This horse won’t win at Cheltenham next month. He is highly unlikely to win at Cheltenham next year. In fact, he may never win at Cheltenham, but there is always a chance and sometimes a horse just catches my eye on debut and that makes them worth writing about. In the case of Kador Allen, he was visually very pleasing on the eye when finishing 4thin the AQPS Flat race for 4-year-olds at Fontainebleau on Tuesday.
He comes from a family that the Peltier yard knows very well. The Dam was a 5-race maiden, but the Grand-Dam, Quismaelle, was a winner over hurdles for the yard in 2009 and she is a half-sister to the very talented Une Destine, a Grade 3 winner of the Andre Michel in 2013. Almost all of the winners in the immediate family that I have researched were trained by the Peltiers. Kador Allen is a son of Tunis, one of the young National Hunt Sires in France who made a good start with his first crop last year and through his Sire, Estejo, offers a strong National Hunt producing pedigree.
This was a 4-year-old AQPS Flat race over 3,000 metres, or 1-mile 7-furlongs if you prefer and it has thrown up a few above average types in recent years, most notably Indiana Dream, who won the contest in 2022 before heading off to join Willie Mullins and JP McManus. Sent off at 10.0 on the PMU, Kador Allen settled in mid-division, coming 2-wide around the home turn to make a challenge as they began the run for home in the long Fontainebleau home straight. At times he seemed to hang left in behind the eventual second as they passed the 2-furlong pole, but he continued to respond for pressure under Arnaud Bourgeais and his connections must surely be pleased with a very promising start to his career.
As the field stood at the start, it was clear to see that Kador Allen was towering above many of his rivals and with a big frame, he clearly has some strengthening to do. In time he will no doubt jump a fence, but the fact that he was able to travel at what looked to be a fairly honest pace bodes well for his future as he matures. The race was won by Krisna, a well backed filly by It’s Gino, who showed plenty of speed on her debut for the Daniela Mele team, whilst the 2nd, Kafkaienne, is a nicely bred Filly who is closely related to Gauloise (Willie Mullins). This was the only AQPS Flat race on the card, so we don’t have anything to compare the time with as the hurdles races use a different course at Fontainebleau, but a furlong average of 13.54-seconds on ground described as "Very Soft" would suggest a truly run contest.
At this stage of his career it is almost impossible to make anything more than an educated guess as to how good he may prove to be, but this was a taking debut from such a big horse. With the frame of a chaser, it may well take a few runs and some time to grow into that frame before he is ready to start winning races, but he caught the eye and may well develop into an above average performer in time, so I thought I would get him into the blog at this early stage.