Wide-margin Nantes winner gets Tara Stud freshman Estidhkaar off the mark

Estidhkaar became the latest first-season sire to get off the mark when son Forefront improved on a debut seventh at Saint-Cloud last month to run out a six and a half-length winner on his second start at Nantes on Tuesday.

The bay colt, trained by Josephine Soudan for owner and breeder Kildaragh Stud, made all the running under Pierre-Charles Boudot in the Prix Xavier Cebron de Lisle over seven furlongs and stretched clear of his rivals in the home straight.

Another Hot Topic, a daughter of Rio De La Plata trained by Andrew Hollinshead for Con and Theresa Marnane, finished second.

Forefront is demonstrating some of the precocity that was the hallmark of his sire Estidhkaar's racing career.

The son of Dark Angel and half-brother to champion two-year-old Toormore scored in the Superlative Stakes by four and a half lengths and added the Champagne Stakes to his resume later at two.

Estidhkaar was lightly raced at three and four, but managed a neck second to Muhaarar in the Greenham Stakes and a victory in the Ben Marshall Stakes.

He was retired to Derek Iceton's Tara Stud in County Meath in 2017 and covered 147 mares in his debut book to produce a first crop of 106 foals now aged two.

His earliest runners also include Double Dealing, a promising third to Adaay Dream in a Newcastle novice auction stakes last Thursday for Richard Fahey.

Kildaragh Stud's Peter and Antoinette Kavanagh bred Forefront out of the winning Arcano mare Archange, a three-parts sister to Lady Fashion, the winning dam of Chesham Stakes scorer Suits You.

Archange is in turn out of Carinae, a Listed-placed daughter of Nureyev and Group 3 winner Turning Wheel.

Forefront may give agents and trainers cause for regret on the evidence of his victory at Nantes, as he was not sold at just €3,500 when offered by Kildaragh Stud at Part 2 of the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale last autumn.

Read more...

Step up in trip beckons as stallion project Midnights Legacy wins again

Armed guard for Kameko's breeze-up bound sister pinhooked for just $5,000

Find out how the O'Brien family had an unlikely hand in the breeding of Kameko