31 October 2022
Photo scoopdyga.com
October 30, 2022, Chantilly Racecourse (Oise). – Soon well-placed behind the front-runner Ponntos (Power) over the €80,000 Prix de Seine-et-Oise (Gr3) 6-furlong straight, 6-year-old gelding Cœur de Pierre (Zanzibari) was dominant in the end, scoring by almost two lengths in front of Loubeisien (Kheleyf), always in his wake, and the British raider Vadream (Brazen Beau), who came by in the centre of the track to finish at a head behind Loubeisien.
Trained by Maurice Delcher-Sanchez for Pandora Racing and Ahmed Mouknass, the Haras de Grandcamp-bred gelding now looms near the €400,000 earnings and primes mark thanks to his consistency in the French Premier sprinting division: he had only finished third in the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp (Gr1), beaten a short neck and a neck… It was, however, his first Group win!
Cœur de Pierre is a brother to the good mare Cœur de Beauté (Dabirsim), a French Guineas second for the same connections, but he was purchased for €47,000 as a yearling at Osarus by Mab Agency before this update. Sinc then, the family has been quite upgraded as a Shalaa brother to Cœur de Pierre was sold for €100,000 to Yann Barberot at Arqana in 2021. A full sister to Cœur de Beauté is listed at Deauville this season, out of raining, after a win in Britain. It is a good family, as one finds under the third dam, the US-bred Brigid (Irish River), names such as Sequoyah, Henrythenavigator, Queen Cleopatra, Listen, Cliffs of Moher, etc.