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Pas Seul was a surprise foal--it was believed his dam, Pas de Quatre, had not conceived with her cover to Erin's Pride, and she competed in hunter trials and point-to-points the year she was bred. At age 5, after a couple of unpromising races when he fell, Pas Seul won six successive times over fences and hurdles, despite some "horrifying mistakes." Entered in the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1959, he was leading the race until the last fence, where he fell in the path of Linwell, who was making his run for home; the Irish Roddy Owen won that race. The following season Pas Seul started off poorly, losing all of his races prior to the Gold Cup, but won it in a spectacular run for home after the last fence, where his speed and staying power put him ahead of the game Lochroe. Through mistakes in his Cheltenham Gold Cup run in 1961, he came in second to the brilliantly-ridden Saffron Tartan; he did, however, win the Whitbread Gold Cup that year, giving 21 lb. to Nicolaus Silver, that year's Grand National winner. In 1962, coming off an infection, he was eased to fifth in the Cheltenham Gold Cup race, and later that season broke down, age 9, and was rested from racing for over a year. He was brought back in 1964, winning a race at Kempton, but placed a sad third to the new jumping stars Arkle and Mill House in that year's Cheltenham Gold Cup. He was half-brother to a previous Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, Gay Donald (1955 winner, by Gaylight). Their dam, by a son of Blandford, had a significant amount of staying blood in her female line, with Prunus, Teddy, William the Third, and Rabelais all within 3 generations. Pas Seul's grandsire, Fairfax, also got 1951 Grand National winner Nickel Coin. |
