By Emma Berry
There are few areas in which any stallion can topple Galileo (Ire). It was only last year, however, that the champion sire drew level with his erstwhile stud-mate Montjeu (Ire) by number of Derby winners. The two sons of Sadler's Wells now have four apiece—and one Derby-winning paternal grandson each—but Montjeu was much quicker off the mark in this field and, following his death in 2012, he has not been represented by Classic-generation runners at Epsom in the last three years.
As the Cheltenham Festival begins its four-day run today, there will doubtless be a number of examples throughout the week which prove that it is a fine line that runs between decent middle-distance performers on the Flat and top-class National Hunt prospects.
Almost inevitably, Montjeu has augmented his Classic record by compiling a pretty noteworthy legacy over jumps. His own best representative in this regard has been Hurricane Fly (Ire), a listed winner on the level in France whose phenomenal record over hurdles includes two Champion Hurdle titles among his 22 Grade 1 victories. Montjeu has also been represented at the Cheltenham Festival by the G2 Jewson Novices' Chase winner Noble Prince (Ire), himself a former decent Flat horse in France for Andre Fabre, and G1 JCB Triumph Hurdle winner Ivanovich Gorbatov (Ire).
But it as a grandsire that Montjeu is now most prevalent in the jumps sphere, with at least 12 active stallion sons to his name, either at dedicated National Hunt studs or standing as dual-purpose sires. Of these, it is perhaps Authorized (Ire), the second of Montjeu's Derby winners, who has made the most noise of late, and his rising appeal to jumps breeders makes it all the more mystifying that he left France for Turkey before the start of this covering season.
Authorized is of course the sire of the darling of the National Hunt world, the extraordinary Tiger Roll (Ire). The little gelding first came to prominence when winning the Triumph Hurdle for Gigginstown House Stud in 2014 and he has only missed the Cheltenham Festival in one year since then. Tiger Roll has won the last two runnings of the Glenfarclas Chase as well as the National Hunt Challenge Cup, and he will return to Prestbury Park on Thursday in a bid to secure his hat-trick over the cross-country fences in a warm-up for an even bigger three-timer in the Grand National next month.
The G1 Stayers' Hurdle winner Nichols Canyon (Ire), who was also third in the 2016 Champion Hurdle, was another classy jumper for Authorized, who has a great chance of extending his Cheltenham roll of honour this year via Goshen (Fr), who is currently vying for favouritism in Friday's Triumph Hurdle. This juvenile contest has been a happy hunting ground for horses from the Montjeu line in recent years, with four of the last six runnings falling to the aforementioned Tiger Roll and Ivanovich Gorbatov, as well as Farclas (Fr) and Pentland Hills (Ire), respectively by Montjeu's sons Jukebox Jury (Ire) and Motivator (GB). The latter will be back at Cheltenham on the opening day as one of the leading lights for the Champion Hurdle.
Motivator and Walk In The Park (Ire), members of Montjeu's first crop, ran first and second in the Derby and while the former has stood at first the Royal Studs then Haras du Quesnay and will always be primarily associated with the brilliant dual Arc winner Treve (Fr), Walk In The Park has earned his reputation in a harder fashion. He retired to France's Haras du Val Raquet, covering small books of mares at a fee ranging from €1,500 to €3,000. Once the great Douvan (Fr) arrived at Willie Mullins's yard from France, however, the picture changed considerably. Douvan's eight Grade 1 wins at Cheltenham, Aintree, Leopardstown and Punchestown, and the emergence of the classy Min (Fr), saw Walk In The Park repatriated to Ireland's Grange Stud, where he has attracted three-figure books since 2016 with last year's tally standing at 234 mares. The five-time Grade 1 winner Min is set to line up on Thursday as one of the favourites for the G1 Ryanair Chase, which also features recent G1 Ascot Chase winner Riders On the Storm (Ire), by Montjeu's son Scorpion (Ire), whose best runner is the enigmatic Might Bite (Ire).
One grandson of Montjeu who could feature prominently in the opening race of the Festival, the G1 Supreme Novices' Hurdle, is Abracadabras (Fr), a son of Davidoff (Ger), who also has Vivas (Fr) running in the G3 Ultima Handicap Chase on Tuesday. A Group 3 winner in Germany, Davidoff's death at the age of 14, just after he had moved to Haras de Saint Arnoult from Haras de la Kammerholz, could come to be seen as a blow for the National Hunt industry as he has some interesting prospects emerging.
Similar may well be said of the high-class galloper Fame And Glory (GB), who died a year before Davidoff at the age of just 11 after five seasons at stud.
Montjeu's third Derby winner Pour Moi (Ire) served five years at Coolmore's main Flat base before being transferred to Grange Stud in 2017, the year his son Wings Of Eagles (Fr) emulated him at Epsom. Pour Moi has moved on again, to one of France's premier jumps studs, Haras de Cercy, while Wings Of Eagles is now at Beeches Stud in Ireland having stood just one season in France at his birthplace, Haras de Montaigu. It is too early to judge Pour Moi on his jumping stock but he does have two runners, Clemencia (Ire) and Repetitio (Ire) in Wednesday's Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle.
We can also expect to hear more from Haras d'Etreham's Masked Marvel (GB) in the years to come. The winner of the St Leger for Bjorn Neilsen, he later spent several seasons in Australia running for Lloyd Williams before returning for a stud career in Europe. In the meantime, his half-sister Waldlerche (GB) (Monsun {Ger}) has given the family a tremendous boost, primarily through the exploits of her Arc-winning son Waldgeist (GB). With Masked Marvel's first crop now 4-year-olds, his sole winner in the UK is Maskada (Fr) but he has representatives with a number of France's leading jumps trainers, including Guillaume Macaire, Francois Nicolle and David Cottin.
Another St Leger winner, Leading Light (Ire), who went on to claim the following year's Gold Cup, retired to Grange Stud in the same year as Masked Marvel returned to France. He will be another young Montjeu stallion to keep an eye on, along with Haras de la Croix Sonnet resident Walzertakt (Ger), whose first crop are now 2-year-olds.
Camelot (GB) is of course very firmly on Coolmore's Flat roster, but he has already has the distinction of having sired the quinella in last year's G1 Spring Juvenile Hurdle at Leopardstown, won by Sir Erec (Ire) from Gardens Of Babylon (Ire), both trained by Camelot's former rider Joseph O'Brien. In fact, the first four home that day were all grandsons of Montjeu.
The late, great Montjeu may be gone, but he most certainly has not been forgotten.
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