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competitions, having herself practiced eventing extensively, we turned towards show jumping breeding. One day, my friend Claude Aubois said to me:‘ You’ re completely crazy, with a maternal line like that, you should be doing something else.’” From Pointe Angel( Point Vert), multiple flat winner in the colors of Pierre Banchereau, came Angel Star( Pure Flight), never seen in competition, but the dam of a certain Lady Banbou( Useful), their first AQPS. The matriarch of the“ Banbou” family.“ She is the one who set the tone for our AQPS breeding,” continues her breeder.“ She mainly produced Frero Banbou, a Group 3 winner in Britain, but also Vestale Banbou, the dam of several Stakes winners such as Karoline Banbou, Imagine Banbou and Louisa Banbou. Her first offspring, Gaita Banbou, having suffered an accident, we had sold her as a leisure horse, then we searched for her for years before recovering her last year in Lourdes. She came back home a year ago. She is in foal to David du Berlais … There are miracles everywhere!”
The new queen of AQPS If Gaita Banbou is a miracle, her dam Vestale Banbou is truly a goose that lays golden eggs. Winner of a race during her career, Vestale Banbou has had, and continues to have, a completely different career as a broodmare. This dam of eleven Group winners through Imagine Banbou( Coastal Path) and Karoline Banbou( No Risk at All) gave birth, in 2021, to Louisa Banbou( Silverwave), who provided her breeders with a first Group 1 victory, the Prix de Craon at ParisLongchamp, last year.“ She is a real champion. Zonzon( Sébastien Zuliani), her trainer, thinks she is better than her sister Imagine Banbou, a five-time Group winner. Louisa Banbou has a very good physique. She seems less stressed and less nervous with time, but she needs a strongly run race to produce her best performance. She has a lot of energy, she gets that from her dam. When I make crosses, I also like to add size to my broodmares. I am quite keen on conformation rather than speed. Speed comes afterwards, but if you have a small filly or a very small colt, it won’ t work.” Beaten on April 17 at Saint- Cloud for the first time since September 4, 2025, and haing already won five Stakes races, she has as her older brother a certain Naruto Banbou( Nirvana du Berlais), a highly regarded three-year-old colt, destined for a bright future over jumps. Over jumps, Louisa Banbou will never run:“ We would be too afraid of losing her,” specifies her co-breeder.“ Keeping the fillies and selling the colts” in order to preserve maternal lines is a winning strategy. Orchestrated by Marie- Laure Collet, co-founder of Haras de Clairefontaine, the
“ Banbou” label has a bright future ahead.
PSAR
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SYRIA IS EXPERI- ENCING A NEW MOMENTUM
BY CÉCILE ADONIAS
There are currently five racecourses in Syria: Damascus, Hama, Latakia, Raqqa, Hassaké, and a sixth is under construction in the north of the country in Idleb, which is expected to be inaugurated this year. All tracks are sand, and one of the medium-term objectives is to build a turf track at one of the active racecourses.
The racing program is spread over thirteen race days per year, with an average of eight to thirteen races per day. 75 % of the program is reserved for Purebred Arabians of Syrian origin, and the remaining 35 % is dedicated to Purebred Arabians from foreign bloodlines. There is a real desire to protect local bloodlines, as horses hold a very special value in the country and are almost considered members of the family. The last meeting in 2025 brought together more than one hundred Purebred Arabians for eleven races, and the first meeting of 2026 had 96 runners across ten races. These figures are comparable to those of major historical racing jurisdictions. However, the
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