The victories of French-bred pair Light Infantry Man and Deakin at Flemington continued a record-breaking season of success in Australia for horses with the (FR) suffix, which includes four Group 1 victories.

There are few people in Australia with a better handle on French form and pedigrees than OTI’s Terry Henderson. Among OTI’s best-performed French-bred progeny have been triple Group 1 winners Manighar and Gailo Chop.

On Saturday, another OTI-owned French-bred stayer of considerable promise, Deakin, confirmed his spot in November’s Melbourne Cup with victory in the Listed Roy Higgins at Flemington, a golden-ticket race for Australia’s greatest race.

He won’t be the first French-bred Cup challenger in the race in OTI’s colours. Two decades ago, Hugs Dancer ran in a trio of Cups, with a best finish of fifth, while Manighar finished seventh and fifth in 2010 and 2011. Lidari was 19th in 2014.

On a broader level, French-bred horses have won two Melbourne Cups and been placed on another four occasions, the two winners being Dunaden and Gold Trip. This year’s race now has two French horses in the top three in early betting.

There are now also two French-bred winners of another major Flemington feature, the Australian Cup, after Light Infantry Man’s success on Saturday followed up from Manighar’s win in the race in 2012.

It was the fourth Group 1 win by a French-bred horse in Australia this season, matching the previous record set in that 2011/12 campaign, when Manighar won three to go with Dunaden’s one.

Light Infantry Man is responsible for two of those four, his first coming in the Northerly Stakes in Perth, while the other two Group 1 winners are Metropolitan winner Land Legend and Canterbury Stakes victor Royal Patronage. There seems ample opportunity for more elite success with Vauban and Arapaho leading chances in Tuesday’s rescheduled Tancred Stakes.

To give that some context, there were only 64 horses imported from France to Australia in 2023/24. That is around a sixth of those imported from Great Britain and a third of those imported from Ireland. GB horses have won one Group 1 race this season, while Irish-bred horses have won seven, five of them from Via Sistina.

A crude calculation of imports from last season compared to Group 1 winners this season sees France at 4.7 per cent, Ireland 1.7 per cent and Great Britain at 0.3 per cent. Throw New Zealand in there at 0.6 per cent and you get an idea of how much the French-bred horses are punching above their weight.

Overall horses with the (Fr) suffix have won 13 stakes races in Australia this season. That stands alone as their most successful, surpassing the previous mark of 10.

Light Infantry Man has three stakes wins in total, while Royal Patronage and Ellyass have two apiece. Vauban, Arapaho and OTI’s Athabascan are the other French-bred stakes winners this season.

French-bred horses seasonal stakes record in Australia

Before we start to look at the reasons why, it is probably worth noting that suffixes don’t always truly represent heritage, especially in Europe.

Royal Patronage is an example of this, as while he was foaled in France, his dam Shaloushka was visiting there to go back to Wootton Bassett. While the subsequent Group 1 winner was foaled in France, he was not eligible for French breeders’ bonuses.

Henderson has often said that the flatter tracks of France compared to Great Britain and Ireland, as well as the style of racing there, are what makes French-bred horses a good fit for Australian racing. This is backed up by several other sources spoken to by The Straight.

One of the other contributing factors, according to those who closely follow French racing is the French pattern, which is less focussed on two-year-old racing. Around 16 per cent of French stakes races are for two-year-olds, compared to 21 per cent in Great Britain and 22 per cent in Ireland.

The juvenile stakes races they do have tend to be over more distance, with 38.5 per cent over further than seven furlongs, compared to 16.7 per cent in Great Britain and 21.4 per cent in Ireland.

Advocates for the French model say fewer two-year-old stakes races and more focus on stamina makes them ideal horses to transition to Australian middle-distance racing later in their careers.

The overall French pattern reflects this too, with 41 per cent of stakes racing over distances between 2000m and 2600m, the highest of any distance range. Only Germany, Argentina and Brazil have a higher percentage in that range.

All other major jurisdictions have the 1400m to 1800m segment as their most common range for stakes races.

While French-bred success flows on the track, in the stallion barns there isn’t the same level of enthusiasm. There were only four stallions standing in Australia in 2024 with the FR prefix, a list led by St Mark’s Basilica and Gold Trip.

A look back across stakes results since 2000 reveals 14 individual stallions with the (FR) suffix who have produced Australian black-type winners. The most successful of them was Metal Storm, who has 23 stakes winners in Australia in total, while Kenmare had 18.

Almanzor looks the most likely to surpass that with seven in Australia to date, plus another nine in New Zealand, where he stands at Cambridge Stud.

Back in another generation, French-bred Wilkes was phenomenally successful with four Australian sires’ championships and 51 Australian stakes winners, including champions Wenona Girl and Vain.

Lindsay Park’s Without Fear was also a very impactful French-bred stallion, with 49 Australian stakes winners, including eight from a record-breaking first crop.

French-bred Group 1 winners in Australia