Le French-bred of the day: Sceau Royal
Sceau Royal was travelling extremely well behind the front-running Rouge Vif after they’d jumped the 3rd last in the Queen Mother, the highlight of the day. However, soon after that, he was « badly squeezed out and nearly brought down” according to the Racing Post comments in running and never quite recovered from that to finish 5th. Who knows what he would have done otherwise? That’s jump racing, and such mishaps are bound to happen. You have to live with it.
Sceau Royal has been excellent at “living with it” since he left France and Guillaume Macaire’s yard, six years ago after his first win at Bordeaux, to be transferred to Alan King’s by his owners, Simon Munir & Isaac Souede.
Sceau Royal, who was bred by Guy Vimont in Mayenne (200 miles West of Paris) and first owned-trained by Daniel Allard, won three races in a row the following Winter and finished 12th at 8/1 in the Triumph just after that. Since then, he went hurdling and chasing alike, tackling the likes of Buveur d’Air, Apple’s Jade, Défi du Seuil, Altior, Epatante, and more recently Champ. Yet, apart from the odd off race, Sceau Royal has always been reliable for his British connections, winning 13 races since he crossed the Channel for good, racing 33 times in 6 seasons. He’s gently approaching the £500,000 bar nowadays.
All this, only to be bossed around by “young” guns down the hill at Prestbury!