Condé : Hopeful the hard way

The Prix de Condé (Gr3) is a 9 furlongs 2yo race. Some good horses have performed well in there, but sometimes the best was yet to come. For instance, Cloth of Stars and Waldgeist both finished 3rd in 2015 and 2016.

The 2019 renewal was led by the Godolohin British raider Al Dabaran (Dubawi), who'd finished 3rd in the Prix des Chênes (Gr3) mile at ParisLongchamp last time out. On that day, he was beaten by two Wertheimer & Frère runners, the winner Écrivain and the 2nd-placed Hopeful (Motivator), who had beaten Al Dabaran by a length. And that same Hopeful came along him early on in the Conde to finally take over and hold him off all the way to the post, scoring by half a length while The Summit (Wootton Bassett), boxed in until the last 100 yards, finished well to fail by a head with Tammani (Make Believe) staying on in fourth at a short head.

The winner is a homebred Wertheimer but his dam Monst (Monsun) was bought by the famous brothers for € 200,000 as a yearling in Deauville. She's out of the Argentinian Gr1 winner First One (Southern Halo), out of the classic winning Argentinian mare Fontemar (Babor). The filly proved rather disappointing since she had to travel to Nîmes to finally score.

Monst was sold last Winter at the Arqana Breeding sale for € 25,000 € to Ralf Ernst, in foal to New Bay.