€80,000 Greffulhe: Greenland is saved by the nose

Monday, May 1, 2023, Saint-Cloud Racecourse (Hauts-de-Seine). - The €80,000 Prix Greffulhe (Gr3) gathered five colts coming off two previous prep races, the Noailles (Gr3) and the La Force (Gr3). Under a stormy rain, and on a course already measured as very soft in the morning, the leader Harry Way (Galiway) once again fiercely defended himself. The gelding owned by Haras de la Gousserie and his breeder Robert Bonaventure pushed the Irish favourite, Greenland (Saxon Warrior), to his limits. The Ballydoyle raider had travelled alongside the front runner and seemed to have the race well in hand entering the straight, but he hesitated until the end and only kept a nose in front of his brave rival.

Always behind the winner, Rashford (Zarak) took third place at a good length, Zalamo and Fortune finishing last without making an impression.

Greenland was bred in Ireland by SCEA Marmion Vauville and Alain Jathière. It was sold for 160,000£ as a weanling to Camas Park at the Tattersalls breeding sales, where it was again auctioned, this time for 300,000£, to Amanda Skiffington as a yearling. His dam Aktoria (Canford Cliffs), bred by owner Leonidas Marinopoulos' Stilvi company, won the Six Perfections (L) at 2 in Deauville just before finishing fourth in the Aumale (Gr3).

At stud, she first gave birth to two fillies, one of whom won in Montignac -and was unsold last December in Deauville at 40,000€ after running for Laurent Benoît-, then a 2-year-old Gleneagles colt withdrawn from the Arqana yearling sales last year, when consigned by La Motteraye, and a Starspangledbanner yearling colt.