Group I racing returned to France overnight with the running at Deauville of the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (3YO colts) and Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (3YO fillies).
Godolphin had a great season in 2019 with their Shamardal colts and it was one of those in Victor Ludorum that stepped up to win the colts edition following in the footsteps of his sire who won the race in 2005.
Trained by Andre Fabre, the Godolphin home bred won the Group I Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at Longchamp last year and added a second Group I win to his resume when scoring a length and a half win as favourite.
With four wins from five starts, Victor Ludorum is a half-brother to stakes-winner Mary Tudor and is the best of four winners from Group III placed from Antiquities, a grand-daughter of Irish Oaks winner Helen Street, best known as the dam of champion racehorse and sire Street Cry and grand-dam of Shamardal.
He is linebred 3 x 3 to Helen Street and is the best of four stakes-winners bred this way. In total there have been 13 winners from 24 runners with those four stakes-winners representing 16% stakes-winners to runners.
Australian breeders would do well to take note given we have a number of sons of Street Cry and Shamardal available to breeders, not to mention young sires Thronum and Territories (IRE) that come from this female family.
The fillies event went the way of progressive filly Dream and Do, who scored a narrow victory taking her overall record to four wins and two seconds from six starts.
A Group III winner last year, Dream and Do is trained by Frederic Rossi and becomes the fourth Group I winner for her sire Siyouni.
Owned and bred by Haras du Logis Saint Germain, Dream and Do is the first winner for Venetia’s Dream, a half-sister by Librettist to the dam of triple Group I winner Charm Spirit, the same female family also producing young Aquis Farm based sire Spieth.
