The only Group 1 of the season for three-year-olds run on a straight course in France is the Prix Jean Prat. Unlike the Poules d'Essai, Jockey Club or the Diane this is a race purely involving talent, as it comes without barrier draw bias. Texas was raised by the Jeffroy family who continue to be the horse's owner. Benoît Jeffroy tells us the story of this colt.
"I breed horses with my brother Thomas within the property SCEA des Prairies. In the generation of current three-year-olds we have thirty-five. We had bought a share in Wootton Bassett with the idea of presenting the yearlings at sales. It was a Covid year, and the sales took place in September. A few weeks before, Coolmore announced to buy back all of the Wooton Bassett stallion's shares. We sold our share which allowed us not to sell our colt. When we covered Texalova, the price for covering was €20,000, today it is €150,000.
Texas' maternal bloodline goes back to my grandfather's time and the names of all the horses in this lineage start with "Tex". We thought "Texas" sounded good should he become a stallion.
He went in training with Henri Devin who is a long-time friend. Henri had trained the mother but remained unraced. I told him that one horse, one day would pay for our efforts. Texas won his maiden in Lyon before finishing fifth on the same track after swerving and hitting the rail in the straight. We gave him another race at Chantilly and then he took a summer break. He was third at Longchamp for his comeback and it built up his confidence. Our patience paid off with his victory at Listed level at the end of the 2021 season at Toulouse.
After Toulouse, we had a purchase offer, but the buyer changed his mind. This season, Texas was fourth in Prix de Fontainebleau (Gr3) for his comeback before finishing second in Poule d'Essai des Poulains (Gr1) with a horrible draw and had a hard race where he pulled a lot. We had some disappointment after the race, but we realised the achievement when many people came to congratulate us on our second place behind Modern Games, which was the favourite presented by Godolphin. And in the following days as people watched the race again, we received more messages highlighting the great performance of Texas. Again, we received a purchase offer, but we said to ourselves that it was our destiny to keep our horse.
To prep him for Prix Jean Prat, Texas had morning gallops in Chantilly on the track called "piste des réservoirs", a straight track which is always much softer than other training tracks because it is located in the forest. He cantered there twice, and it was satisfactory according to the feedback from his trainer Henri Devin. He really thinks that Texas is made for the 1600m at Longchamp so the Prix Jean Prat over 1400m is a challenge as the colt will have to manage his effort racing in a straight line and adapt his breathing. Texas is in good shape, and he will need to be at his best because the quality of this field could make it a very competitive race, a real three-year-old final for flyers/milers, with horses including Lusail, runner up in the Saint James Palace Stakes (Gr1) at Royal Ascot and the proposition of a rematch with Modern Games".
