Only five runners came out for Sunday's Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (FR-G1), and the winner turned up in the 7-year-old Champs Elysees horse Way to Paris, who scored his first victory at the top level after becoming a multiple Group 2 winner last year. Perhaps appropriately for a horse who has scored his biggest victories in France, he belongs to the family of Glamour, who stands at the head of a thriving branch of the great La Troienne tribe.
The winner of the 1956 Test Stakes at Saratoga, Glamour would have logically been expected to throw speed. Instead, when mated to a series of staying sires, she threw four stakes winners that took after their sires' proclivities, headed by 1972 St. Leger Stakes (ENG-G1) winner Boucher (by Ribot). Her son Poker (by Princequillo) contributed to bloodstock breeding by siring the dam of the great racer and sire Seattle Slew, but Glamour made an equally important contribution to Thoroughbred breeding by producing stakes-placed Intriguing to the cover of Swaps.
Intriguing's pedigree shows a 4x3 cross to 1937 American Triple Crown winner War Admiral, a champion sire and broodmare sire in the United States whose primary long-term influence on breeding has been through the daughters he sired on daughters of La Troienne. Intriguing's granddam Striking was one of those daughters, and when she was mated to Buckpasser, whose dam Busanda was also from the War Admiral/La Troienne cross, the resulting foals were inbred 3x5x4 to War Admiral and 4x5 to La Troienne, as well as 5x5 to the great English matriarch Selene.
Intriguing was bred to Buckpasser seven times. Of the three stakes winners thus produced, the most important by far was 1971 American champion 3-year-old filly Numbered Account, dam of Grade 1 winners Private Account (by Damascus; an important sire) and Dance Number (by Northern Dancer) and ancestress of a galaxy of stars. Through Numbered Account's full sister Playmate, Intriguing is the granddam of 1985 Irish champion juvenile male and important sire Woodman (by Mr. Prospector), and two of Intriguing's other daughters by Buckpasser, Special Account and The Cuddler, also became stakes producers.
Fascinating Trick was Intriguing's only Buckpasser daughter not to produce a stakes winner, but her descendants have made up for this deficiency. Through her daughter Political Intrigue (by Deputy Minister), she is the second dam of Grade/Group 1 winner Redattore, a successful sire in Brazil, and the third dam of Brazilian Group 1 winner Joe Bravo.
Northern Naiad, Fascinating Trick's 1982 daughter by Nureyev, failed to win in ten tries, but she has made her own Group 1 contribution to the family via her daughter Grey Way. A 1993 filly by Cozzene, Grey Way won the 1996 Premio Lydia Tesio (ITY-G2) as a 3-year-old and was Grade 2-placed in the United States at 4. She is the dam of two-time Premio Presidente della Repubblica (ITY-G1) winner Distant Way (by Distant View) and of 2011 Premio Ambrosiano (ITY-G3) winner Cima de Pluie (by Singspiel), and produced Way to Paris as her last foal.
None of Grey Way's daughters have produced anything noteworthy thus far, but Glamour's family is in no danger of dying out. Through her descendants, she has continued to provide a touch of class around the world, and not just on the way to Paris.
The winner of the 1956 Test Stakes at Saratoga, Glamour would have logically been expected to throw speed. Instead, when mated to a series of staying sires, she threw four stakes winners that took after their sires' proclivities, headed by 1972 St. Leger Stakes (ENG-G1) winner Boucher (by Ribot). Her son Poker (by Princequillo) contributed to bloodstock breeding by siring the dam of the great racer and sire Seattle Slew, but Glamour made an equally important contribution to Thoroughbred breeding by producing stakes-placed Intriguing to the cover of Swaps.
Intriguing's pedigree shows a 4x3 cross to 1937 American Triple Crown winner War Admiral, a champion sire and broodmare sire in the United States whose primary long-term influence on breeding has been through the daughters he sired on daughters of La Troienne. Intriguing's granddam Striking was one of those daughters, and when she was mated to Buckpasser, whose dam Busanda was also from the War Admiral/La Troienne cross, the resulting foals were inbred 3x5x4 to War Admiral and 4x5 to La Troienne, as well as 5x5 to the great English matriarch Selene.
Intriguing was bred to Buckpasser seven times. Of the three stakes winners thus produced, the most important by far was 1971 American champion 3-year-old filly Numbered Account, dam of Grade 1 winners Private Account (by Damascus; an important sire) and Dance Number (by Northern Dancer) and ancestress of a galaxy of stars. Through Numbered Account's full sister Playmate, Intriguing is the granddam of 1985 Irish champion juvenile male and important sire Woodman (by Mr. Prospector), and two of Intriguing's other daughters by Buckpasser, Special Account and The Cuddler, also became stakes producers.
Fascinating Trick was Intriguing's only Buckpasser daughter not to produce a stakes winner, but her descendants have made up for this deficiency. Through her daughter Political Intrigue (by Deputy Minister), she is the second dam of Grade/Group 1 winner Redattore, a successful sire in Brazil, and the third dam of Brazilian Group 1 winner Joe Bravo.
Northern Naiad, Fascinating Trick's 1982 daughter by Nureyev, failed to win in ten tries, but she has made her own Group 1 contribution to the family via her daughter Grey Way. A 1993 filly by Cozzene, Grey Way won the 1996 Premio Lydia Tesio (ITY-G2) as a 3-year-old and was Grade 2-placed in the United States at 4. She is the dam of two-time Premio Presidente della Repubblica (ITY-G1) winner Distant Way (by Distant View) and of 2011 Premio Ambrosiano (ITY-G3) winner Cima de Pluie (by Singspiel), and produced Way to Paris as her last foal.
None of Grey Way's daughters have produced anything noteworthy thus far, but Glamour's family is in no danger of dying out. Through her descendants, she has continued to provide a touch of class around the world, and not just on the way to Paris.
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