Haras de Grandcamp Welcomes Prix Morny Hero Whistlejacket

[Wandering Eyes]

It might be over-egging the pudding a bit to describe this year's Prix Morny as a familiar tale of woe for the home team. However, in order to understand why the 2024 winner, Whistlejacket, is such a welcome addition to the Normandy stallion ranks for next season, it's important to acknowledge the gaping void that necessitated his purchase in the first place.

Increasingly, France seems to be falling behind its British and Irish counterparts when it comes to producing top-class, sprinting juveniles. This struggle was depicted in no uncertain terms by what we witnessed at Deauville in August, when only one of the six runners for the Morny was actually trained in France. The colt in question, Imperial Me Cen (Mehmas), proceeded to trail home at the rear of the field, eight lengths adrift of the winner, Venetian Sun (Starman).

Andre Fabre's Earthlight stemmed the tide somewhat when hitting the target in 2019, but it remains only four times this century that the Morny has been won by a French-trained horse, with the consecutive victories of Whipper (2003) and Divine Proportions (2004) being followed at much longer intervals by first Dabirsim (2011) and then Earthlight. A familiar tale of woe, indeed.

This year, however, there has at least been an encouraging epilogue to the story for French breeders, with Whistlejacket – the first Morny winner to retire to stud in France since Shalaa – possessing many of the attributes that they've been crying out for.

A battle-hardened colt who ran eight times in his juvenile campaign alone, the son of No Nay Never filled the runner-up spot at the top level on two other occasions, in the Phoenix Stakes and Middle Park Stakes, as well as winning the G2 July Stakes and dishing out a near-four-length beating Arizona Blaze in the Listed First Flier Stakes.

“We were really impressed by his two-year-old career and we were thinking that this is the type of profile we don't have here in France at the moment,” says Jean-Daniel Manceau of Capucines Bloodstock, the man tasked with managing Whistlejacket's stallion career at Haras de Grandcamp.

“We'd been looking for a stallion for a couple of years. We were looking for a speedy, early type, from a nice family and with a fashionable sire. He was ticking all of these boxes so, when he came up for sale, I was more than interested. I worked on making a nice partnership with some French breeders to purchase the horse and to give him a place at stud here in France.”

 

 

Whistlejacket is joined on the Haras de Grandcamp roster for 2026 by the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes hero Big Rock and Grosser Preis von Baden scorer Zagrey, with Jean-Philippe Dubois leading the group of breeders who have committed to supporting the former Aidan O'Brien trainee in his second career.

Manceau adds, “I think he will fit plenty of mares and [appeal to] plenty of breeders. We made a little syndicate with a few shares to sell. In only 48 hours that was done, so it was showing already a few good signs.

“We will support him a lot as well. We're trying to buy around 15 mares and fillies with a speedy profile to support him during the year and to give him the best start possible at stud.”

Whistlejacket's arrival at Haras de Grandcamp sees him become the fourth son of No Nay Never to find a place at stud, with the others including this colt's full-brother, Little Big Bear, who demolished his Phoenix rivals by seven lengths in 2022, and Blackbeard, who won the same year's Morny and Middle Park. No Nay Never, of course, won the Morny himself in 2013.

“He comes from a very good sire-line,” Manceau continues. “His father No Nay Never was a Group 1 winner. He actually won the Morny, like Whistlejacket, and his grandfather, Johannesburg, won the Morny as well. Scat Daddy was a two-year-old winner [at Grade I level], Johannesburg was one and Hennessy was one, so that's five sires in his sire-line who were Group 1 winners at two, like him.

“He's an outcross to the Sadler's Wells line and the Danehill line. He has this nice Scat Daddy blood, so I think he can be crossed with all of the Kodiac, Dark Angel and Galileo mares. All of these lines could fit him well, I think.”

Bred by Camas Park, Lynch Bages and Summerhill, Whistlejacket was a knockout yearling when sold to MV Magnier and White Birch Farm for 500,000gns at Tattersalls Book 1. Within seven months he was debuting at the Curragh, becoming one of the first Ballydoyle two-year-olds to be unleashed that season.

Clearly, the ambition is that Whistlejacket will produce high-class horses built in his own image, ready to go early in their juvenile campaigns, although Manceau is quick to point out that there is more staying power on the distaff side of the pedigree.

“He came from a family that I love, a Wertheimer family from the good mare All Along, who was a five-time Group 1 winner,” he explains. “He's out of a Bering mare called Adventure Seeker and, obviously, he's a full-brother to Little Big Bear. He comes from that good French family which we all like here. I think that can help him to have horses who can be [talented] three-year-olds, stay a bit more and go over all type of distances.

“He's standing at 16 hands. He has a lot of scope and a good walk. He's a very nice, well-made horse – that's why he made that [amount of money] at the sale.”

Already, Whistlejacket is drawing admiring glances from breeders in his new surroundings at Haras de Grandcamp, little over an hour from where he enjoyed his finest hour in the Morny, beating the G2 Coventry Stakes winner Rashabar (Holy Roman Emperor) by three-quarters-of-a-length.

Named after the chestnut racehorse famously depicted in George Stubbs's 18th century painting, Whistlejacket will command a fee of €14,000 in his debut season, with Manceau eager to get the ball rolling.

“He was a Group 1-winning two-year-old and we need this type of profile here,” Manceau sums up. “I think, at this price point, he will be good value for breeders here in France.

“He just came a week ago to the farm and I was delighted to see him in the flesh. He's such a nice-looking and calm horse. He's already had a few good shows and a few good visits. All of the breeders were pleased with him. I'm really excited to work on it and to support him at the sales, buying mares and trying to do really something great.”

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