The unraced, unknown sire gatecrashing the elite on Arc day

He never raced, and as a sire has a total of four yearlings and five foals on the ground. Of the three yearlings he has ever had presented at public auction, only one was able to find a buyer – at €2,500. Yet Alex The Winner has produced one of the leading juveniles in France this season, a filly with every right to a Group 1 breakout when she joins some of Europe's most valuable horses on the stellar Arc card on Sunday.

Zonza made her first start at the elite level in the Prix Morny at Deauville last month. She arrived as an unbeaten Group winner and was beaten only a length and a half into fourth. Now she steps up two furlongs for the Total Prix Marcel Boussac – and anyone who professes to know exactly how that is likely to suit her will be working from some very thin data indeed.

Breakthrough

Having said that, his breakthrough year has shown Alex The Winner – based at Louis Baudron's Haras des Rouges Terres in Normandy, at a fee of €2,000 – to be not just a one-trick pony. Though a brother to Grade 1 dirt winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up Bluegrass Cat (by Storm Cat out of an A.P. Indy mare), Alex The Winner has also started producing some interesting National Hunt performers.

Now ten, Alex The Winner was bought as a yearling for $600,000 in 2008 at Keeneland's September Sale, the same year that Bluegrass Cat retired to WinStar Farm. Knocked down to bloodstock agent Frederic Sauque, he was bought on behalf of Baudron's grandfather, Jean-Pierre Dubois.

See the Marcel Boussac field

Dubois, a trotting legend in France and beyond as breeder, trainer and driver, is something of an equivalent in his world to Alec Head – each having created a famous dynasty in their respective disciplines.

But the 77-year-old Dubois is also well know in the thoroughbred community, primarily as breeder of Classic and multiple Group 1 victor Stacelita, dam of this year's Japanese Oaks winner Soul Stirring, and also as owner of 2004 Prix Saint-Alary scorer Ask For The Moon.

Talent

His grandson takes up the story. "My grandfather sent Alex The Winner into training as a two-year-old in the United States," explains Baudron, 31. "But as he didn't run, they took the decision to bring him back to France.

"Unfortunately he never reached the racetrack as he was injured, but he did show quite a lot of talent in the mornings. As a result, my grandfather decided to stand Alex The Winner himself at home as a stallion for the first three years."

Out of a first crop of ten foals registered in 2012, bred entirely by the extended Dubois family, Alex The Winner got off the mark as a sire when Catch Dream won a Flat race in the first month of his three-year-old career. To date the gelding has won six races including two valuable Quinté handicaps for his owner-breeder and trainer.

Louis Baudron: grandson of Alex The Winner's owner stands the sire in Normandy

A couple of months later, the young stallion recorded his first jumps winner when Myster Alex won on debut in one of the earliest three-year-old hurdles of the year at Lyon-Parilly before going on to win two chases. Another from his first crop, Son Of Alex, won over fences and has been placed at Auteuil this year.

In 2013, Alex The Winner once again had a crop of ten, half of whom reached the racetrack. These included a handicap scorer at Chantilly this year, as well as a couple of winners over jumps.

The next crop, again of ten, featured the talented Peace Alexia, a half-sister to Triumph Hurdle winner Peace And Co also owned by Simon Munir and Isaac Souede. Trained by Guillaume Macaire, she won a hurdle race at Auteuil this summer.

Stint

It was at the beginning of that year that Dubois decided to move the sire for a stint down the road to the Haras du Pin National Stud. Here he covered much his biggest book to date – including Listed Flat winner Wysiwig Lucky, owned by Baudron – to end up with 30 registered foals.

"We've got around 20 broodmares at Rouges Terres, split equally between Flat and jumps," says Baudron, who himself trains under both codes between Normandy and Thierry Doumen's old stables in Lamorlaye. "Our family has supported Alex The Winner throughout his career because people weren't very enthusiastic about him. He was unraced and had an American pedigree, so it really put breeders off."

Alex The Winner: the unlikely, unraced sire of one of France's leading juvenile fillies

One of the mares that Dubois and his associate Hugues Rousseau sent to Alex The Winner during his second season at Pin was the Oasis Dream mare Zanyeva. A three-time winner over sprint distances, the now nine-year-old went on to produce Zonza.

Dubois and Rousseau sold a stake in Zonza after she won her first start at Bordeaux-le-Bouscat for trainer Didier Guillemin. She proceeded to win her next two, including the Group 3 Prix du Bois, and now bids to build on her fine run in the Morny for Alain Jathiere, Gerard Augustin-Normand and Martin Schwartz.

Offers

"Unfortunately the success that Alex has had this year came too late for the breeding season, so he only covered around 15 mares again," says Baudron. "We have received a number of offers for him recently, though – so he probably won't be with us next year."

In addition to Alex The Winner, Baudron and his family are also involved with two other stallions, Triple Threat and Morandi, both standing at Rousseau's Haras du Mont Goubert – where Zonza herself was foaled. Morandi covered Zonza's dam this spring.

From 69 foals to date, Alex The Winner has produced the winners of 27 races and over €700,000 in prize money. On the Flat, he has been represented by the winners of 14 races from 108 starts, and 13 over jumps from just 64 runners.

Creditable numbers, for sure. But if Zonza could cement her position as one of France's best juvenile fillies by winning at Chantilly, she would have to be acclaimed one of the sport’s most unlikely Cinderellas.

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