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News In Brief of French Racing.

Telecaster is set to commence his career as a stallion in 2021 and will be standing at Haras du Mesnil. The four-year-old has been retired following his very impressive victory in the G2 Grand Prix de Deauville (2500m) in August. He will stand for €4,000 and should appeal to both flat and jump breeders. Stud-Farm Haras du Mesnil is recognised as offering duel-purpose stallions with Turgeon, Doctor Dino, Kaldounévées and Pampabird. 

In a further announcement from Haras du Mesnil, their highly successful resident stallion, Doctor Dino has seen his standing fee raised to €18,000 (up from €16,000). Twice winner of the G1 Hong Kong Vase (2400m), Doctor Dino covered 147 mares in 2020 including many high class G1 winners. This year Doctor Dino has sired G1 winners including Docteur de Ballon (Grand Steeple-Chase-de-Paris) and Sharjah (Matheson Hurdle). In addition, he has also shown his versatility having sired successful flat victors such as Villa Rosa and Physiocrate who finished second in the G1 Prix de Diane. 

Mounted champion Bilibili is set to commence his quest to win his third successive G1 Prix du Cornulier this coming Sunday in the driven G2 Prix de Bretagne. Not seen since winning the G1 Prix de l'Ile-de-France in February and subject to his performance next weekend, the current plan is to follow the same lead-up races as last season of two driven followed by a mounted run in the G2 Prix du Calvados (2850m) on 10 January.    

Enino du Pommereux will not be ready to compete for at least the first half of the Winter Meeting. Runner-up in both the G2 Prix Ténor de Baune and G2 Prix de Belgique last season, trainer Sylvain Roger has indicated he may be ready to race toward the end of the four-month festival. Stablemate Delia du Pommereux will be pursuing a Winter campaign. Her last win was in the G2 Prix du Bourbonnais last December and she is less than €1,000 from taking her prizemoney record to €1 million.  

The Aga Khan Studs announced the fees for their five stallions across both Haras de Bonneval and Gilltown Stud (Ireland). Sea The Stars remains at €150,000. He and his dual Derby-winning son Harzand (€8,000) will be based in Ireland. In France, Siyouni has seen his fee rise from €100,000 to €140,000. He sired thirteen stakes winners including three additional Group One victors – St Mark's Basilica (Dewhurst Stakes, 1400m) Etoile (EP Taylor Stakes, 2000m) and Dream And Do (Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, 1600m). In addition, he is also the sire of Sottsass, winner of the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (2400m) [who has been retired and will stand at Coolmore in 2021]. Zarak (Dubawi x Zarkava) will remain at €12,000 and Dariyan €8,000.   

Sprinter Golden Horde, winner of this year's G1 Commonwealth Cup (1200m) at Royal Ascot, is to stand at Haras de Montfort & Preaux alongside leading French stallion Le Havre. Golden Horde raced on ten occasions and was trained in the UK by Clive Cox. Mathieu Alex, Director of the Stud stated 'We are very happy to welcome this wonderful sprinter at stud and wish to thank his owner, His Highness Royal Sheikh Sultan Al Deen bin Mohammed bin Salman Al Khalifa, and his trainer, Clive Cox, for giving us this opportunity.' In addition to his Royal Ascot success Golden Horde also won the G2 Richmond Stakes (1200m) at Glorious Goodwood, was third in the 2019 G1 Prix Morny (1200m) behind Earthlight and a neck second again to Earthlight in the G1 Middle Park Stakes (1200m) at Newmarket.  

Trotteur Galius made it twelve starts for twelve wins when he scored his fourth successive win at Vincennes last Tuesday week (10 November). He has been well-placed in his career to date progressively rising through the grades. Just over 24-hours later, Anglo-Arab bred Genmoss scored her fifteenth consecutive success (from fifteen starts) at Toulouse when the five-year-old won again, and for the final time. This is a record in France. She has now been retired and will continuing her career as a broodmare at Haras du Bosquet. Genmoss is owned by Pierre Pilarski who is also the owner of Bold Eagle.  

Charm Spirit who previously stood at the Aga Khan's Haras de Bonneval in 2016 and 2018 before spending the past two years at Tweenhills Farm (UK) will return to France and relocate to Haras du Saint Logis for the 2021 breeding season. Winner of three Group One races, he has sired seven individual Group winners. 

Hôtel Mystic was a high-priced purchase at the 2019 Osarus Trot Sale at €255,000. A full brother to Village Mystic, he joined the Sébastien Guarato's stable during the latter part of this summer and has recorded two wins and two disqualifications. Last Tuesday week (10 November) he won at Bordeaux recording 1'16''1 (2550m, auto-start). He has now won four of eleven starts and appears to be promising.  

G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (2400m) winner Way To Paris will have one further race start later this month in the G1 Japan Cup (2400m) before commencing his career as a stallion at Coolagown Stud in Ireland. He also won the G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly (2400m) and G2 Prix Maurice de Nieuil (2800m) at Longchamp. His fee will be €3,500. 

Gelati Cut, currently residing in Italy, ran third in the G1 Gran Premio Unione Europa at Modena on Sunday. The race was won by Alrajah One, a recent G1 victor. Second home was Axl Rose giving trainer Alessandro Gocciadoro the one/two in the race.