Etonnant, did breeding make him an Elitloppet winner?

This year’s Elitloppet at Solvalla in Sweden will go down as one of the most legendary in history. Never before has the winner of the Elitloppet final made a break only to come back and win.

Additionally, Etonnant (Timoko) did everything by himself and never saw the rail. There is clearly a tremendous engine in that massive body. Where does this come from? Can it be explained – or is Etonnant a genetic freak of nature?

Etonnant’s pedigree is certainly untraditional. There are, however, a few key things worth highlighting, and there is a bit more to it than meets the eye.

Timoko’s pedigree is generally well-known. His sire Imoko was a highly average trotter while the maternal side is very strong. Both 3rd Vanina B and 4th dam La Coulonces were among the top mares in their time.

What is more interesting is Etonnant’s maternal side. It starts with his dam Migraine. She was a top monte (RUS) horse trained by Bernard Desmontils, to whom she was turned over at the end of age 3. At 4, ridden by Nathalie Henry, Migraine won the biggest monte race for French 4-year-olds, the Group 1-race Prix du President de la Republique.

This makes Etonnant and Migraine part of a very exclusive club where both the dam and foal are Group 1-winners. Remember that old adage of “breed the best to the best”? Both of Etonnant’s parents are Group 1-winners, so Etonnant is truly bred in such a fashion.

Migraine’s pedigree, however, is a bewildering hodgepodge. Her sire Alligator is another southwestern standout on the racetrack, but a failure at stud. Alligator won all four starts at 2 in 1990 and followed up with 5 wins in 11 starts at 3. He won three of the biggest races for 3-year-olds in France – one with a sulky, Prix Capucine, now Prix Albert Viel, and two in monte, Saint-leger des Trotteurs and Prix d’Essai. One would expect a horse like Alligator, with proven early speed, to be popular with breeders. However, he wasn’t.

One reason could be his appearance. Alligator was a massive horse, over 16.2 hands. Here is the source of Etonnant’s massive size; Migraine was also 16.2 hands, while Etonnant is close to 17 hands. This is not a tiny family!

Another, more likely, reason is that his traditional French pedigree was not at all in vogue in France at the time. Alligator covered five mares on a private basis in 1994. He was publicly available the next year, but only attracted 22 mares. By then, French breeders were desperate to breed their broodmares to stallions with fresh foreign bloodlines, something lacking in Alligator’s pedigree.

He also stood stud in the southwest, and got mares of average, or even below average, quality. Because of this, nobody expected Alligator to be a top stallion, but the result was disappointing, nonetheless. Of his 1996 crop of 17 foals, only one qualified. Breeders noticed very quickly, and in 1999 only eight mares were bred to him. From these eight mares, six foal arrived the following year. Only one of those made it to the track – and that was Migraine. Maybe things would have changed after Migraine, but that is hypothetical: Alligator died in November 2001 when Etonnant’s dam was still a yearling.

Alligator’s pedigree is nothing special, though his sire Le Ham is noteworthy. Le Ham was second in the group 2-race Prix Jacques de Vauloge at 3, but prone to breaking and generally a notch below the top in his crop.

Le Ham, bred by the famous Viel family, wasn’t deemed an attractive enough stallion prospect to stand at the biggest stud farms in the north, and ended up at Haras du Chene in Gimat in southwest France. At stud Le Ham did really well with the level of mares he was given, and even produced a superstar.

That was, of course, Fan Idole, one of the only trotters to beat Varenne. Le Ham’s sire Beausejour II lacked early speed but got better with age, so much that he finished fourth in both Prix de Cornulier and Prix de l’Ile-de-France, both group 1 monte races, in 1975 at age 8. Beausejour II was a son of the French champion stallion Kerjacques. If one wants to grasp at straws, the Kerjacques link is the likely source of Le Ham’s success at stud.

Migraine’s dam Allez Sua was unstarted, but has done well as a broodmare. She gave birth to six foals before her death in 2006. With the Pershing-son Blue Dream she has also produced Namado who made 140,320 euro.

Allez Sua’s sire Gazon was primarily a monte star. Like Migraine, he also won the Prix du President de la Republique, as well as Prix de Centaures – another group 1 monte race. He also finished third in Prix de Cornulier in 1979, but also did well hitched to a sulky.

He was second in the 1978 Prix du Bourbonnais and 1979 Prix de Belgique, both of these are among the four “B-races” that precede the Prix d’Amerique. Gazon’s pedigree is built on a cross of two American sirelines, his sire Quasipyl hails from Calumet Delco’s line, while his dam Ralene descends from Sam Williams. Almost everything else in the pedigree is French and is a mix of monte and sulky horses.

Gazon was also a good stallion, most notably he sired Queila Gede, winner of the 1989 Prix d’Amerique where she beat Ourasi. He has left no lasting influence on French breeding, though.

Allez Sua’s dam Pepite d’Atout was also unstarted. Of 11 foals, only 2 qualified, and looking at her production it’s a mystery to see Migraine and Etonnant descending from her. The one thing Pepite d’Atout has going for her, however, is that she hails from a tremendous maternal family.

Pepite d’Atout’s 3rd dam, Dame d’Atout II, born 1947, was a good trotter with 10 career wins and excellent production. She is a foundation mare for the Barbe family, whose horses carry the “Atout” or “d’Atout” name.  The list of top trotters who descends from her, and her maternal grandam Dame d’Atout, is long.

Funnily enough, one of the better trotters from Dame d’Atout is Elitloppa, a good mare in the 90s. She was exported to Sweden and is the grandam of Who’s Who, one of the starters in this year’s Elitlopp.

The list of descendants is otherwise headed by millionaire Uno Atout, 19 wins and 43 top-3 finishes, all of them at the highest level in the early 90s. Other stars include Noble Atout (winner of 5 Group 1 and 7 Group 2-races), Prince Atout (winner of four group 2 races, second in five group 1-races) plus group 1-winners Eiffel Tower, Eridan, Eros du Rocher, Gunilla d’Atout, Ideal de l’Iton, L’As d’Atout, Le Roi d’Atout D, Maitre Atout, Roc Meslois, Sans Atout II – plus three Italian born horses stemming from the export of Dame d’Atout II’s sister to Italy.

Maybe the maternal line is the key to understanding Etonnant? It may certainly be part of it.

Few would have expected such an immense trotter from this pedigree. Should one? It’s not hard to imagine two Group 1-winners producing a star trotter.  Still, trying to understand Etonnant’s greatness from his pedigree is no easy task. Sometimes nature take surprising turns.

by Lisa Harkema, for Harnesslink