Heartfelt tributes to Starlet's Sister and The Revenant show the emotional ties that bind racing and breeding

Starlet's Sister did not pull up too many trees during her career on the track with Alain de Royer Dupre. Instead her place in racing history was assured when she retired to one of France's most prestigious breeding farms, Ecurie des Monceaux, as the mare that carried and gave birth to an Arc winner in Sottsass, a Breeders' Cup winner in Sistercharlie and a string of blueblooded yearlings fought over by the superpowers of the racing world at the sales. 

Monceaux has become used to selling seven-figure lots at Arqana over the last decade but breeders spend a huge amount of time with their horses; in the barns, out in a field and in the foaling unit. Talking to Henri Bozo last Thursday evening it was clear that he was deeply moved by her death at the age of 14. 

Bozo considered her to have been a great piece of good fortune in his professional life – "anyone might have taken a chance on her" – and there was a definite crack in his voice as we spoke of that extraordinary day at Longchamp, when barely a thousand people were on hand to witness Sottsass win the Arc during the Covid-19 restrictions in 2020.