French Recruits - Karante Neuf Trois

I have been keeping lists of the horses recruited from France for almost a decade now and as a general rule, it’s been a case of tracking the horses that join Willie Mullins and then the others fit around his team. That’s still the case in 2026, but there is a new name in 2nd place this year, Dan Skelton. On the 11th August, there are already several high profile purchases moving to Dan Skelton and the latest is Karante Neuf Trois, a 3-year-old gelding by Magic Dream who will run in Johnny de la Hey’s colours. He arrives with a record of 1 win from 1 start for Francois Nicolle, having won the Prix des Senonnettes hurdle for debutantes at Senonnes in early July. His dam, Censure (Kendor) was a moderate but consistent performer on the Flat and Karante Neuf Trois is the 3rd winner that she has produced, the most notable of which is the G3 winner Pharrell (Jean-Claude Rouget). That’s the highest performing name that I could find on his immediate page, but there have been ver few members of the dam’s family that have run over hurdles and so it would not be fair to judge Karante Neuf Trois’ potential on his page alone. Magic Dream was a G2 winner over fences in France for Arnaud Chaille-Chaille and Karante Neuf Trois is part of his first crop that has already produced 5 winners in France, including the G3 placed Dedel and the Clairefontaine winner Mix Match who has now joined Jamie Snowden. It’s very early days in his stallion career, but the early signs are positive and he ran to good standard over obstacles during his time on the track.

Karante Neuf Trois beat 2 subsequent winners when making a perfect start at Senonnes under Angelo Zuliani. Sent off at 5.2 PMU, he sat behind the early leaders before moving to the front after jumping the final flight at the end of the back straight. Shaken up after jumping the 2nd last, he stayed on strongly to climb the Senonnes hill in front and maintain an advantage of around 2 lengths on the run-in. It was solid if not spectacular time, but given his size and the steady nature of the pace in the first circuit, I’m confident enough to say that he was the best horse in what looks to be an above average field for the track and time of year. This is not Auteuil form and as a result, it can be slightly harder to get a handle on what he may have achieved. However, his action would appear to suggest that he will improve on a slightly softer surface (the ground was essentially good/good to firm in UK terms with a penetrometer reading of 3,4) and so we can upgrade this performance. His breeder, S.C.E.A des Prairies, also bred his Sire as well as horses like Magic Saint (Paul Nicholls) and the G1 Prix D’Ispahan winner Never on Sunday (Jean-Claude Rouget). He has won as a 3-year-old, but his pedigree would suggest that he will be better at 4 and if I had to make an educated guess, I think he is more likely to make his mark over fences in a couple of years time than be a Triumph hurdle contender. However, he is one of a number of talented French youngsters that have joined the champion trainer this summer and is worthy of note for that point alone.