Hipodromos y caballos - Racetracks and horses BloodStockReview2013 | Page 42

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FRANCE

Cloud covers herself in glory with
unprecedented Deauville double
Arc heroine Treve aside, it was the spellbinding performances of a George Strawbridge
homebred and group 1 wins for the niarchos family that lit up THE year by Scott Burton

I

F THE broadest smile seen on
French racecourses for much of
the season was spor ted by
Criquette Head-Maarek, with Treve
sweeping all-comers aside en route to Arc
glory, then brother Freddy had plenty of
reasons to be just as happy with the progress
of Moonlight Cloud at the age of five.
George Strawbridge’s homebred
daughter of Invincible Spirit began the
season having already proved herself one
of the most talented mares in training.
Yet Head could not be blamed for
wondering what might have been in 2012,
given Moonlight Cloud’s near-miss behind
Black Caviar at Ascot, as well as a luckless
fourth in the Prix Jacques le Marois just
seven days after blowing away her rivals in
the Maurice de Gheest.
The team set about modifying her
programme to give her the best chance of
righting those wrongs.
Out would go the royal meeting as
well as the Prix du Moulin and Breeders’
Cup. Strawbridge gave Head carte blanche
to pursue the unprecedented Deauville

Group 1 double, a feat that Moonlight
Cloud achieved in a pair of spellbinding
performances – albeit Thierry Jarnet may
have had his and other hearts in mouths at
the climax to the Prix Jacques le Marois.
Dominance

The fact remains Moonlight Cloud
defeated arguably the starriest field
assembled anywhere on a racecourse in 2013
in the Marois, before going on to underline
her dominance with an insouciant display
in the Prix de la Forêt.
It was perhaps appropriate the Prix
Jacques le Marois should provide one of
the defining moments in 2013 under the
banner of the Niarchos family’s Haras de
Fresnay-le-Buffard.
The famous two-tone blue Niarchos
silks enjoyed a triumphant return to
centre stage, with Maxios and Karakontie
supplying three Group 1 wins where none
had come since Light Shift’s Oaks success
of 2007.
Karakontie capped a fine juvenile
campaign with a comfortable success in the
Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère, running down the
Spanish-trained Noozhoh Canarias.
Winning rider Stéphane Pasquier

revealed afterwards his powerful finish
was down to carrying his son’s good-luck
Pokémon cards.
Meanwhile, the genetic strength of
Karakontie – whose only defeat came after a
fierce duel with the Richard Hannon-trained
Bunker in the Prix François Boutin – was
derived from his late sire Bernstein and the
Sunday Silence mare Sun Is Up, herself a
granddaughter of the great Miesque.
Whatever Karakontie achieves in 2014,
it will have to go some way to match the
satisfaction brought to Pasquier and quietly
spoken trainer Jonathan Pease by the
top-table arrival of Maxios.
A half-brother to Arc winner Bago
and a Classic hopeful following his Prix
Thomas Bryon success as far back as 2010,
the five-year-old r