So far in this series we have covered most of the major players in the training ranks. Messrs. Mullins and Nicholls have always had strong links to France and so they tend to dominate this list every year. It’s the same in 2022, with a fair 66% of the names heading to either Ditcheat or Closutton. They are the champion trainers and so naturally a lot of the talent with gravitate towards them, but the market won’t miss those and so I try to focus on other names that don’t head their way. Now todays horse is going to be trained by Nicky Henderson at Seven Barrows, so he probably won’t be missed when he makes his debut in the UK either, but he does stand out.
Primarily he stands out on my list because he is the only horse heading to Nicky Henderson that I have found. I am sure that there are probably others, but nothing has come up in my research so we will focus on him. Henderson has a good record with French 3-year-olds, Peace and Co and Zaynar perhaps the most immediate names that spring to mind and so it is not unusual for him to recruit well from the French sphere.
Todays horse is another to make his debut at Moulins and he comes from the AQPS stock. “Autre Que Pur Sang” is a general term used for racehorses that are not pure thoroughbreds. The vast majority have a small link in their bloodline to Anglo-Arabian, though by definition they need to have at least 87.5% of their immediate pedigree from thoroughbred stock. Moulins is one of the leading centers for AQPS horses and it is not unusual to see leading types make their debuts here. Grand National winners like Neptune Collonges and Mon Mome were AQPS and as a general rule they are strong stayers. This is the first AQPS on this years list but there will be others.
JAITROPLACLASSE (Nicky Henderson)
A son of Secret Singer, it’s probably fair to say that his page could use a good horse to boost the family’s immediate record, though the likes of Socrate III and Rameur are there further back in the line. Trained in France by Nick Littmoden, he was sold at the Lumet Show in 2021 for just €10,000, but his price rose to €110,000 when he was sold to Anthony Bromley of Highflyer Bloodstock at the Grand Steeple sale in May. Now owned by Michael Blencowe, he has been bought to go jumping. The broker told Jour de Galop “He is going to Nicky Henderson for one of his owners. He made a very promising start. He looks made for jumping. The kind of horse Nicky loves”.
He finished 3rd in a bumper in April on his only start for Nick Littmoden, beaten just over 2-lengths, with the 2nd placed Jakarta Macalo winning on her next start to boost the form. A big imposing type, he initially settled in rear before being sent forwards by Mickael Forest when it became clear that there was very little early pace. Although he did struggle to keep tabs on the first 2 when the field began to sprint for the line, he kept on nicely into 3rd, 5-lengths clear of the rest and looks like he will benefit from a more thorough test and possibly softer conditions.
Even from the limited video footage we have from that race at Moulins, it is fair to say that he has scope and should improve in time. He will almost certainly jump a fence at some point. That being said this was a very promising start to his career and there are surely races to be won with him, possibly in the new series of Juvenile National Hunt development races.
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