Andrew Caulfield on Gailo Chop

Friday, Deauville, France 
PRIX GUILLAUME D’ORNANO – HARAS DU LOGIS SAINT-GERMAIN-G2, €400,000, DEA, 8-15, 3yo, 10fT, 2:11.64, hy. 
1–GAILO CHOP (FR), 128, g, 3, by Deportivo (GB) 
     1st Dam: Grenoble (Fr), by Marignan 
     2nd Dam: Blue Wings (Fr), by In the Wings (GB) 
     3rd Dam: Blue Rider, by Wajima 
O-OTI Management Pty Ltd & Alain Chopard; B-Alain 
Chopard (FR); T-Antoine de Watrigant; J-Julien Auge; 
€228,000. Lifetime Record: 9 starts, 6 wins, 
3 places, €439,434. Werk Nick Rating: A++. 
Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree. 
Click for the Racing Post result or the free brisnet.com catalogue-style pedigree. Equidia VIDEO. 
“Gailo Top est le nouveau Cirrus des Aigles” was how Jour de Gallop chose to describe the 3-year-old gelding after he had steam-rollered some of Europe’s best middle-distance colts in the G2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano. Suggesting that any horse is the new Cirrus des Aigles is a huge compliment. After all, that multiple Group 1-winning son of Even Top has earned getting on for £6 million during an extraordinary career. Yet the comparison may well be apt. Gailo Chop was winning for the sixth time in ninth starts and for the fifth time in his last six appearances when he triumphed at Deauville last week. The only interruption to his winning sequence came when he ventured to the U.S. for the Belmont Derby Invitational. The Cirrus des Aigles comparison also reflects the fact that he and Gailo Chop are geldings capable of form which appears at odds with their less-than-fashionable pedigrees. 
Each of them is the only group winner to appear under his first three dams, though, both possess a female line which traces to a famous producer. For Cirrus des Aigles this was his seventh dam Lady Peregrine, dam of the 1928 2000 Guineas winner Flamingo and second dam of the 1946 Champion Stakes winner Honeyway. For Gailo Chop the famous mare was his eighth dam Dustwhirl, dam of the 1941 Triple Crown winner Whirlaway. However, taking into account the fact that Dustwhirl is just one of 256 individuals in the eighth generation of Gailo Chop’s pedigree, it seems more than a little random to attribute the gelding’s talent to her. I much prefer to look at Gailo Chop’s immediate ancestry in the search for the source of his considerable ability and his 3x5x4 inbreeding to the brilliant Northern Dancer seems a much more likely source. I am pleased to say that two of those lines come via his sire Deportivo, as I suggested the mating between Night Shift and Kenmare’s daughter Valencia which produced this fast horse. 
“This mare [Valencia] has inherited some of the [physical] weaknesses of the Kalamoun line, including light bone and dubious hocks,” I wrote. 
“Daughters of Kenmare have enjoyed excellent results with El Gran Senor (producing Lit de Justice and Colonel Collins), Sadler’s Wells (Commander Collins), Theatrical (Marchand de Sable) and Assert (producing the German Derby winner All My Dreams). 
“Night Shift could be considered, as he has length, strength and a good hind leg. He creates 2×4 to Northern Dancer.” 
After winning twice over six furlongs as a juvenile, Deportivo concentrated on five furlongs in his second season, with the G3 Flying Five heading his pair of stakes wins at the Curragh. He earned a Timeform rating of 116. Unfortunately, he was unable to race when kept in training at four, which is never helpful to a stallion career. Also, never having won a Group 1 or Group 2, Deportivo was up against it when he retired to England’s National Stud. His first crop numbered only 26 foals, his second a mere 13 and his third only 10. Even a more to a different area failed to increase his popularity. 
The next step was a move to France, where his son Senor Mirasol had been group placed. His new base was the Haras des Faunes of Alain Chopard, breeder and co-owner of Gailo Chop. 
This move made sense as Night Shift had enjoyed plenty of success in France, thanks to such as Daryaba (Prix de Diane, Prix Vermeille), Ascension (Prix d’Astarte), Never A Doubt (Prix Robert Papin) and the group-winning sprinters Vision of Night, Struggler, Nipping and Dyhim Diamond. 
Dyhim Diamond prepared the ground for Deportivo’s move to France, unexpectedly coming up with the Group 1 winners Turtle Bowl and Bannaby from the small number of foals in his first two crops. Add to this the fact that Deportivo’s broodmare sire Kenmare had been a major success in France and French breeders, led by Chopard, were willing to give Deportivo a better chance. His first French crop, foaled in 2011, contained 53 foals, of which Gailo Chop is comfortably the best. Chopard, by the way, currently ranks fourth among France’s leading breeders. 
So Deportivo could be one source of Gailo Chop’s ability but there are other likely contributors. The gelding’s dam, Grenoble, surely isn’t one of them, as her racing career comprised just one win from 30 attempts, her solitary victory coming in a 1 1/2-mile maiden race at the provincial track at La Teste de Buch. 
However, Grenoble’s sire Marignan could easily have contributed to Gailo Chop’s prowess, even though he ended his stallion career covering jumping mares in Ireland. 
Marignan possessed a wonderful classic pedigree. He was the result of a mating between Blushing Groom, a champion 2-year-old and winner of the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, and Madelia, a 3-year-old champion whose all-too-brief career featured victories in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane. 
Marignan inherited enough of their talent to take second place in the 1992 Prix du Jockey-Club but he managed only five starts and won nothing more important than a newcomers’ race. Inevitably this made his stallion career all the more difficult and his main contribution to the breed has come in the role of broodmare sire. Another of his daughters visited the previously-mentioned Dyhim Diamond (by Night Shift) to produce Milanais, a close second in the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in 2008. There was also a Group 1 near-miss by Milanais’ half-brother Veneto in the 2012 Poule d’Essai des Poulains. 
Gailo Chop’s second dam, Blue Wings, gained two of her wins at claiming level, but there can be no complaints about her sire In The Wings, who numbered the Breeders’ Cup Turf among his Group 1 successes. In The Wings later sired well over 30 group winners, headed by the international star Singspiel, during a very solid innings as a stallion. 
The next dam, Blue Rider, is a reminder of days long gone. Her sire, Wajima, set record figures for a yearling when this son of Bold Ruler sold for $600,000 in 1973. Wajima justified his price by becoming the top 3-year-old male of 1975, even though he missed the Triple Crown. One would have thought that Wajima was very well qualified to shine as a stallion, but he proved generally disappointing. 
That brings us to Gailo Chop’s fourth dam, Thoroly Blue. This classy turf performer, winner of the Del Mar Oaks, visited Northern Dancer to produce Cresta Rider, who was good enough to earn a Timeform rating of 124 at two and 123 at three. 
One other possible theory regarding the source of Gailo Chop’s talent–and one I would give some credence to–is the amount of Nasrullah blood scattered about his pedigree. Nasrullah was champion sire on both sides of the Atlantic, including five times in North America. Several of his most influential sons are present in Gailo Chop’s ancestry, including Grey Sovereign (twice, via Zeddaan and Fortino II), Red God (via Blushing Groom), Nantallah (via Thong), Never Bend (via Mill Reef) and Bold Ruler (via Wajima). Nasrullah’s sister Rivaz and 3/4-brother Royal Charger are also in the mix.