LA PERROTINE

Six months later she became one of Tom’s first winners when taking a mares’ bumper at Bangor in good style, but was indifferently ridden and perhaps slightly outclassed when beaten in two valuable Open bumpers later that season.

Racing over hurdles the next Autumn, she beat the useful chaser My Flora to gain her debut jumps success before gaining Black-Type when a good third to She Ranks Me and Little Glenshee in one of the first of the new series of Listed Mares-only Novice events. She was then a good second in a mares’ handicap hurdle, giving 13lb to the winner, though she looked past her best when ending her season at the Cheltenham April meeting, the only time I was there to see her race.  

Scholastica looked better than ever when winning her first race of the next season, a Class 3 mares handicap hurdle at Ascot, giving weight to the useful Top Totti and gaining an Official Rating of 125.

She was then a good third in another handicap, giving weight to those who finished ahead of her; but disappointed in her next two races, reportedly suffering from ulcers. Perhaps these were indicative of deeper problems though, for she fractured her pelvis when doing a routine gallop shortly afterwards, and could not be saved.

I believe that Scholastica was probably an innately better racehorse than she was able to show, and would have proved a good broodmare even if not for us. It is sad that she never got the chance to have foals of her own – and thereby develop Perrotine’s legacy further.

2008: Following Scholastica’s birth, King’s Theatre was the sire chosen for Perrotine’s next mating, since I had belatedly begun to accept what my work on NH Stallion Statistics had been telling me for years, namely that good though Old Vic, Presenting, Flemensfirth, Oscar and Beneficial were, he was better. Unfortunately, we hadn’t reckoned with another equally obvious factor, Perrotine’s temperament.

When she was brought into the foaling box, having shown signs of imminent labour, she stressed herself all night at the absence of her bosom friend of the time and refused to foal. She was put out in a field the next day and watched carefully – but not carefully enough. At around lunchtime we saw her standing above an object in the field. The object was a dead filly foal, one of only two we ever lost at birth.

2009: La Doelenaise (click tab for details)

2010: Sizing John (click tab for details)

2012: Batoutahell (click tab for details)

2013: French Steps: I was in Denmark when Perrotine’s next foal, her second colt, was born. Unlike the earlier ones he was by an unproven stallion, Schiaparelli, but one who had won five Group 1s, possessed a superb pedigree (by Monsun out of an Old Vic mare who bred two other Group 1 winners as well as the dam of Sea The Moon) and was a big, impressive individual.

“(Gasp, gasp) you almost had a dead foal there (gasp),” exclaimed Peter Hockenhull over the phone one Friday night in late April, telling me that this time, far from throwing the foal out unaided, Perrotine had needed serious amounts of heaving and pulling to get the foal out at all.

The colt’s problems were not yet over. Initially his forelegs seemed beautifully straight, but the right one rapidly developed a major turn; and by the time I first saw him, three months later, he was walking like Ian Dury on a bad night. It looked impossible for him to make a racehorse but the limbs of a young horse are very flexible; and, bit-by-bit, nature and the efforts of Peter and his farrier brought the limb into line.

He made up into a big, strong 3YO – though slightly plain – but at the Doncaster May Sale we suffered a setback when he was failed by the vet for an arhythmic heart. Treatment in Ireland failed to fix the problem, but a repetition in Newmarket did; and he was returned to Doncaster in August. Clearly, there were rumours of a problem, though, for he failed to reach a £10,000 reserve when I had expected four times that sum three months earlier.

I accepted an offer of rather less than the reserve from Steven Kemble, who put him into pre-training under the name ‘French Steps’, in honour of one of his favourite horses from the past, ‘Spanish Steps’. The purchase proved to be good business for the buyer when Sizing John won the Cheltenham Gold Cup seven months later, for his brother was passed on for around ten times more than was paid for him.

However, that buyer in turn didn’t come out so well, for when sent to Jessica Harrington ‘French Steps’ proved a chronic bleeder and never raced. He was a pleasant, friendly horse to deal with, if a little dumb, but he was born under an unlucky star.

2014: Deadringerforlove (click tab for details)

2015: Anythingforlove (click tab for details)

2018: The Wherryman: In 2016 Perrotine slipped a foal by Fame and Glory due to a viral infection, and the early abortion to Telescope that followed may have been another result of the same problem. Her next live foal came in 2018, a strong colt by Telescope. However, this time Perrotine’s milk production was inadequate and the colt had to be helped by bottle / bucket feeding (the latter with the aid of a Hockenhull-devised tunnel into the next stable, through which the colt could pass but not his mother, who thought she too might like a refreshing drink of milk.

He proved a somewhat laid-back, inactive foal; but Michael Moore got him looking in good order for the Goffs January Sale at Doncaster and he brought £40,000, with the buyer aiming to reoffer as a 3YO. Several other potential buyers didn’t really care for his apparent lack of athleticism (to be frank, neither did I – whilst the agent that bought him subsequently seemed to suffer a degree of buyer’s remorse), but I very much hoped he would prove the naysayers, including me, wrong.

Just under 28 months later the now gelding returned, with the syndicate that had purchased him looking for a profit. It was a close-run thing. He just about reached his £60,000 reserve. He was purchased by Colin Tizzard to be trained by his son, Joe; so at least he was given the chance to show whether he had the ability I hoped he did but feared he did not! Named ‘The Wherryman’, he remained unraced as a 4YO, 5YO and 6YO and did not appear in Joe Tizzard’s list of Horses in Training for the 2024/25 NH season; so it appears that my fears as to his lack of ability were well founded.

