential and follow in her dams footstep becoming a leading performer for her team. With entries in the prix saint Alary, poule d’ essai des pouliches and Prix de diane we will find out sooner or later how good she can be.
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BREEDING
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Par Jocelyn de Moubray
GROUP 1 BROODMARES: GOLDEN GOOSE
Only a select few fillies and mares are able to win Group 1 races. In Europe there are now twenty three Group 1’ s restricted to fillies or to fillies and mares and, from time to time, females also win Group 1 races against colts and geldings. However, this tiny elite group of female athletes has an altogether disproportional influence on racing and breeding when they retire to stud.
As a rough estimate we can say that there are twenty fe- male Group 1 winners every year in Europe, more often than not there are one or two who win several Group 1’ s, and the average mare is active for eight years and so there are probably 150 European Group 1 winners active as broodmares. If we subtract those who prove to be infertile or die young and those sold to race or breed abroad, the Japanese are particularly keen on buying Group 1 winning females, it is likely that of the twenty thousand broodmares in Europe about one hundred or 0.5 % are Group 1 winners. If Group 1 placed fillies and mares are included you may get to as many as 1 % of the population. Of the twenty four Group 1’ s restricted to females ten are in Great Britain, eight in France, four in Ireland and one, the Preis der Diana, in Germany. Twelve are run over 2000 metres or further, with France leading the way in this respect with five of its eight Group 1’( le Prix de Diane, le Prix Jean Romanet, Le Prix de L’ Opéra, le Prix Vermeille et le Prix Royallieu. s for fillies run over middle distances or further; Only four are for two year olds, the Marcel Boussac in France, the Fillies Mile and Cheveley Park in Britain and the Moyglare Stakes in Ireland. Many of these have been( Beaucoup de ces courses ont été reclassées, des épreuves comme les Prix de Royallieu( promue Gr. 1 en 2019), Rothschild( anciennement Astarte devenu
Gr. 1 en 2008), l’ Opéra( Gr. 1 en 1990) upgraded fairly recently as races like the Royallieu, Rothschild / Astarte, Opera, Falmouth, Nassau and Sun Chariot used to be run at a lower grade. Things are inevitably different in Japan, and it is not surprising Japanese breeders are keen to buy Group or Grade 1 winners abroad. There are only 25 Group 1 races in Japan, compared with eightythree in Europe, of these only six are restricted to females. The proportion of Group 1 winners or performers among Japan’ s ten thousand broodmares must be far smaller than 1 % even including the imports. To get an idea of the influence these mares have you only have to look at the results of the Classic trials run in France this year. Four of the major trial winners are out of Group 1 winning mares. Ridari, the winner of the Fontainebleau is out of Ridasiyna, the winner herself of the Opera, Mandanaba, the winner of the Vanteaux is out of Manesha, the winner of the Rothschild, Vermeille and the Opera, Tajlina the winner of the Penelope, is, like her Group winning older ½ brother Map of Stars, out of the Vermeille winner Bateel, and Cualifcar, the winner of the La Force, is out of the Oaks winner Qualify. In addition to these four winners Silius, second in the Djebel, is out of the Marcel Boussac and Saint Alary winner Silasol and Gezora, third in the Vanteaux, is out of the Saint
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