Persian King

 

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Haras d’Etreham’s Persian King welcomed his first Stakes winner when the Victoria Head-trained Darius Cen won the 1600m Listed Prix Omnium II in the colours of Yeguada Centurion Slu at Saint-Cloud on Sunday.

It was a most impressive display from the Classic-entered colt, and spoke not only to his own bright future but also to that of his sire’s progeny more generally. Now nine years of age, Persian King proved himself an exceptional performer over a range of distances during three years in training with Andre Fabre, demonstrating gradual improvement that saw him post arguably his best two performances on his final two starts as a four-year-old. The early indicators are that his progeny are going to be in a similar mould.

Darius Cen

Despite hailing from the first crop of Kingman, which was spearheaded by the Gr.2 Coventry Stakes winner Calyx, Persian King was of a less precocious bent. Making his debut over 1500m at Deauville in August 2018, he finished second after being a little slowly into stride. That would be his only defeat of the season, with a pair of wins following at Chantilly before he beat the subsequent Gr.1 2,000 Guineas winner Magna Grecia (Invincible Spirit) and the future triple Gr.1-winning miler Circus Maximus (Galileo) in the Gr.3 Autumn Stakes over a mile at Newmarket.

Having entered winter quarters as a leading fancy for a range of different Classics, Persian King reappeared the following April with a five-length win in the 1600m Gr.3 Prix de Fontainebleau at Longchamp. He returned to the Paris track four weeks later to land the Gr.1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains over the same trip, beating Shaman (Shamardal) by a length, then ran a fine race to be second in the Gr.1 Prix du Jockey Club when upped to 2100m, having been drawn in stall 14 of 15. The winner of that year’s Prix du Jockey Club, Sottsass (Siyouni), would do plenty for the form over the next couple of seasons.

Unfortunately, what was described as a minor injury kept Persian King off the track for the remainder of his three-year-old campaign, but he returned better than ever at four. Following a narrow defeat in his comeback outing, he won the 1600m Gr.2 Prix du Muguet and 1800m Gr.1 Prix d’Ispahan (rearranged from its May slot to mid-July due to Covid-19 ramifications), proved too keen when fourth in the Gr.1 Prix Jacques le Marois, and then produced his signature display in the 1600m Gr.1 Prix du Moulin.

Chasing a brisk gallop, Persian King travelled exuberantly under Pierre-Charles Boudot until taking over with 400m left to travel, eventually powering to a length and three quarters win over the triple Gr.1 hero and European Champion Two-Year-Old Colt Pinatubo (Shamardal). He was beating a dazzling field all round, with his five rivals also including Circus Maximus, Siskin (First Defence), Victor Ludorum (Shamardal) and Romanised (Holy Roman Emperor). Between them, the beaten horses would retire as the winners of 12 Gr.1 races and three Classics.

Despite being a keen-going paternal grandson of Invincible Spirit, apparently best over 1m, Andre Fabre thought nothing of stepping Persian King up to 2400m/1m4f for what would be his swansong in the Gr.1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. The trainer’s confidence was rewarded as his charge came home a highly creditable third behind Sottsass and In Swoop (Adlerflug), with Enable (Nathaniel), Stradivarius (Sea The Stars) and Gold Trip (Outstrip) among the five Gr.1 winners to finish further behind. It was a fitting finale to a superb career.

Bred under the Wildenstein Family’s Dayton Investments Limited banner and initially owned by Ballymore Thoroughbreds, Godolphin bought into Persian King ahead of his three-year-old season. His two existing owners joined a partnership with Haras d’Etreham following the conclusion of his racing days, and he entered service at Nicolas De Chambure’s Normandy stud in 2021. His opening fee was €30,000, which was trimmed to €25,000 in 2023 and remains steady at the same figure.

Building on the popularity of his sire, Persian King covered a full book of 140 mares in his debut season at stud, 115 in 2022, was fully booked again in 2023, and serviced more than 100 mares last year. The highest-priced yearling from his first crop realised 300,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, while others sold for figures including €200,000, €160,000 (twice) and 150,000gns. Sales ring momentum was maintained at the start of last year, just as his first two-year-olds were making their way onto racecourses, when the Tally-Ho Stud-consigned Bambalam sold for 600,000gns at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale. He was the fourth costliest horse sold at the auction and the most expensive that did not end up with Godolphin.

