Callisto du Nord

The winter season at Pau is coming to an end once again. The deep ground doesn’t really appeal to me from a betting point of view and I largely avoid the season down there in January. However, every year there does seem to be one horse that emerges from the races at Pau. A couple of years ago Kolociko ran some very fast times in the mud at Pau and he went on to win the Grade 1 Prix Ferdinand Dufaure at Auteuil in the same season for Emmanuel Clayeux. I wrote about him at the time as a horse to follow (see related articles) but he was a very good horse in a relatively average year, 2026 has the potential to be much stronger. Leopard du Berlais is one of the best 3-year-old progeny that I have seen in the last 5 years and David Cottin’s charge will set a very high standard when he returns to Auteuil. However, whilst he is still top of the tree, Callisto du Nord has been quietly going about his business and he has now made such a significant step forwards, that there is every chance he will develop into a contender for the 4-year-old crown later in the season.

Trained by the Peltiers, this 4-year-old son of Choeur du Nord has won his last 5 starts and has improved every time that he has stepped on to the track since first tackling hurdles at Nantes in October. I also covered this horse when he won the Grande Course de Haies de L’Ouest at Nantes in November for my patreon service (link below) when he looked to be an above average type. However, having been raced away from Auteuil it was hard to be sure despite the 8 length winning margin. His connections chose to avoid the Paris track and instead send him to the South to race at Pau and that strategy has certainly paid dividends. A winner of all 3 starts at Pau by a combined distance of 26 lengths, he has been the best horse to race at the track this season and quite possibly for the last few years. Utterly dominant in Sundays Listed Prix Camille Duboscq he began to pull clear after jumping the 3rd last and was good value for his 20 length winning margin. A winning time of 4:39.30 was outside the course standard time by around 20s, but the testing conditions registered a 4,8 on the penetrometer and so that would have blunted any opportunity for him to produce a fast time. However, his closing splits on the McLloyd data of 27.18 and 17.53s between the last 2 obstacles are faster than the par for the course and a top speed of 48.1 km/h in the latter stages of the race was over 2 km/h faster than any of his rivals.

He jumps efficiently, he travels strongly and he can quicken readily when asked, even on testing ground. What's not to like about this 4-year-old? Before you ask, I’m sure there will be offers made for him. He is a half-brother to Venusienne (Willie Mullins) and his dam is a half-sister to Camelia de Cotte. For now, the Peltier’s have held on to him and I hope they continue to do so. They have done a wonderful job with him so far and whilst the pool of 4-year-old prospects left in France may not be the deepest, he is one of the biggest fish in the pond. Having now won a Listed contest, there really are no other options than to head North and test him at the Paris tracks. He handled Nantes in the autumn so I really see no reason to think that he won’t take to Auteuil too and I can’t wait to see what he is capable of in Paris later in the season.