Jake Stephens was rarely far from the headlines with his Mackinnon Stakes winner Alcopop and is back in the spotlight with a close relation to the Group 1 winner in En Francais, who earned a maiden stakes win in Saturday’s Group III Hahn The Cummings Stakes (1600m) at Morphettville.
With Lachlan Neindorf in the saddle, the 6-year-old daughter of Puissance De Lune (IRE) set out after Chicago Storm, which had set up a commanding lead with 200m to run. After reigning in Chicago Storm, En Francais turned back the challenge of the heavily backed Jimmy The Bear (Jimmy Creed) by one and a half lengths with Chicago Storm (Trust In The Gust) a head back in third.
A homebred for her trainer, the Kelton family and partners, En Francais advances her record to five wins, five seconds, and five thirds from 20 starts with earnings of $360,955.
“That was exciting,” Stephens enthused.
“We didn’t know where we’d end up, and she was a bit tardy away. Last start she was very relaxed like that. She’s the sort of horse we’ve put forward on speed, and then today they ran along, which obviously helped us out, but to come from where she did, out of the picture we were sort of ‘what’s happening here’ we left it up to Lachie, and he’s pulled it off which is great.
“We had her in three weeks early, and then she had a hiccup. She had some mud fever and we just couldn’t get rid of it. We tried and tried and that way we ended up in the Queen Of The South first up without a jump out or a barrier trial. It was a huge run there to run fifth. We were really happy with that and we knew today she was just firing.“Her work on Tuesday, we were just like ‘wow’.
En Francais is the best of three winners from four to race for the stakes-placed Golden Snake mare Detox, a 6-time winning half-sister to Group 1 Mackinnon Stakes winner Alcopop, who placed in the Caulfield Cup, Yalumba Stakes (twice) and Hong Kong Cup.
Detox has a weanling filly by Kermadec and was covered by Ghaiyyath (IRE) last spring.
En Francais is the fourth stakes-winner for Swettenham Stud’s Puissance de Lune (IRE), who stands for $8,800 in the forthcoming season.
