The Wonder

The Wonder (foaled 1978) was a French-bred Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. The Wonder was one of the best horses of his generation in France at two, three and four years of age: his wins included the Prix de Condé, Critérium de Saint-Cloud, Prix Greffulhe, Prix d'Ispahan, Prix Edmond Blanc and Prix Jacques Le Marois. In 1983 he was transferred to the United States where he won the San Bernardino Handicap, Century Handicap and Californian Stakes. He was then retired to stud where he had moderate success as a sire of winners. Background The Wonder was a "tall, lengthy" dark brown horse with no white markings bred in France by Alain du Breil, the president of the Societe de Steeple-Chases, the governing body of French jump racing. He was the only horse of any consequence sired by Wittgenstein, a Florida-bred stallion who won the Critérium de Maisons-Laffitte in 1973. The Wonder was the first foal of The Lark, the only Thoroughbred mare owned by du Breil. She later produced the Badener Sprint-Cup winner Areias. The Wonder originally raced in the colours of du Breil's wife and was trained by Jacques de Chevigny. Racing career 1980: two-year-old season After finishing fourth in a race over 1100 metres on his racecourse debut, The Wonder won a race over 1400m at Évry Racecourse and the Prix des Foals at Deauville Racecourse in August. The colt was then moved up in class and distance for the Group Three Prix Saint-Roman over 1800m at Longchamp Racecourse on 4 October. Ridden by Alain Lequeux he finished strongly to finish third of the eight runners, beaten a neck and a head by Mariacho and Arc d'Or. Two weeks later, The Wonder was moved up to 2000m for the Group Three Prix de Condé on soft ground at Longchamp. Ridden by Yves Saint-Martin he was in fifth place 150m from the finish but produced a strong late run on the inside to take the lead in the final strides and won by a neck from Ledmir. The Wonder ended his first season in the Critérium de Saint-Cloud (then a Group Two race) on 17 November in which he was ridden by Alfred Gibert. Starting the 2.2/1 second favourite he took the lead 300m from the finish and won by a length from Mont Pelion. In their annual Racehorses of 1980, the independent Timeform organisation described The Wonder as a "stayer", who would require "at least a mile and a quarter" to show his best form.