All positive so far then, but anyone expecting a lightning start from Persian King’s early two-year-olds might have been slightly disappointed, although any negative perception is easily explained away. We might have had to wait until the 10th of June for Persian King’s first winner, the Joel Boisnard-trained Out Of Africa at Craon, but there had been no more than a trickle of runners up to that point. Furthermore, although he ended the year without a Stakes winner, his 15 winners from 47 runners (32 per cent winners to runners ratio) was enough to finish third in the French First Crop Sires’ table and within the top ten across Europe.

Crucially, the majority of his progeny debuted in the second half of the year and ran no more than two or three times, so they are poised to do significantly better this season. To use the old cliché, anything they did as juveniles was a bonus, and he has a stack of unraced three-year-olds still to come.

That is not to say that there was a lack of promise from those that did get out last year. The aforementioned Darius Cen won his maiden at Clairefontaine by 11 lengths and now has both the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and Prix du Jockey Club in his sights.

Joseph O’Brien’s Cap Saint Martin was tested in Listed company whilst still winless and went on to win a 1m Curragh maiden on his final run of the year, while Treble Tee had a whole host of subsequent winners in behind when taking a 7f Newmarket novice for the Crisfords on his only start last October. He is quoted in the betting for the Gr.1 2,000 Guineas by all major firms.

André Fabre’s Yoga Master won a Saint-Cloud conditions race and was due to run in the Gr.3 Prix des Réservoirs before being withdrawn, and The Trickster is unbeaten in two starts for John and Sean Quinn. Richard Hannon’s Eupator and the unraced Owen Burrows-trained colt Al Mumayaz hold fancy entries, while Stateira and Quai De Bethune have both emerged as promising maiden/novice winners for Andrew Balding since the turn of the year.

In short, there is much to look forward to amongst Persian King’s first bunch of three-year-olds. That his progeny are expected to improve markedly from two to three, and as they go up in trip, is actually unsurprising when one delves a little deeper into his profile.

As discussed earlier, Persian King was a later-maturing two-year-old who continued to develop as he got older. His dam is the Dylan Thomas mare Pretty Please, a debut winner over 2100m and a three-parts sister to the Chapel Stud-based sire Planteur, who won the Gr.1 Prix Ganay at four and was still winning Group races at the age of six. Planteur might have been by the speed influence Danehill Dancer, but he stayed 1m4f and is now best known as the sire of the top-class stayer Trueshan and several smart jumpers.

A generation further back, this family includes the multiple French Gr.2 winner and Gr.1-placed sire Policy Maker (Sadler’s Wells), who later fathered the crack two-mile chaser Chacun Pour Soi, while his half-brother Pushkin (Caerleon) was a Gr.2 winner and second in the stamina-sapping 4000m Gr.1 Prix du Cadran before also going on to sire plenty of National Hunt winners.

So, staying ability might not be the first thing that springs to mind when thinking about Persian King and his exploits, but there must be a high chance that his offspring will be seen to best effect when tackling middle distances, and it offers a great deal of optimism for anyone in possession of one of his three-year-olds.

This trait is reflective of the heritage breeding that he represents, recalling a bygone age. Although both Daytona Investments Limited and Ballymore Thoroughbreds were acquired by the Wertheimer Brothers in 2023, the Wildenstein stamp is all over Persian King’s bloodline and he is the modern-day embodiment of the family’s outstanding operation that bestrode Europe, and France in particular, for so many decades.

His fifth dam, Plencia (Le Haar), not only produced the Gr.3 Princess Elizabeth Stakes winner Petroleuse (Habitat; Persian King’s great-great-grandam), but also the outstanding Pawneese (Carvin), winner of the Gr.1 Oaks, Gr.1 Prix de Diane, and Gr.1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes in 1976. Pawneese wasn’t able to produce a horse in her own image at stud, but later featured as the fourth dam in the pedigree of the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup winner and sire Protectionist (Monsun).

This family also spawned another outstanding Wildenstein champion in the form of Peintre Célèbre (Nureyev), grandson of Petroleuse and a brilliant winner of the 1997 Prix du Jockey Club and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe before going on to a successful stallion career.

Persian King is the latest in a long line of top-class horses to emerge from this storied pedigree, and there are plenty of early signs that point to him upholding family honour.