Striking Chantilly scorer Rougir supplies Territories' breakthrough winner

Territories became the 17th European first-season sire to supply a winner this year when his daughter Rougir made a successful debut in the 7f Prix Pauline at Chantilly on Wednesday.

Rougir, who got the better of White Birch Farm's €250,000 Siyouni filly Isle Of White, showed a striking turn of foot to overcome an unpromising position early in the straight, and trainer Cedric Rossi was understandably full of praise for the promising juvenile.

He told Jour de Galop: "She's very good. My father was a trainer and now I'm a trainer, but we've never had such a good horse. She's very professional and was able to win without having a hard race.

"She has a lot of scope to progress, she only saw the grass two times in training and the distance of 1,400m suits her well. The jockey [Mickael Barzalona] thinks she has a lot of quality too."

Bred by Jan Krauze, Rougir was a €55,000 yearling buy at last year's Arqana August Sale and is out of the Listed-placed Elusive City mare Summer Moon, who the breeder bought carrying Wednesday's winner in utero for €23,000 in December 2017.

It is fitting that Territories' breakthrough success at stud came at Chantilly, as that is where he recorded his biggest result on the racecourse when he won the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat. Trained by Andre Fabre, the son of Invincible Spirit was a winner at two and also landed the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau.

He also finished runner-up in three Group 1s, namely in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere at two when behind Gleneagles, to whom he also finished second in the 2015 2,000 Guineas, and he gave best to Esoterique in that year's running of the Prix Jacques le Marois.

A Darley homebred, Territories retired to Dalham Hall Stud in 2017 at a fee of £12,000, with Summer Moon one of 147 mares among his debut book. His debut crop of yearlings had their fair share of fans at last year's sales, with 75 lots selling for an average of £46,525.

Territories' most expensive offspring to date is Yamina, who fetched €260,000 from Haras de Victot at Arqana. The filly is in training with Henri-Alex Pantall.

He is out of the Listed-placed Taranto, a daughter of Machiavellian from the same stallion-producing family of Shamardal, Street Cry and recent Classic winner Victor Ludorum.

More first-season sire news...

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