 Stud Career
One of the most amazing things about studying pedigrees is the capacity
of the Thoroughbred to surprise us! Tropular is one such horse who seems to defy the laws
of genetic inheritance...
An indifferent racehorse
As we have seen, Tropular's racing career left a lot to be desired;
however his pedigree was good enough on its own to earn him a berth at stud. Horses of
this background often end up, in Europe, being used to breed National Hunt (jumping)
horses and this was the intention of Dr. Georges Sandor, who bought him essentially as a
private stallion for his small band of mainly NH mares at the Haras de Saint-Gatien in
France.
Stud success
As a private stallion, with little racing record to recommend him,
Tropular was not advertised to breeders and so in his first five years at stud sired only
47 foals. From their lowly pedigrees it could be assumed that very little was expected of
them as runners on the flat. However when they first started to appear on the racecourse
as two-year-olds they performed much better than their pedigrees would suggest.
By the end of 1990 Tropular had sired four winners of over £64,000 from
his first real crop (discounting the two foals sired in 1987), including the Group-placed
Spoonmaker who had run champion two-year old Hector Protector to under three lengths in
the Prix de Cabourg.
Better was to come in 1991 when his daughter Guislaine won a Group race
and went on to be placed in both French fillies' classics the following year, and in 1996
his son Ragmar became Tropular's first Classic winner when he won the Prix du Jockey Club
(French Derby). With the successes of these horses Tropular began to get better books of
mares and it will be interesting to see how the resulting foals perform on the track.
Best Progeny
Ragmar - Prix du Jockey Club and Prix
Greffuhle 1996
Guislaine - Prix d'Aumale 1991, 3rd Poule
d'Essai des Pouliches 1992
Svanda - Coupe de Trois Ans 1993
Others
[ Stud Career ] [ Sire Record ] [ Guislaine ] [ Ragmar ]
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