Latest crop offers more chances for Wootton Bassett to shine as a stallion

This season is a chance for Wootton Bassett to add to his already bright start at stud, and he has kept the momentum going since racing's resumption in France.

The Haras d'Etreham resident has risen to prominence from humble beginnings, spending his first five years at fees ranging from €4,000 to €6,000. His highlight so far as a stallion was siring Prix du Jockey Club and Irish Champion Stakes winner Almanzor in his first crop of foals, resulting in him standing for €20,000 from €6,000 for the 2017 season.

The resulting foals from the €20,000 crop – his first book at five-figures – got off to the perfect start when Wootton Asset landed the Prix Hunyade, a maiden for unraced colts and geldings over six furlongs at Lyon Parilly on Monday.

This breakthrough juvenile success for the year builds on the winners the sire has already gathered since the resumption of racing in France, having already sired two Group victors with his three-year-olds this month.

Henri-Alex Pantall's The Summit, who was sent off favourite for the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud last year, built on his narrow defeat in Listed company in March to win the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau over a mile at Longchamp, making all the running to beat Victor Ludorum.

The race is a prominent trial for the Poule d'Essai des Poulains and The Summit is now rated a live contender for the French Classic.

Wooded: could run in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal AscotCredit: Racing Post/Scott Burton

Just two days after The Summit’s victory, Al Shaqab's Wooded made an authoritative winning reappearance in the Group 3 Prix Texanita by over three lengths. He is a leading fancy for the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot, which has become a commercially appealing Group 1 for any stallion prospect to win.

Prior to French racing's hiatus, Wootton Bassett added another stakes-winning three-year-old to his tally with Waltham, who beat Group 1 winner Mkfancy in the Listed Prix Maurice Caillault. The Prix du Jockey Club is potentially on the agenda for the Christophe Ferland-trained colt.

These three promising colts were each bred off a fee of just €6,000. Wootton Bassett has vindicated his ability as a sire and justified the doubling of his fee to €40,000 in 2019, which he remains on this year.

Moreover, Wootton Bassett produced just 17 foals in his first crop, making his achievement to sire Almanzor, top-rated European horse of 2016, all the more notable.

The Prix du Jockey Club runner-up Patsacoy and St James's Palace-placed Wootton were part of his 2015 crop of foals, which only numbered 45.

By Iffraaj, the sire of ten Group 1 winners including Ribchester, Wootton Bassett was an unbeaten two-year-old for Richard Fahey, chasing lucrative prize-money when winning two sales races before jumping straight into Group 1 company for the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere.

His two-and-a-half-length win earned him a Racing Post Rating of 120 and he was named champion two-year-old colt in France for the performance.

Wootton Bassett is operating on a near 13 per cent stakes horses-to-runners ratio – an especially high-performing strike-rate when factoring in the implied lower quality of mares from his low fee. With his current crop of 85 two-year-olds hailing from better families (as a collective), one might expect this strike-rate to creep even higher.

This year's crop includes a full-brother to Almanzor named Mosby, who is in training with Freddy Head. Wootton Bassett's yearlings averaged around €85,000 in 2019, with top lot Legion Of Honour in training with Roger Varian and entered for the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Stakes and the Weatherbys Racing Bank £300,000 2-Y-O Stakes, a double his sire managed to pull off.

Wootton Bassett has been fully booked for the last three years and has 97 yearlings on the ground. He is currently the third most expensive sire in France, after Siyouni and Le Havre, but gives the impression his stud fee can only keep going in an upward trajectory.

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