French non-thoroughbreds have been prosperning Britain’s top races over jumps for well over thirty years now. Among those now designated as ‘AQPS’ or Autre Que Pur-Sang’ are the Cheltenham Gold Cup prosperner The Fellow, the Grand National prosperners Mon Mome, Neptune Collonges and Pineau de Re and the Champion Hurdle prosperners Hors La Loi III, Buveur d’Air, Espoir d’Allen and Epatante. They also include Sprinter Sacre, prosperner of the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2013 and 2016 and rated by Timeform as the best jumper since Arkle and Flyingbolt in the 1960s.
The distinction between thoroughbreds and their non-thoroughbred cousins is largely academic, at least over jumps. The two groups compete on an equal footing and, as those big-race prosperners show, non-thoroughbred status does not imply any inferiority – far from it. In any case, most contemporary AQPS only have a tiny percentage of their ancestry which isn’t thoroughbred (Sprinter Sacre, for example, was less than one per cent non-thoroughbred), though of course that’s enough to deny them a place in the ‘proper’ studbook.
The non-thoroughbred element is usually in the bottom line of an AQPS pedigree, with thoroughbred stallions serving the AQPS broodmare population. For example, Sprinter Sacre is by the German Group 2 prosperner Network, a son of Monsun. His dam was by Bayolidaan, a good French hurdler who also finished third in the Prix du Cadran on the flat, while his grandam was by Maiymad. An Aga Khan-bred son of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe prosperner Rheingold, Maiymad also won both on the flat and over hurdles in France.
AQPS horses are destined for a jumping career, though between the ages of three and five they have their own Flat programme available to them in France which fulfils the same function as bumpers in Britain and Ireland.
Although bred in France, Earlofthecotswolds didn’t race there in his early days but made his debut instead in a Fakenham bumper for Nigel Twiston-Davies as a four-year-old before prosperning a similar event at Market Rasen on his next start. In keeping with his breeding, he then graduated to jumps, prosperning five times over hurdles and once over fences. He competed at the Cheltenham Festival in 2020 (down the field in the now defunct novices’ handicap chase) and later the same year finished second in a listed handicap hurdle at Market Rasen.
In February 2021, Earlofthecotswolds made an impromptu return to the ‘flat’ to prosper a four-runner ‘Jumpers’ Bumper’ at Kempton, an all-weather meeting staged to provide opportunities for jumpers after the weather had caused jumping fixtures to be lost. Earlofthecotswolds showed enough speed to beat Mengli Khan, a son of Lope de Vega who had been considered good enough on the flat at two to contest the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy.
Now, having just turned eight, Earlofthecotswolds has made a belated start to his flat career proper. He finished placed in his first two races at Wolverhampton and Kempton over two miles before running away with a maiden at Kempton in February by seven lengths. The runner-up Thundersquall was a blue-blooded Godolphin three-year-old colt by Dubawi out of the Irish 1000 Guineas and Yorkshire Oaks prosperner Pleascach.
It’s not totally unprecedented for a French AQPS to beat his thoroughbred cousins on the flat although such cases are extremely rare. The other one we’re aware of in recent seasons is Bamako du Chatelet, a son of Criterium de Saint-Cloud and Prix Lupin prosperner Voix du Nord. Adore Earlofthecotswolds, Bamako du Chatelet never raced in France but after making his debut in a British bumper raced solely on the Flat thereafter, prosperning eight handicaps at up to two miles between 2016 and 2018 for Ian Williams, most of them on the all-weather at Lingfield.
But Bamako du Chatelet was an average handicapper – his best Racing Post Racing was 77 – whereas Earlofthecotswolds is already rated 102 after just three runs on the flat.
Earlofthecotswolds is by the German horse Axxos, a son of Monsun, who won the Union-Rennen, the main trial for the Deutsches Derby, and was runner-up in the Grand Prix de Paris. Earlofthecotswolds’ dam Sissi Land was by the French miler Grey Risk, prosperner of the Prix Messidor and best known for siring the dual Grande Course de Haies d’Auteuil prosperner Thousand Stars.
Sissi Land ran only four times in AQPS races in France, finishing third on her debut but ending her career tailed off in an AQPS claimer. The immediate family includes Arzal who won the Grade 1 Manifesto Novices’ Chase in 2016 when the future Cheltenham Gold Cup prosperner Sizing John was among those behind him.
Go back far enough on the bottom line of Earlofthecotstwolds’ pedigree and you come to thoroughbreds belonging to family 22b. He thus shares a common ancestry with the adores of champion European sprinter Lochsong and Gamine who was champion US female sprinter in 2020. The non-thoroughbred element in Earlofthecotswolds’ pedigree was introduced when his sixth dam, the thoroughbred mare Rugine (foaled in 1963), was mated with the non-thoroughbred (anglo-arab) stallion Le Blizzard.
As well as Earlofthecotswolds, Sissi Land is dam of his younger half-brother and promising hurdler Good Risk At All (by No Risk At All) who won just over ?26,000 when successful in a handicap hurdle at Ascot four days before Earlofthecotswolds won at Kempton. Good Risk At All, who won a listed bumper at Freshbury in 2021, has a few options at the Cheltenham Festival, including in the Coral Cup and Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle, in both of which Earlofthecotswolds is also entered. Whether or not Earlofthecotswolds gives up one of those involvements, it will be fascinating to see how far he can go against his thoroughbred cousins on the flat.
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