The Mammas' vendetta

12 December

As Corine Barande-Barbe, who trains Vase hope Cirrus des Aigles, was walking back to the quarantine barn after the 3yo gelding had cantered nicely on the all weather track on Saturday morning, her compatriot French trainer Elie Lellouche reminded her why she was in Hong Kong at all.

“Remember?” he asked.

“I gave the horse’s dam to his breeder, Yvon Lelimouzin, who was a trackwork watcher at Chantilly. We called her Taille de Guepe ['Wasp Waist' is the direct translation, meaning 'narrow waist', because, sarcastically, she was a chubby filly]."

"Oh that's true," Corine. "I had forgotten. Oddly enough, my only other big runner in Asia so far, Carling (unplaced in the 1995 Japan Cup), was also out of a dam that had been given to her breeder as a gift.”

Only minutes after this conversation, 19 two-year-olds went through the Sha Tin sales ring and sold for millions. Even though the roll of honour of these sales graduates is pretty impressive with champions like Good Ba Ba, The Duke or Scintillation sold since 2003, nothing can guarantee their success on the racecourse.

The odds however were much longer for Carling, elected the ‘Cinderella” of French racing after her 1995 French Oaks win - she is now a broodmare in Japan and produced 2003 Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile third Lohengrin amongst other Group performers.

As for Cirrus des Aigles, he has had to finish 20 consecutive times in the frame and win the Gr.2 Prix du Conseil de Paris at Longchamp last time out to gain some kind of public recognition - as if his unfashionable pedigree would bar him from fame forever.

Privilege from birth is all but gone since the French Revolution and we still cast a bad eye on a poorly bred racehorse!

Had he walked a sales’ ring as a yearling, nobody would have bothered to nod for more that HK$1000.

And there he is, running on Sunday for HK$14m in the Vase.

As for his dam, she will never be given away anymore. Taille de Guèpe looks much better as a mamma.