Caulfield on Epicuris
Saturday, Saint-Cloud, France
CRITERIUM DE SAINT-CLOUD-G1, €250,000, STC, 11-8, 2yo, c/f, 10fT, 2:17.41, hy.
1–EPICURIS (GB), 126, c, 2, by Rail Link (GB)
1st Dam: Argumentative (GB) (MSP-Fr), by Observatory
2nd Dam: Discuss, by Danzig
3rd Dam: Private Line, by Private Account
O-Khalid Abdullah; B-Juddmonte Farms Ltd (GB);
T-Criquette Head-Maarek; J-Thierry Thulliez.
€142,850. Lifetime Record: 3 starts, 3 wins,
€194,850. Werk Nick Rating: A+++ *Triple Plus*.
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
Click for the Racing Post result or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. Equidia VIDEO.
Blinkered, parochial and close-minded may be adjectives most frequently applied to the American racing industry in recent years, but America certainly doesn’t hold a monopoly when it comes to being hidebound in her attitudes. A couple of last week’s worldwide Group 1 events illustrate how difficult it can be for a British stud to persuade breeders to use a foreign-raced stallion (and the same applies in Ireland).
The first instance concerns the Crown Oaks at Flemington in Australia, which provided Set Square with her third win in four starts. This filly is by Reset, an unbeaten son of the star New Zealand stallion Zabeel.
Reset is also responsible for Fawkner (G1 Caulfield S. and G1 Caulfield Cup), Pinker Pinker (G1 W.S. Cox Plate) and Rebel Raider (G1 South Australian Derby and G1 Victoria Derby), but he was treated with suspicion when Darley first shuttled him to England in 2005, when he covered only 64 mares. Although he proved much more popular in his second season, Reset was never returned to England. (To veer off the subject briefly, Reset’s daughter Set Square has an unusual pedigree in that she is inbred 3×2 to Zeditave, a champion Australian 3-year-old.)
The other Group 1 winner I have in mind is Epicuris, the unbeaten Rail Link 2-year-old who led throughout to land the Criterium de Saint-Cloud over a mile and a quarter. The colt’s three victories have all come since it was announced in August that Rail Link was returning to France, scene of his triumphs in the Grand Prix de Paris and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in 2006. The move made perfect sense, as two of his first four group winners had been French-trained (the others had won in Italy and Australia).
Rail Link is by no means the first French-trained winner of the Arc to have struggled a little as stallions in England or Ireland. Hurricane Run left Ireland for Germany; Peintre Celebre ended his career at a fee of only €10,000; and Suave Dancer was struggling for support when he died comparatively young.
Of course their problems weren’t just a result of being a foreign-raced horse in a strange land. For example, Suave Dancer, Peintre Celebre and Rail Link all endured a wasted year when kept in training at four. Suave Dancer suffered a leg injury after finishing third in the Prix Ganay on his reappearance. Peintre Celebre suffered a career-ending tendon injury while preparing to make his 4-year-old debut in the same race six years later, while Rail Link also sprained a tendon before he was able to compete at four. His early retirement denied him the chance of racing outside France for the first time.
I have noticed over the years that a missed season on the track can prove a serious obstacle for a new stallion, as breeders’ memories often appear to be remarkably short. While the old star is unproductively waiting in the wings for the next breeding season to come around, the next generation of high-class colts become flavour of the month. It is their achievements which are freshest in the mind when mating plans are drawn up.
Rail Link also had a couple of other obstacles to overcome when he commenced stallion duties as a 5-year-old. For a start, he hadn’t raced at two and he had gained all four of his group successes over a mile and a half–a record unlikely to endear him to commercial breeders. Then there was his size. Although American breeders have no objections to a stallion standing 16.2 or more, their European counterparts tend to prefer a somewhat smaller horse. Timeform described him as big, strong and angular.
Epicuris appears to have inherited a good measure of Rail Link’s size, but he is clearly much more precocious than his sire, thanks no doubt to having a 2-year-old winner as his dam. He is the first foal of Argumentative, a lightly raced daughter of the top-class miler Observatory (one of only four horses with a victory over Giant’s Causeway).
Argumentative won over a mile on her only appearance at two and then failed by only a neck and half a length to become a listed winner over seven furlongs on her reappearance at three. She missed the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, which had seemed a possibility at one time, and there had also been high hopes of her dam Discuss. After showing a lot of potential in two starts in maiden company, this daughter of Danzig became one of the leading fancies for the G1 Coronation S. Although that step up in class proved too much for Discuss, she was useful at around a mile.
This family has been in the Juddmonte broodmare band for well over 30 years. Its first major contribution came in the form of Ballinderry, a daughter of Epicuris’ fifth dam Miss Manon. Ballinderry won the G2 Ribblesdale S. at Royal Ascot in 1984 in the now famous green, pink and white silks and then produced the Prix du Jockey-Club winner Sanglamore as her first foal.
Epicuris’ fourth dam Miss Summer was acquired as a 9-year-old in 1988, the year after her Nureyev filly Most Precious has been placed in two of France’s top 2-year-old races. Most Precious went on to produce the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches winner Matiara and this branch of the family produced another good filly in Indonesienne, winner of the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac in 2013.
Miss Summer’s best effort for Juddmonte was her Private Account filly Private Line, a stakes winner in England and the U.S. Private Line is the third dam of the Criterium de Saint-Cloud winner and she also produced a group-winning daughter and a group-winning granddaughter for Juddmonte.
Because Epicuris is already a Group 1 winner over a mile and a quarter on heavy ground, it is tempting to think that he will be very well suited by an extra quarter mile at three. Perhaps he will, as a son of Rail Link. However some elements of his pedigree do not necessarily support this view. He is inbred 4×3 to Danzig and his first three dams were all at their best at around a mile, as was his broodmare sire Observatory. Could it be that the Prix du Jockey-Club would be a better target than the Epsom Derby?