Grade 2-winning hurdler Tunis to stand at Haras de Cercy

Tunis, a Grade 2-winning hurdler, will retire at the end of this year and begin his stud career at Haras de Cercy in central France.

Trained by Guillaume Macaire, Tunis has won five of his 15 starts in France - including the Grade 2 Prix Amadou over hurdles at Auteuil - and a mile contest on the Flat in Warsaw.

Tunis is the sole black-type performer under his first three dams, and is a rare runner outside of Poland for his sire Estejo, who was relocated to Haras de Jalogny from the Polish National Stud following the success of Tunis.

Estejo, a dual Group 1 winner over 1m2f in Italy, is the only top-flight winner by his sire Johan Cruyff, who was an easy winner of the Group 2 Gallinule Stakes for Aidan O'Brien and stood for a sole season in Germany in between stints in New Zealand and Australia.

Tunis is not the first talented jumper bred in Poland, with the Tom George-trained Galileo having won the Royal and SunAlliance Novices' Hurdle at the 2002 Cheltenham Festival, having been sourced by George for the equivalent of £18,000 in Poland, where he won the St Leger.

At Cercy, Tunis will stand alongside Coastal Path and Cokoriko, who broke the French covering record this year having serviced 234 mares.

Cercy is also the former home of the late Saddler Maker, sire of leading jumps talents such as Bristol De Mai, Alpha Des Obeaux and Apple's Jade.

A stud fee for Tunis will be announced at a later date.

More stallion news from France:

Planteur on the move to Haras du Grand Courgeon

German Group 1 winner Dschingis Secret to stud in France