It’s in the Blood: Maison Louis

Written by ANZ Bloodstock News’ Trevor Marshallsea

One of the richest families in New Zealand racing and breeding has done it again, with Maison Louis (Super Seth) joining its many elite winners in taking out Saturday’s Queensland Derby (Gr 1, 2400m).

The gelding, trained by John O’Shea and Tom Charlton, forms the latest chapter in a story deeply woven into the fabric of his breeder, Pencarrow Stud.

At the 1982 National Yearling Sales, a 20-year-old groom from Chequers Stud named Leon Casey showed a filly by hot sire Vice Regal (Bismark) to Peter and Phillip Vela. The brothers, enjoying success at that time with Noble Heights (Sir Tristram), were starting out on what became a famed breeding journey with Pencarrow Stud.

They bought the filly for $65,000, and named her Richebourg.

Six years later, Casey joined Pencarrow, where he later rose to his current position as stud manager. By the time he joined, Richebourg had the title of foundation mare at the stud. Now, she’s a legend.

“She was a reasonably lightly framed filly, although she’d grow into a beautiful, great big strong mare,” Casey tells It’s In The Blood.

“I was working with Chequers, and I showed her to the Vela brothers. They were relatively new investors at that stage, but they were racing Noble Heights, so they had a bit of a profile around that. Of course I didn’t realise where it would all lead, and what was starting off, but it’s nice to look back on these things in hindsight.”

Funnily enough, Chequers also sold the subsequent lot, another filly by Vice Regal, who became Victoria Tan.

“The next spring, Victoria Tan won the first two-year-old race of the year, and I remember seeing Peter again around then and he said, ‘I’ve bought the wrong one!’” Casey says.

“However, Richebourg got going later on.”

Sent to Melbourne to be trained by Jim Moloney, Richebourg won five races including Caulfield’s Tranquil Star Stakes (Gr 3, 1400m) and earned three black type placings. But much better was still to come.

Retired to Pencarrow, she threw two stakes winners.

Grand Echezeaux (Zabeel) took the Australasian Oaks (Gr 1, 2000m) in 2000, but was outshone by big sister, Romanee Conti (Sir Tristram). That mare won six stakes races including a successful raid on the Hong Kong International Cup (Gr 3, 1800m) of 1993, six years before it attained elite status. She was also thrice placed at the top level, including in Randwick’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes (Gr 1, 2000m) at her last start.

Those efforts from that pair represented a strong racetrack return. But again, better was to come.

At stud, Grand Echezeaux threw, as a first foal no less, Darci Brahma (Danehill), winner of five Group 1s and sire of 12 top-tier winners thus far. She also threw Burgundy (Redoute’s Choice), who won five black type races and was Group 1-placed, and who sired three elite victors before being taken early, aged 11.

Romanee Conti went to Pencarrow and threw Ethereal (Rhythm), winner of four Group 1s including the Cups double of 2001. She also had Velvet And Satin (Carnegie), who was Group 1 placed.

The stakes winners have continued to trickle down.

Grand Echezeaux is now the fourth dam of two-year-old Too Sweet (Satono Aladdin), who won Ellerslie’s Eclipse Stakes (Gr 2, 1200m) in January.

Ethereal – still doing well at Pencarrow aged 27, Casey says – threw a Listed winner and Sopra Tutto (Van Nistelrooy), the dam of Eleonora (Makfi) and Supera (Savabeel), who were Group 3 and Group 2 winners respectively and Group 1-placed.

Eleonora has thrown Ethereal Star (Snitzel), a juvenile Listed winner who was second in the 2023 Karaka Million 2YO (RL, 1200m).

And last month, Ethereal became great-granddam to another stakes winner when Tomodachi (Tarzino) scored at Group 3 level in Rotorua.

Richebourg also threw La Tache (Danzatore), who left Raise The Play (Defensive Play), herself the dam of Group 2 winner Bellini Rose (Faltaat) – who in turn threw South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) hero Howard Be Thy Name (Redoute’s Choice).

And Richebourg left dual winner Our Echezeaux (Zabeel), who had three stakes victors from six runners in Group 2 winner Dolmabache (Redoute’s Choice), Pure Elegance (Redoute’s Choice) – who won two from four including a Waikato Group 3 before dying early – and Cote D’Or (Makfi).

Cote D’Or managed just a lower–level stakes success in the Matamata Cup (Listed, 1600m) but comes in for special mention as she’s the dam of this column’s subject, Maison Louis, the third of her six foals to date.

“It’s been an amazing family for us,” Casey says, “and it’s probably going as well now as it’s ever gone, with four distinct lines coming out of it.

“The family hasn’t gone quiet at any point, and now we’ve got another Group 1 winner in Maison Louis.

“You look at these things and ask, ‘Why has this family endured whereas others haven’t?’ We’ve had some really good families in the past, like Riverina Charm’s family, that can suddenly go a bit flat.

“But this one’s never really done that. It’s just kept finding a horse, and then another horse, and then another horse pops out of it.”

Casey sees not just ability but demeanour filtering down from Richebourg through all of these illustrious descendants.

“They’ve got great temperaments in that they’re real competitors, but once they’re travelling they generally relax really well, which was the winning of the race for Maison Louis last Saturday,” he said.

“And the likes of Ethereal in the Melbourne Cup. She’d get quite toey in the birdcage and while she was waiting around, but when the race was on, she was renowned for switching off and having a real good competitive instinct. It’s the same with so many from this family.”

Maison Louis became the seventh stakes winner from 82 runners – at 8.5 per cent – for Super Seth (Dundeel), who’s been treading a path towards going from mere sire to sensation since Waikato Stud imported the Caulfield Guineas (Gr 1, 1600m) winner from Australia.

Among those seven black type winners, four have now been successful at the top level, all since the start of March, with Maison Louis following La Dorada, Linebacker and Feroce.

Putting Cote D’Or to Super Seth produced a 4f x 3f duplication of the great Zabeel (Sir Tristram), who’s the damsire of Dundeel and Cote D’Or. Still, Casey says that wasn’t the main attraction.

“If we do duplications, we usually try them at about 3×4. That seems to work the best for us,” he said. “But we really didn’t go looking for that in this case.”

Instead, with plenty of practice, the mating went looking for “lines that have worked well with this family”.

In particular, that involved Super Seth’s damsire, Redoute’s Choice (Danehill). The aforementioned Burgundy, Pure Elegance and Dolmabache were by Redoute’s Choice.

Pencarrow has also had success crossing the Richebourg family with Super Seth’s sireline – specifically his grandsire High Chaparral and third sire Sadler’s Wells (Northern Dancer) – while the stud is also a fan of his sire, Dundeel.

“We had a very talented horse called Bordeaux about ten years ago, who won five out of ten but got injured,” Casey said. “He was by High Chaparral out of Our Echezeaux, Maison Louis’ granddam.

“I’ve always had him in mind when talking about this High Chaparral – Sadler’s Wells cross with this family.

“So when Waikato got Super Seth, yeah we started rubbing our hands together a little bit. He’s a horse who suits this family. He’s got a couple of lines that we really like.

“The family’s got a good blend of natural speed and natural stamina, plenty of speed horses who are really quick and electric, but then staying horses as well who’ve still got good acceleration, and good gears to go through.

“We’ve bred quite a few mares to Super Seth, so hopefully we’ve got some quite promising horses in work by him.”