City Light

 

Facebook Twitter Copier URL

These are still the very early days of the Flat season and much too early to draw any conclusions about any topic, something I abhor almost as much as the rush to judge a stallion on the results of their first two-year-olds. 

With the season in its infancy, coupled with the incessant rainfall, and with two of the biggest meetings of the National Hunt season yet to take place it doesn't feel like the time to be discussing the Flat season.

However, I thought I'd draw your attention to a young stallion in France who is worth keeping an eye on as the season, and hopefully the weather, picks up.

That horse is City Light, whose first crop are three-year-olds and their performances last year brought their sire the title of French champion first-season sire with a winners-to-runners rate better than many of his more famous and heralded contemporaries.

The son of Siyouni had 21 winners from 41 runners last year, equating to a winners-to-runners rate of 51 per cent. At this point in time there have been 48 runners from his first crop and 29 of them have won, which gives a strike-rate of 60 per cent.

 Admittedly, he had no stakes winner last year with the best juvenile by City Light being the Group 3 Prix des Chenes third Rock The Kasbah, Trained by Fabrice Chappet for Ecurie Jean-Louis Bouchard and Haras d'Etreham, the €85,000 Arqana August Yearling purchase from Alec Waugh's Jedburgh Stud was bred by John Corbani out of the Lawman mare Moisson Precoce.

He has already added further black type to his list of achievements, finishing third in the Listed Prix Omnium. Rock The Kasbah holds an entry in the Prix la Force at Longchamp on Sunday, for which declarations have to be made this morning.

There have been two runners from his second crop, both making their debut in the Prix de la Marche at Saint-Cloud on Monday. The 900m contest was won by one of them - Pampelonne - trained by Alessandro Botti and a €6,000 private purchase by Federico Barberini for Botti and Louis Baudron at Arqana's October Yearling Sale from Haras de l'Aumonerie, having previously made €3,500 at Arqana in February, where she was sold by her breeder Jedburgh Stud.

Four members of his first crop have raced in Britain, and all of them winning. Archie Watson trains Dyrholaey for Hambleton Racing and partner and he is unbeaten in both his starts, earning a Racing Post Rating of 93 for his victory at Wolverhampton a month ago.

City Light's only runner in Ireland is a winner; Badda Bing, a half-brother to Group 3 and Listed third Jet Setteuse, made a successful debut in a Dundalk maiden in mid-February for Josh Halley. Having been 25-1 in the opening show, Badda Bing was returned at 6-1 and, in the Racing Post analysis, David Jennings wrote: 'He certainly knew his job in the race and displayed a nice attitude when asked to knuckle down…He looks above average and money talked.' 

Interestingly, 38 members of his first crop appear in the RPR database and of those 38 a total of 17, or 45 per cent, have recorded an RPR of 80 or higher, which suggests an above average level of ability, particularly for a sire who stands at a more affordable fee. Six of the 38 (16 per cent) have an RPR of 90 or above.

Badda Bing's sire stands at Haras d'Etreham for €7,000, as he has done for each of the previous four seasons at stud. Coincidentally, it is the same fee at which Siyouni started his career.

City Light is from Siyouni's third crop so he was bred, by Alec Waugh of Jedburgh Stud and John Corbani, at that €7,000 fee, which is less than Siyouni's superstar sons Sottsass (€20,000), St Mark's Basilica (€45,000) and Paddington (€100,000). 

On RPRs he is the fifth-best of all Siyouni's brilliant offspring; his peak rating of 121 places him behind St Mark's Basilica (128), Paddington (126), Sottsass (124) and Al Hakeem (123).

He is from the same crop as Jersey Stakes winner and Poule d'Essai des Poulains runner-up Le Brivido, who retired to Overbury Stud for the 2020 season but was repatriated in 2021 to Haras de la Haie Neuve, and stands at a fee of €2,500.

Of course, the stallion is only one element of the breeding equation, but if one were to expect City Light's progeny to follow the career trajectory of their father then they will only improve with age.

City Light was a progressive performer, not a precocious juvenile but he made a winning debut over a mile at Saint-Cloud in mid-September of his two-year-old season. He ran twice more, finishing fourth in the Listed Prix Herod on heavy ground at Chantilly in late November.

As a three-year-old he was Group 3 and Listed-placed over five and a half and six furlongs, and at four he was an easy winner of the 5f Group 3 Prix de Saint-Georges on his first try over the trip. A tardy start in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes probably cost him victory at Royal Ascot, where he failed by a short head to catch Merchant Navy.

Kept in training at five, he won the Group 3 Prix du Pin over seven furlongs and finished his racing days when going down by half a length to One Master in the second of her three Prix de la Foret victories. 

He was a versatile and classy racehorse, winning over a mile as a juvenile and proving adept at sprint trips, while he raced and won on all types of ground. His Royal Ascot second place came on good to firm ground, while his Prix de la Foret run was on very soft going, and he won on the all-weather at Deauville, Chantilly and Lingfield.

City Light is a half-brother to the Listed Grand Prix de la Ville de Craon winner Soft Light, a son of Authorized who was twice second in the Group 2 Grand Prix de Deauville. Another of his half-brothers is Listed winner and Scandinavian champion miler Busybeingfabulous, by Soldier Of Fortune.

His dam Light Saber won twice as a three-year-old at around a mile and was placed five times from a mile up to ten furlongs.

She is by Kendor and out of the Grade 1 Budweiser International and Group 2 Prix d'Astarte winner Leariva, by Irish River. Leariva's son by Ashkalani, Athanor, was a multiple Listed winner and Group 3-placed performer at around a mile for Freddy Head. Her unraced Saumarez daughter Largesse is the dam of Listed Prix la Camargo winner Grandes Illusions, by Kendor, and the Listed Prix des Lilas third Highest Height. Another unraced daughter, Morning Line, is the dam of Tom Mullins' Listed Patton Stakes second Morning Soldier, by The Gurkha.

Leariva is a half-sister to Prix Royallieu winner Lexa and to the Prix Royal-Oak second Alesso, out of the Prix de Malleret winner and Prix Vermeille runner-up Leandra, by Luthier, the multiple French champion sire and broodmare sire who stood at Haras d'Etreham.

Luthier's great-great grandson City Light is doing his utmost to keep the family flame burning.