The victories of French-bred pair Light Infantry Man and Deakin at Flemington continued a record-breaking season of success in Australia for horses with the (FR) suffix, which includes four Group 1 victories.
There are few people in Australia with a better handle on French form and pedigrees than OTI’s Terry Henderson. Among OTI’s best-performed French-bred progeny have been triple Group 1 winners Manighar and Gailo Chop.
On Saturday, another OTI-owned French-bred stayer of considerable promise, Deakin, confirmed his spot in November’s Melbourne Cup with victory in the Listed Roy Higgins at Flemington, a golden-ticket race for Australia’s greatest race.
He won’t be the first French-bred Cup challenger in the race in OTI’s colours. Two decades ago, Hugs Dancer ran in a trio of Cups, with a best finish of fifth, while Manighar finished seventh and fifth in 2010 and 2011. Lidari was 19th in 2014.
On a broader level, French-bred horses have won two Melbourne Cups and been placed on another four occasions, the two winners being Dunaden and Gold Trip. This year’s race now has two French horses in the top three in early betting.
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