Goliath Du Berlais: From Auteuil Star to National Hunt Sire of the Moment

A retrospective look at the Saint des Saints horse whose racecourse brilliance, commercial momentum and fast-starting first crops have made him one of the most talked-about young jumps stallions in Europe.

A racehorse with a championship profile

Goliath Du Berlais was not merely a precocious French chasing talent; he was a benchmark performer of his generation. A son of Saint des Saints out of King’s Daughter, by King’s Theatre, he combined one of France’s dominant National Hunt sire-lines with a damsire whose influence has long been prized by British and Irish jumps breeders. That pedigree was matched by performance. Trained by Guillaume Macaire, he developed into the leading French four-year-old steeplechaser of his year, with the defining moment of his racing career coming in the Grade 1 Prix Ferdinand Dufaure at Auteuil.

His three-year-old season had already advertised a high-class future. He won the Prix Weather Permitting, Prix Kargal and Prix Noiro before finishing second in the Grade 2 Prix Congress. At four, he went unbeaten through a sequence that elevated him from talented novice to elite chaser. Four Group victories, headed by the Prix Ferdinand Dufaure, gave him the kind of race record that breeders increasingly demand of a modern National Hunt stallion: class, soundness, early maturity and the ability to sustain form over fences.

A stallion launched with confidence

When Goliath Du Berlais entered stud, Haras d’Etreham and Haras de la Tuilerie were able to offer breeders a rare package: a Grade 1-winning chaser by a proven sire of jumpers, carrying the commercial and genetic reinforcement of King’s Theatre on the dam’s side. The response was immediate. Since his first seasons at stud, he has been fully booked, reflecting not only the appeal of his race record but also the market’s appetite for fresh French National Hunt blood with a demonstrable Auteuil profile.

That breeder confidence quickly translated into sale-ring evidence. His first in-foal mares made prices including €125,000, €58,000, €52,000 and €48,000, while his first foals in 2021 reached €68,000, €55,000 and €54,000. Six foals sold for more than €50,000 that year, making him the leading first-crop sire at Arqana. His first yearlings then averaged around €39,000, and in 2022 he again led the first-crop stallion standings at Arqana. By the time his stores began to appear, prices of €90,000, €80,000 and €72,000 underlined the durability of demand.

First runners, immediate impact

The most persuasive advertisement for any National Hunt stallion is no longer confined to a catalogue page. Goliath Du Berlais has backed up his sales popularity with results on the track. With his first crop, he became the leading French sire of three-year-olds, and before the autumn of that season he had already been represented by 10 winners, three JDG Jumping Stars and two black-type performers. Entourloupe was second in the Listed Prix d’Iéna, while Sobriquette was runner-up in the Grade 3 Prix Sagan.

His progress did not stop with the first wave of juveniles. In 2025, as those initial runners moved into their four-year-old season, he again featured at the head of the French rankings, placing himself in the same conversation as established names such as Doctor Dino and Cokoriko. For a young stallion, that is significant: early winners can create attention, but sustained advancement from three to four is what persuades breeders and purchasers that the engine, attitude and constitution are being passed on.

Commercial momentum in France, Ireland and Britain

Recent sales results have only strengthened the impression that Goliath Du Berlais is becoming a major commercial force. Haras d’Etreham notes two €100,000 top prices at the Deauville Summer Sale, achieved by Norwich and Improperium, while Fontaine l’Abbé sold for €160,000 at the 2025 Derby Sale to Harold Kirk and Willie Mullins. At the Goffs Arkle Sale, he was the most represented French stallion, with 16 lots catalogued and two representatives making €92,000 and €90,000.

The Cheltenham Festival Sale has added a more dramatic chapter. Recent reports from the sale ring recorded that progeny of Goliath Du Berlais supplied three of the four highest prices at the 2026 Cheltenham Festival Sale. The headline act was Monster Truck, a son of Goliath Du Berlais who realised £530,000, a record price for the Cheltenham Festival Sale, after being bought by Gordon Elliott. Palinca, another of his progeny, made £400,000, further demonstrating that the market now regards his stock as elite point-to-point and young jumps prospects.

That demand has been echoed by leading buyers. Anthony Bromley, one of the most respected judges in the British and Irish National Hunt market, described Goliath Du Berlais as “the most exciting jumps stallion” of his time after going to €150,000 for one of his sons at the Goffs Arkle Sale. Such remarks matter because they reflect the view from the buying bench: the stallion’s progeny are not only fashionable, they are being bought by the operations expected to develop high-class racehorses.

Why he appeals to the National Hunt market

Goliath Du Berlais’s appeal rests on the convergence of three factors. First, his own race record gives him authenticity: he was an unbeaten four-year-old Grade 1-winning chaser, not a stallion whose National Hunt suitability is inferred from pedigree alone. Secondly, his pedigree is built around reliable jumping influences, with Saint des Saints and King’s Theatre giving him a foundation that resonates strongly across France, Ireland and Britain. Thirdly, his early crops have done exactly what the market hoped they might do: win, progress, and command serious prices.

For breeders, that makes him more than a fashionable young sire. He is now a stallion with a racecourse case, a commercial case and a developing statistical case. His fee has risen to reflect that demand, and his books have been limited, but the evidence to date suggests that the market has not cooled. On the contrary, each new sales result and each new black-type performer appears to be reinforcing the same conclusion.

A leading sire in the making

It is still early in the stud career of Goliath Du Berlais, and National Hunt stallions are ultimately judged over many seasons, not merely by spectacular opening acts. Yet the evidence since 2021 has been unusually compelling. He has covered full books, produced market leaders as foals, yearlings and stores, sired early winners and black-type performers, and supplied sale-topping or near-sale-topping horses at major auctions.

From his Grade 1 triumph at Auteuil to the record-breaking prices achieved by his progeny through the Cheltenham ring, Goliath Du Berlais has made a remarkably swift transition from outstanding racehorse to stallion of genuine consequence. If his first crops continue to train on, he has every chance of becoming not simply the young sire of the moment, but one of the defining National Hunt influences of the next decade.