2020: Visions of Johana: Perrotine failed to get in foal in 2018 but did so early the next season, producing a very nice bay filly by Telescope in February 2020. We were ready for her this time though. When she failed to produce any milk, we immediately sought a foster mother and were fortunate to find one later that day. Her owner, Sarah York, kindly brought the mare over to Shade Oak.

Perrotine and the prospective foster mum, Berrydale Covert, were both tranquilised to aid the handover. When new mum recovered she seemed a shade confused to find a foal enthusiastically suckling from her; but she soon got used to the idea and proved to be an excellent surrogate, with whom the foal thrived. She was put in foal to Telescope and produced a 2021 filly of her very own to look after. When Perrotine came to, the only thing she noticed was the food bucket, which she proceeded to attack enthusiastically… “Baby, what baby???”

‘Johana’ was initially meant to be called ‘Perriscope’, since Martin Stevens had suggested this as an ideal name for a foal by Telescope – La Perrotine when he visited Shade Oak Stud in Telescope’s first season, 2016. However, I preferred to name her in honour of her sibling, Sizing John, based on a legendary Bob Dylan song, ‘Visions of Johanna’. I first wanted to use that name for Perry’s 2015 foal, but I was over-ruled by Dorte that time, since she had long decided that ‘Baby’ was her foal. As I would, of course, do anything for love, I didn’t do that – i.e. name her ‘Visions of Johanna’.

However, I don’t really like names made by combining those of the sire and the dam (even if cleverly misspelt), and I do like song titles. I was finally able to persuade Dorte to go with my suggestion when one day I informed her that the filly had sung me a song to explain her views on nomenclature.

Here it is – though to persuade Weatherbys to accept the name, I had to spell Johanna with one ‘n’ instead of the two used by Mr Dylan. In addition, the filly employed the tune of another Dylan song, ‘Sooner or Later’, probably because it’s easier to puts words to.

VISIONS OF JOHANA
by the filly formerly known as ‘Perriscope’

I didn’t like the name you chose for me
It’s not who I always thought I’d be
I didn’t like what you were schemin’ of
It’s not the name that I was dreamin’ of
’twas then that I saw him, Brother John flyin’ high
He was goin’ so fast, almost touchin’ the sky
That’s when I knew what my name had to be
To remind me of my ancestry

Oh, it’s Visions of Johana,
No other name would be the same

I felt so sad that I was losin’ hope
When you were gonna call me Perriscope
Because I knew that it would feel so mean
To be a part of just a submarine
It’s then that I heard of the stories they told
About Brother John, winnin’ cups made of gold
That’s when I knew what my name had to be
To make me a racing certainty

Oh, it’s Visions of Johana
That’s the name to bring me fame

…and with us as a 4YO after her first spell in training

So far, things haven’t gone completely swimmingly for ‘JoJo’, for she suffered a suspensory injury to the off fore when sixth in her first race, a Bumper on sticky ground at Ffos Llas in November 2024, when she was travelling well until injury intervened. She is now back with us for recuperation and will be mated to Logician in Spring 2025, with the intention of going back into training when the (hopefully) resulting foal is weaned in Summer 2026. We then hope it will be her own racing ability, rather than those of her offspring, that will ensure that the name will bring her fame.

Perry failed to get in foal in 2020 and 2021 and ‘Visions of Johana’ turned out to be her last foal. She showed evidence of suffering from Cushing’s disease after producing her 2020 foal, growing a long coat in summer until she was treated with the appropriate daily pills. Unfortunately, these proved unable to mitigate associated ovary problems that led to ‘speckly follicles’, which according to Mr Hockenhull are not the type of follicles one wants to see in a broodmare.

In early 2022 Perry was put under lights to prepare her for another attempt to get her in foal, in the hope that this time she might produce follicles that were less speckly. On 5^th January she had a good day out in winter sunshine in the mares’ paddock at Shade Oak, before being returned to her stable. On the morning of January 6^th she was found to have died of a heart attack in the night; there were no signs of any struggle.

‘Perry’ made the dream of a lifetime come true; I very much doubt I shall ever own another broodmare that is able to rival what she did for us.

La Perrotine (FR), 2000, bay, by Northern Crystal – Haratiyna, Top Ville

Summary

Dam of 4 winners from 5 runners to date, including SIZING JOHN, winner of 5 Grade 1s including Cheltenham Gold Cup, Irish Gold Cup, Punchestown Gold Cup and John Durkan Memorial, and probably the best horse we will ever breed (though we hope not!). Her other winners are Grade 2 winner ANYTHINGFORLOVE, Black-Type placed Scholastica, who sadly died from a training accident as a 6YO, and our mare DEADRINGERFORLOVE. Previous daughters LA DOELENAISE and BATOUTAHELL are already broodmares in the stud. We anticipate that her Telescope filly, VISIONS OF JOHANA, will race for us after a first visit to stud!

As a racehorse ‘Perry’ won four of her 8 races, reaching a rating of 120 in days when there were far fewer opportunities for mares. She is from a successful Flat family developed by the Aga Khan.  She was originally purchased from her trainer, Howard Johnson, on the basis of her size, scope and quality (she had won the Filly Store class at the Doncaster May Sales as a 3YO), added to the trainer’s belief that she was potentially a better racehorse than had been able to prove.

La Perrotine’s Breeding Record