French Derby winner Le Havre gets off the mark with first winner

Le Havre, winner of the 2009 French Derby and freshman sire, was represented by his first winner on Wednesday, when La Hoguette won a maiden race at Chantilly in France by 1 1/4 lengths.

The 2-year-old filly completed the 1,100-meter (about 5 1/2-furlong) race in 1:05.94 over turf labeled as good. Bred in France by Franklin Finance, La Hoguette is the first foal to race out of the stakes-winning Zamindar mare Isanous.

Le Havre, a 7-year-old son of Noverre, stands at Haras de La Cauviniere in France for an advertised fee of $6,672 (5,000 Euros). His inaugural foal crop consists of 91 juveniles.

Chantilly was a momentous venue for Le Havre well before his first winner crossed the wire at the Northeast France racetrack. In 2009, it was the site of his biggest win—the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club-French Derby, where he prevailed by 1 1/2 lengths.

The race would prove to be the final start of Le Havre’s career, in which he won four of six efforts for earnings of $1,397,335. In addition to his French Derby victory, Le Havre also won the Prix Djebel and finished second in the Group 1 French Two Thousand Guineas.

Le Havre was campaigned during his racing career by owner Gerard Augustin Normand and trained by Jean-Claude Rouget—the same connections associated with the stallion’s first winner.

Bred in Ireland by Team Hogdala AB, Le Havre was the first foal out of the German-bred Surako mare Marie Rheinberg, who is the dam of four winners from as many foals to race.