Carmarthen Hurdle Report: Paul's Saga becomes heavyweight

Sunday, November 8, 2020, Auteuil. - After beating the odds-on favourite L’Autonomie recently in the Grande Course de Haies d'Auteuil (Gr1), Paul's Saga (Martaline) confirmed by winning for the second year the €84,000 Carmarthen Hurdle Race (Gr3) despite a 13lbs penalty. After following the front-running Galop Marin (Black Sam Bellamy), owner Gerald Laroche's representative made her move going off the bend and was never really challenged from then on. She eventually won by two lengths over Beau Gosse (Falco), who kept a low profile and was, therefore, able to gain the upper hand over Galop Marin, third at three lengths.

Paul's Saga is 6 years old and she's now won 10 of her 30 races and earned over € 600,000. Her breeders, Philippe Ouvry and the Haras des Vives Terres have already pocketed around € 90,000 in Breeders' premiums.

Paul’s Saga is a sister to the very good Siljan’s Saga (Sagamix), winner of the Grand Prix de Deauville (Gr2) and several times placed at the best level, for a total of almost €1.3m in earnings. Winner of the Grande Course de Haies de Printemps (Gr3), equivalent over hurdles of the French National, Paul's Saga quickly found her place in the elite since in November 2019 she won the Léon Olry-Roederer Hurdle race (Gr2) after the Carmarthen Hurdle race (Gr3) and took the second place in the Grand Prix d'Automne Hurdle race (Gr1)…

This year, she has only run three times over hurdles but also three times over steeplechase but was unable to win over fences.