Group 1 winner Big Rock (Fr) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}) will stand at Haras de Grandcamp beginning in 2025, Jour de Galop reported on Friday. A fee for the 2023 G1 Queen Eliazabeth II Stakes victor will be announced in due course.
The Yeguada Centurion homebred, the first foal out of Hardiyna (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), also won the G3 Prix de Guiche, G3 Prix la Force, and the Listed Prix Maurice Caillault at three. He was second in the 2023 editions of the G1 Prix du Jockey Club, the G1 Prix du Jacques le Marois, and the G1 Prix du Moulin in June, August and September for trainer Christopher Head.
Transferred to trainer Mauricio Guarnieri at the beginning of the year, his best performance in four starts is a last out third in the GI Woodbine Mile Stakes in September. An earner of $1.78 million from 15 starts to date, Big Rock is slated to run in the G1 Prix de la Foret at ParisLongchamp on Oct. 6.
Grandcamp's Eric Lhermite told the publication, “He is a tough horse, with a real ability to impose his pace on others. He is a good recruit for French breeding because he has repeated good performances against the best. Mr. [Leopoldo Fernandez] Pujals remains the owner of his horse, which he will support with his excellent broodmares and whose breeding career he will manage in order to enhance his value. Knowing that he is not a seller of yearlings, the market will not be cluttered with too many offspring at the sales. Big Rock is a solid and thick horse. He certainly has several races left before entering stud.”
Big Rock's female family is from Aga Khan stock, with his granddam, the Pivotal (GB) mare Harasiya (Ire), third in the G1 Moyglare Stud Stakes, as well as being a half-sister to G1 Derby hero Harzand (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}). This is also the family of multiple Group 1 winner Emily Upjohn (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}).
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