THE GUINEAS WINNER

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 104, 4 May 1937, Page 15

THE GUINEAS WINNER

BLOOD OF BRULEUR

DOUBLE FRENCH TRIUMPH

Whether the success of M. E. do St. Mary's Ksar colt Le Ksar in the English Two Thousand Guineas last week was as big a surprise as seems likely at this distance from the scene of conflict has yet to be learned, as the cables have been silent on this aspect of the victory, but at least it would appear that Le Ksar's pretensions to the classic honour were not backed up by a great deal of outstanding form from last year. What records are available do not reveal that he was a winner at all as a two-year-old, but probably he was, as Ksar was represented by seven two-year-old winners of fourteen races in France last year, and lie finished the season as fourth on the list of sires of juvenile winners. Though the Ksar youngsters did so well as a whole in France last year, not one of them is included in a list of the best fifteen two-year-olds of the term, as given in the latest volume of the "Bloodstock Breeders' Review." Considering the high place Ksar' holds on the sires' list, this is somewhat surprising; but it obviously shows that his juvenile stock last season •Were a good average rather than outstanding in individuals. No other sire in France last season had as many as seven winners among their progeny, nor did the offspring of any other sire win so many races in France during the term. SALE TO AMERICA. Ksar is no longer in France, as he was exported to the United States in June, 1935. This winner of the 1921 French Derby, and, on figures, one of the leading stake-earners in the world, was sold privately to Messrs. K. N. Gilpin and A. S. Hewitt, two American breeders, and for the-past eighteen months he has beeri stationed in Virginia. U.S.A. About four years ago •Mr. Gilpin, in association with Mr. F. W. Armstrong, also took the Ajax stallion Teddy , from France to America.' ; Ksar is described as a big handsome chestnut horse. He is by Bruleur out of the fine mare Kizil Kourgan, who was by Omnium 11. As his record reveals,' he was the best horse of the immediate post-war - years in France, but his stake-earnings (approximately £67,068), of course, flatter him, as they were built up at a time of highlyinflated currency. In his three-year-old season he won not only the Derby, but also the Prix Royal Oak and the Prix do TAre de Triomphe1. He was also successful in the last-mentioned event the' following year. At the stud in France he sired many good winners, including two French Derby victors in Tourbillon and Thor; and another of his sons, Ut Majeur, won the English Cesarewitch as a three-year-old for H.H. the Aga Khan. A POWERFUL LINE.

The Bruleur line is a pure French line, and it represents what is probably the most powerful male line of distinctly French blood at present existing. • Its outstanding feature is its ability to transmit stamina. Bruleur himself was wfriner of the Grand Prix de Paris in 1913. His sire was Chouberski, son of a good French Derby winner named Gardefeu, and his dam was by that great horse Omnium 11, whose once dominant blood appears now almost completely to. havedisap- ;- peared. -,■•;■■ : ■-"■■'■• , ■■•■; ■.: Bruleur's disposition has always left much to be1 desired, and it was on this accojnt that he did not make an immediate stud . success. However, when he got Ksar his fame was assured [and for some years he was leading sire of France. He is the only living stalIlion who has sired four winners of the French Derby, these having been Ksar, Pot au Feu (.now also in TJ.S;A.). Madrigal "(now in Argentina),/ and Hotweed. Hotweed also won the Grand Prix, and in-his first season he got Pearlweed, the 1935 French. Derby winner. Bruleur's best son at the stud last season was Priori, but Hotweed and Ksar both' also held prominent places in the season's figures. Le Ksar, the latest of Ksar's sons to make fame for himself, is a hairbrother to William of Valence, who was second to Crudite in the Grand Prix two years ago in the colours of the English owner Mr. Arthur Sainsbury, who bought him as a speculation shortly before the event and later on had him transferred to England. The dam of these two horses is Queen Iseult, a 1924 mare by Teddy from Sweet Agnes, 'by Sea Sick (son of KU) from Arva, by Gulliver (son of Galliard). The appearance of Sea Dick in the pedigree is'of interest to the Dominion, as Sea Sick is sire of Tidal, whose progeny, including Flood Tide, 'are now racing with considerable success and promise of even greater success in New Zealand. A further feature of interest in the Two Thousand Guineas result is that the runner-up to Le Ksar was the Gimcrack winner Goya 11, who is by Ksar's son Tourbillon, thus making the result a double triumph for this powerful French line. The oldest of Tourbillon's stock are now three-year-olds, and, judged through Goya 11, who, was one of the best juveniles racing in England last season, Tourbillon is carrying on the Bruleur line strongly into the third generation. If the stamina for which the line is so renowned is also possessed by the winner and the runner-up in the Two Thousand, then these two French colts are liable to continue thorns in the sides of the best English three-year-olds in the remaining classics, and particularly the Derby.