When Estijaab overcame a wide barrier to win the $3.5 million Golden Slipper at Rosehill, she gave an enormous boost to De Gaulle’s pedigree.
The John Hawkes trained filly won two of three lead-up starts before going on to win the world’s richest two-year-old race. Her success backs up our belief in the bloodline and makes us all the more excited about De Gaulle’s prospects as a stallion.
Nearly 12 months ago to the day, the Victorian dairy farmer [John Pratt] and his business partner Richard Anderson took a punt when they decided to stand a regally-bred but unraced son of Exceed And Excel, the former Snowden-trained colt De Gaulle, at Pratt’s Brooker Park establishment in Darnum.
Out of Group 1-winning mare Response, the stallion is a half-brother to Estijaab and her Slipper win is the catalyst Pratt hopes will thrust his blueblood colt into the limelight as a commercial sire.
Excerpt from Racing.com article by James Tzaferis
In his first season De Gaulle covered 22 mares early in the season by sires such as Sadler’s Wells, Volksraad and Carnegie.
The majority of these broodmares were very carefully selected by Diane Neylon to suit De Gaulle’s pedigree to give him a good chance of a quality first crop.
With the VOBIS Sires $1 million two-year-old sprint for nominated progeny of Victorian sires, De Gaulle will provide a brilliant opportunity for mare owners to visit a stallion that is an exciting and affordable option in Victoria for the ‘breed to race’ breeder.
Excerpt from Thoroughbred Beeder’s Victoria article on March 27th.
Further reading: De Gaulle in the press following Estijaab’s win
Racing.com article, March 25th 2018: Slipper win justifies De Gaulle punt.
Thoroughbred Beeder’s Victoria article, March 27th 2018: Thanks little sis! Victorian stallion gets a Golden update!
Breednet article, March 27th 2018: Slipper Winner’s Sibling at Stud in Victoria.
Photos: bradleyphotos.com.au
