We were only just getting to know Pour Moi the racehorse when his career was already over. Unplaced on his debut at two, he won a nine furlong contest at Longchamp a month later and then finished third in the Group 3 Prix La Force on his first start at three.
None of this made him seem like an imminent Group 1 star in the making, but then he stepped up in grade to take the Group 2 Prix Greffulhe by one and a half lengths at Saint-Cloud and booked his ticket to Epsom. There he showed a fine turn of foot to beat subsequent Group 1 Irish Derby and Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes winner Treasure Beach by a head, earning a Timeform rating of 125, but he never ran again. Pour Moi, who was trained by Andre Fabre, retired to Coolmore Stud, his oldest progeny are three-year-olds, and on Saturday he became the second member of the current batch of European second-crop sires to get a Group 1 winner somewhere in the world. Coolmore's Zoffany (by Dansili) looked odds-on to be the first to achieve the feat having gone close a few times – he has four runners who have been placed in Group 1 company - but it was Haras d'Etreham's Wootton Bassett (by Iffraaj) who unexpectedly got there before any other member of the class. His son Almanzor sprang a surprise in last week's Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club (French Derby). Then the New Zealand-bred and trained Pour Moi two-year-old Sacred Elixir (dam by Stravinsky) looked like a potential star in the making when easily winning the Group 1 BMW J.J. Atkins Stakes over a mile at Eagle Farm in Australia.
That gelding is the third individual stakes winner for Pour Moi. The Stefano Botti-trained colt Freedom Beel (dam by Rainbow Quest) won a 10 and a half furlong listed contest on heavy ground at Capannelle in early May, but the first for their sire was the Joe Murphy-trained filly Only Mine (dam by Rock Of Gibraltar).
She was runner-up in the Group 3 Grangecon Stud Stakes over six furlongs at the Curragh almost 12 months ago, then won a Cork maiden, failed by just a neck to take the Group 3 Firth of Clyde Stakes at Ayr, and rounded off her first season with a narrow win in the Listed Bosra Sham Fillies Stakes over six furlongs on soft ground at Newmarket. On her second start this season, the filly, who was bred by the late Mrs Weld, finished third behind Washington DC in a listed contest at Navan, but she then reversed those placings in style with a two and three-quarter length defeat of that colt in the Group 3 Bar One Racing Lacken Stakes over the same trip at Naas. Her most recent start, also over six furlongs, was in the Group 3 TRM Ballyogan Stakes at the Curragh last Saturday; she finished third behind Divine. The stallion's first crop also includes the stakes-placed Diamonds Pour Moi (dam by Fantastic Light), who pulled-up in the Group 1 Investec Oaks on her third start, and Magic Mystery (dam by Hernando), a listed-placed half-brother to the Italian Group 1 stars Charity Line (by Manduro) and Final Score (by Dylan Thomas) and to Group 2 classic scorer Cherry Collect (by Oratorio). This is not as eye-catching an early stud record as one might expect to see of a Derby winner, but of the other three sons of Montjeu (by Sadler's Wells) who also won the Derby at Epsom, both Authorized and Motivator made steady starts too. They are both well-established now as stallions capable of siring Group 1 winners, and Motivator's roll of honour is headed by the brilliant Treve. The other one is, of course, Camelot and his first crop are only yearlings. The Montjeu stallions also include the dual seven-furlong Group 1 scorer Tavistock, the Cambridge Stud rising star whose early New Zealand-bred crops have yielded four Group 1 winners: Tarzino, Tavago, Volstok'n'barrel, and Werther. Pour Moi is out of an unraced mare called Gwynn (by Darshaan), and in addition to being a half-brother to the Listed Salsabil Stakes winner Kissed (by Galileo), he could be described as being a three-parts brother to Gagnoa (by Sadler's