Al Dancer continuing Haras de Maulepaire's standout year

Haras de Maulepaire’s small jumps breeding operation has already delivered one of the stars of this National Hunt season in La Bague Au Roi and it was celebrating the arrival of another this weekend through the Betfair Hurdle victory of Al Dancer.

The gelded son of Haras de Mirande’s Al Namix has become a serious candidate to lift next month’s Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle and, with Flogas and Kauto Star Novices’ Chase winner La Bague Au Roi set to reappear at the later spring festivals, we could be hearing a good deal more about the historic stud near Le Mans.

"We’re very blessed this year, I must say, because of this homebred Al Dancer and La Bague Au Roi, who is also a very good steeplechase mare," said Pierric Rouxel, who manages Maulepaire on behalf of its owner the Countess of Tarragon.

"With jump mares we have about 15, it’s mainly mares with very, very old pedigrees from home, we had the great-grandmothers and so on for many, many generations."

Al Dancer himself was sent to the Arqana Autumn sale as a yearling in 2014 and reached owner Dai Walters when Highflyer Bloodstock picked him up for €60,000. His dam Steel Dancer is still in active service.

"At that stage he was nearly black; he wasn’t grey as he is now," Rouxel recalled.

"He was a superb yearling, we were thrilled we sold him for quite a big amount of money at that stage. We were lucky because the same year his half-brother Tsar’s Dancer had won the Prix du President de la Republique at Auteuil, a sort of an equivalent as we like to say to the French Grand National, so that gave him a boost.

"The mare is a great producer and Al Dancer is her third stakes horse over jumps, which is quite marvellous."

Pierric Rouxel, manager of Haras de Maulepaire, with Irish National Stud figurehead Sally CarrollCredit: Caroline Norris

Maulepaire is part of a wider estate that encompasses Haras du Mesnil, the legacy of the smooth running by Jean and Elisabeth Couturié. It was divided between the family with Mesnil continuing to produce smart Flat performers under the guidance of the Devin family. It also allows instant access to Doctor Dino, the sire of La Bague Au Roi.

"At the moment Steel Dancer is in foal to Doctor Dino, and she will go back to Doctor Dino this year," said Rouxel. "We sold a big Balko yearling last year (to TJ Bloodstock) for €80,000, and they have always been very good-looking horses.

"It was a moderately good family, but we’ve been very lucky with Steel Dancer. She never ran – she was in training in France and had a problem with her knee so we had to stop and forget about the racing career. But she has been such a good broodmare that we’ve been very lucky to keep her."

Although Rouxel does not believe that the Countess and her stud’s mares have yet delivered a Cheltenham Festival hero, there has been an Aintree specialist in Clan Royal, who was twice placed in the Grand National. Gordon Elliot’s Graded-winning hurdler and chaser Roi Des Francs managed a third in the 2015 Martin Pipe.

The manager, however, has already played a small part in the meeting’s folklore.

"I myself was lucky two years in a row to be the breeder of a Cheltenham winner, Pacha Du Polder," Rouxel explained of the horse who has not only taken the St James’s Place Foxhunter twice but provided Olympic cyclist Victoria Pendleton with a high-profile ride in the same event three years ago.

"So we’re a little bit familiar with Cheltenham. I went last year – the atmosphere is fantastic. We’re great fans of Cheltenham all over Europe."

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