ENGLISH TEXTS fine Patrick Lemarié. Even before Haras de Grandcamp was established, he already placed his trust in Éric Lhermite. It was Lhermite who presented Woodshauna as a yearling in the ARQANA ring. Lemarié recalls:“ I always work with the same people. For example, Éric Lhermite and Arnaud Chaillé-Chaillé for NH racing. My breeding is half flat and half NH. I now have 70 hectares and 17 broodmares, 15 of which are in foal for next year.”
From the sales rings to Group 1s Bought as a yearling for € 70,000 by Al Shaqab Racing to support stallion Wooded, Woodshauna was later sold for £ 625,000. He now runs in the colors of Resolute Bloodstock, for whom the Prix Jean Prat marked a first Group 1 win in Europe. John Stewart, already co-owner of Goliath and a partner with Coolmore in the mare Believing, winner of the Al Quoz Sprint( Gr. 1) in Dubai, is behind the colors. Patrick Lemarié also shares a word of praise for the trainer and jockey.“ I’ d like to congratulate Francis-Henri Graffard for the masterful work he’ s done with Woodshauna. He’ s an exceptionally kind person … and also Christophe Soumillon. He’ s a phenomenon. He told me the colt gave him a turn of foot he rarely experiences.” And the final word? It goes to Patrick Lemarié:“ Let’ s talk about the small breeders, who are the foundation of racing. They’ re the ones getting up at night, raising foals for at least a year. And I want to thank my wife, Marie, we handle the foalings together.”
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BREEDING
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By Jocelyn de Moubray
LEFFARD, IN FOND MEMORY OF LE HAVRE
Gerard Augustin Normand and Antonio Caro’ s Leffard came with a late run to pass Trinty College in the final strides and win the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris. The son of Le Havre has every chance of being the Champion three year old colt in France, he is now rated second only ½ kilos behind the Jean Prat winner Woodshauna. Leffard also gave trainer Jean Claude Rouget a third Grand Prix de Paris, thirty four years after Millkom became Rouget’ s first ever Group 1 winner in the same race.
If there were many reasons to celebrate Leffard’ s victory it was also a reminder of the significant role his sire Le Havre played in the development of breeding in France. Leffard is Le Havre’ s sixth Group 1 winner and nineteenth Group 1 performer from twelve crops and became after his win at Longchamp his sire’ s highest rated colt to date. The accompanying table breaks down Le Havre’ s success by crop, by date of birth and his record is one of consistent excellence. Except for this year’ s three year olds, who are still making their mark, Le Havre returned somewhere between 7 % and 13 % Black type performers to foals every year. Overall, he sired 1,263 foals of whom 110 have already won or placed in a black type race,( 8.7 %) and nineteen won or were placed in a Group 1 race,( 1.5 %). These are figures which put him among the best stallions in Europe, year after year, even though for five of the twelve years in which he stood at the Haras de la Cauviniere his fee was either 7,000 euros or 5,000 euros.
A steady track record of success It is a remarkable aspect of Le Havre’ s record that the fee he was standing at seems to have had little effect on his success, which was as good when he stood at 5,000 euros as it was when his fee rose to 60,000 euros. His two best crops were his first, when he stood at 5,000 euros and produced the dual Classic winner and Champion filly Avenir Certain, and then the 2016 crop when he was standing at 20,000 euros following Avenir Certain’ s triumphs the year before. In 2015 Le Havre covered 199 mares at 20,000 euros, only four stallions in Europe
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