Wells). The second foal out of Gwynn, she won the Group 3 Prix des Reservoirs and the Group 3 Prix Penelope, she was runner-up in the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary and in the Group 1 Prix de Diane (French Oaks), and finished third behind Moonstone and Ice Queen in the Group 1 Irish Oaks. Her first foal is the stakes-placed filly Galateia (by Dansili), she had a full-brother to that one in 2014 and a War Front (by Danzig) filly last year. As for Gwynn, her three-year-old filly White Hot (by Galileo) is unraced so far, she has no two-year-old, but she had a Galileo colt last year. Two of her half-sisters have produced a stakes winner but the plethora of blacktype to be found in the third generation far outweighs their achievements. The third dam of Pour Moi is Royal Statute (by Northern Dancer), which makes him inbred 3x4 to the 1964 Kentucky Derby hero. She won once as a two-year-old, she was a full-sister to the multiple blacktype scorer and dual Canadian champion Dance Act, and she became the ancestor of a large number of Group/Grade 1 winners around the world, plus many others who were successful at the lower pattern levels. Her daughter Awaasif (by Snow Knight) was a champion at three, won the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks and the Group 1 Gran Premio del Jockey Club Coppa d'Oro, finished third in the Group 1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, and her daughter Snow Bride (by Blushing Groom) was awarded the 1989 Oaks at Epsom before going on to become the dam of the undefeated Derby, King George and Arc hero Lammtarra (by Nijinsky). Royal Statute was also responsible for the Grade 1-placed Grade 3 scorer Akureyri (by Buckpasser), for the Group 1-placed Italian pattern winner Royal Lorna (by Val de L'Orne), for Group 1 1000 Guineas runner-up Konafa (by Damascus) and for Royal Stance (by Dr Fager), the last three of those being fillies who made an impact at stud. Royal Stance was the dam of the Group/Grade 3 winners Majuscule (by Majestic Light) and Royal Cielo (by Conquistador Cielo) and of dual stakes winner and leading Argentine sire Luhuk (by Forty Niner), and she is the third dam of the Grade 1 scorer King Of Sale (by Not For Sale). Royal Lorna's best runner is the Group 3 Prix du Lys scorer Lycitus (by Lycius) but she is the grandam of the Group 1 Premio Roma winner Sunstrach (by Polar Falcon). Konafa's four stakes-winning offspring were the Group 2-winning sprinters Keos (by Riverman) and Proskona (by Mr Prospector), Group 3 Prix Chloe winner Korveya (by Riverman) and listed scorer Carnet Solaire (by Sharpen Up), and her descendants feature the Group/Grade 1 winners Act One (by In The Wings), Bosra Sham (by Woodman), California Memory (ex-Portus Blendium) (by Highest Honor), Ciro (by Woodman), Hector Protector (by Woodman), Internallyflawless (by Giant's Causeway), Passinetti (by Slew O' Gold), Red Giant (by Giant's Causeway), Shanghai (by Procida), and Ultra (by Manduro). Pour Moi's fee is currently listed as €10,000, half of where he started from back in 2012. He had colts that made €220,000 and €110,000 in Deauville last year and a 150,000gns colt in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in Newmarket, and his top foals of 2015 were a €60,000 filly and €50,000 colt in Goffs. He has made a slower start than would have been hoped for, but does have a leading Irish sprinter and a top Australian two-year-old to his name along with a handful of others who have earned some blacktype and a few who have impressed at lower levels. It was not until the Greffulhe and the Derby that he reached top form as a racehorse, so perhaps his best progeny just need time, and maybe his results will start to pick up, just as happened with the careers of Authorized and Motivator. POUR MOI (IRE) – b.2008 – Montjeu – Gwynn, 3 wins inc Derby Stakes (Gr1), Prix Greffulhe (Gr2), 3rd Prix La Force (Gr3). Sire in Ireland & New Zealand. First foals in 2013. 3 SW inc SACRED ELIXIR (Gr1), ONLY MINE (Gr3), FREEDOM BEEL, etc. |