A talented and very competitive 3-year-old who reached a career best when showing in the 2022 renewal of the Gr.1 French Guineas, Tribalist rose to prominence as a 4-year-old when piecing together three straight wins at a mile to dominate Gr.1 winners such as The Revenant and Facteur Cheval, a streak that Belbek interrupted in their sole encounter as he emerged on top of the Gr.3 Prix Perth.

Belbek taking up stud duties the next season, the pair never had another opportunity to square off again in what could have been a fascinating rematch. After suffering this lone defeat, Tribalist resumed his winning ways and, to this date, remains unbeaten at a mile on French soil and is one the very few horses who crossed the line in front of champion miler Charyn this season.

There is no doubt Belbek, who exited racing clean-limbed, had every credential to compete with Charyn at the highest level, had he stayed in training for another year, and that he would have been in a good spot to chase the honors Dansili earned as a four-year-old when he was crowned European Champion Miler in 2000.

Statistically, a win in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère is an important feature in a stallion prospect pedigree, its position in the racing calendar making it the final showdown for juveniles while giving its winner serious credentials ahead of the upcoming classic season.

One of only 5 Group 1s restricted to the younger generation on French turf, Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère has long established a worldwide reputation as a premier stallion-making race. Present breakaway sires like Siyouni and Wootton Bassett have their names on the race’s roll of honour, while past standouts which include Blushing Groom and Irish River, both winners of the French Guineas during their subsequent season, have exported its reputation far beyond French borders. Karakontie, the winner of the 2013 renewal and subsequent winner of the Breeders’ Cup Mile, is now a respected turf sire in america who has sired turf blacktype winners at a near 10% rate in 2024. Fast forward to Rosallion, the impressive winner of last year’s Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère, who retaliated a narrow loss in the 2000 Guineas with back to back Group 1 victories in the Irish 2000 Guineas and St James Palaces’s Stakes to become the world’s highest rated 3-year-old miler.

There is a special bond with France, and more specifically with Sumbe, in Belbek’s family. Hasili was sent to training to France under the care of Henri-Alex Pantall, for whom she became a Listed winner at two before chasing Coup De Folie home in the important French 1000 Guineas prep Gr.3 Prix Imprudence, while French trainer extraordinaire André Fabre was the exclusive conditioner of her progeny.

More importantly Belbek is the first Group 1 winner bred and campaigned by Nurlan Bizakov, who brought his ambition full-circle for the first time when taking Belbek home to start his stallion career. As such, Belbek enjoys an important support from Sumbe, starting with nearly twenty high profile mares from our own band, and extending to our clients through a generous incentive program for his first season crop.

Speed is an essential building block for any pedigree, and Belbek’s sire line has made its reputation on just that.

“It’s immediately evident that the sires that have succeeded the most with this family are from the Danzig branches of Danehill and Green Desert, so the decision by the Sumbe team to send Bee Queen to Showcasing, a son of the Green Desert horse Oasis Dream , was inspired.” Sid Fernando

Oasis Dream was a champion 2-year-old and champion sprinter at three. At stud, he has been a reliable conduit of top early maturing 2-year-olds and high-quality sprinters, a clear trend carried into 2024 by Gr.2 Vintage S. winner and Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf runner-up Aomori City.

Like Belbek, his sire Showcasing was an early developing colt who was best at two, winning the Gr.2 Gimcrack Stakes and placing in the Gr.1 Middle Park Stakes. At stud, he has sired 145 stakes performers, among which a pair of Gr.1 Commonwealth Cup over 1200m in Advertise and Quiet Reflection, while Lake Victoria’s win in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf is the most exciting of recent updates to his record as an up-and-coming broodmare sire.

Belbek, who captured the 2022 Gr.3 Prix du Bois, the first group race for juveniles of the French flat season en route to his Gr.1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère Triumph, revived a tradition for precocity found in his 6th dam Sookera, who co-topped the Irish juvenile ratings with Fairy Bridge in 1977 off a brilliant season capped by her Gr.1 Cheveley Park Stakes score, whose best progeny, leading sprinter So Factual, placed in the Gr.2 Coventry Stakes aged two.

From a breeding standpoint however, Sookera’s daughter Kerali, who notably threw a pair of English Broodmares Of The Year in Hasili and Arrive, founded a line of top-class mile/intermediate horses who needed time to mature and show their best form. Among the 13 Grade or Group 1 winners among Kerali’s descendants, Belbek sticks out as the only Group 1 winner at two, an age were most of his famous relatives had not even made it to the racetrack.

“From a physical standpoint, no one could have predicted she would become such a legendary broodmare. A talented runner for us, she was very a determined competitor, a trait she obviously passed down to the next generations.” Henri-Alex Pantall

“Five Grade 1 winners and three champions would be quite a respectable output for most stallions' careers and outstanding if compressed into a single crop of 60 to 100 foals. For a mare to achieve the same output during her breeding career is beyond outstanding, and when that output also includes two other Group or Graded stakes winners, one a successful sire, there is only one who fits the profile. Her name is Hasili, and she is one of the most remarkable matrons in the history of the Thoroughbred, who has already done more than enough to ensure herself a place in the record books.” Avalyn Hunter

As the only stallion from the Hasili-line available to breeders in the Northern Hemisphere, Belbek is carrying forward the legendary bloodline of his fourth dam, one of only two broodmares to have produced five grade/group 1 winners. For breeders, he is the closest link to Dansili, the sire of 21 Group 1 winners accross his career at stud, whose legacy lives on through his stallion sons as much as through his daughters, Dansili being the broodmare sire of 2023 Epsom Oaks winner Soul Sister and 2024 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe victress Bluestockings.