After four pregnancies in succession, Perrotine was not covered in 2010 before returning to King’s Theatre to produce yet another filly in 2012. She also decided to play another variant on the foaling drama, this time giving no sign that labour was imminent, with the result that we found her outside on a snowy early April day with a filly beneath her, but this time alive. The foal was manoeuvred 200 yards to the foaling box that had been awaiting her arrival, though this hadn’t been expected to be via the front door.
Batoutahell got her name from the way she chose to wean herself. The intended method was that she would accompany her mother to Ireland and be weaned there. Although she was rather a wilful foal, getting her on the transport lorry would be easy – we would load her mother and she would follow her on. This is what foals do, though sometimes they need a little encouragement.
This worked with all the other mares and foals being loaded, but not with Perrotine’s. She refused to follow her mother aboard despite several people trying to cajole / chase / corral her into it. Instead, she raced off into the distance, immune to the frantic cries of her distraught parent. After an hour the lorry simply had to leave. It was a week before we were able to catch the foal and coerce her onto a separate lorry for her own journey. She truly had ‘gone like a bat outa hell’.
‘Bat’ was then raised in Ireland and in time sent into pre-training with Denis Leahy, where she showed a great deal of promise. However, she suffered an injury and was unable to race. “It’s such a shame as she had a lot of ability,” reported Denis. By this time her brother had won a Grade 1 hurdle, so my response was that I was going to breed from her anyway, in which case her having shown a lot of ability was far better than if she hadn’t.
Batoutahell began her stud career in promising fashion financially, with her first three foals, all by Telescope, selling for a total of €76,000. However, the early results of the trio have been somewhat ‘sub-optimal’; and a Postponed filly in 2022 brought rather less than the stud fee, whilst an impressive grey Logician filly born the next year sold for only €6.500. Bat produced a handsome Logician colt in 2024..
Full details of Batoutahell’s breeding career can be found in the Broodmares section.
You can read the story of La Perrotine’s next foal to join our broodmare band by clicking on DEADRINGERFORLOVE.
Alternatively, to go back to Perrotine’s story. click on LA PERROTINE.