A new page is being turned. Love You 1'10" (Coktail Jet) will no longer be collecting, at least not publicly.
Now in his twenty-fifth year, he retires with three titles as best French stallion and four others in Sweden, and even in Europe. It could even be said that his influence was worldwide. Following in the footsteps of his father, Coktail Jet, and as a prelude to Ready Cash, he was the architect of the internationalization of the French trotter.
Among our top stallions, the 2023 season will have been one of disappearances and retirements. After the death of Ready Cash and Goetmals Wood, Love You, who is still with us but whose activity as a stallion will be reduced to a minimum, will be retiring from the public eye.
Haras des Trotteurs is fortunate to still have LOVE YOU available in Australia for this season and is taking expressions of interest for the 2024 season.
The work of one man
Before being a top-class sire, Love You was a champion on the racetrack, more than a millionaire in euros - his total winnings amount to €1,416,537 -, more often placed than won at Group 1 level, but with remarkable consistency and regularity. He is the work of one man, Jean-Pierre Dubois, who bred, trained and drove him (with two exceptions, in fifty- five outings from 2 to 6 years old).
On his subject, the emeritus professional told our colleague Jacques Pauc: "Love You wasn't really a precocious horse, even if he was brave and a great trotter. That's why I took it easy on him as a 2-year-old, running him around a bit, which wasn't necessarily a good thing. He was more of a speed horse, who knew how to start if you wanted to get ahead. In fact, perhaps I went too far with him... His weak point was that he suffered from a knee."
A winner in the provinces as a 2-year-old, Love You then quickly made his way to Vincennes, where as a 3-year-old he soon established himself among the elite. Victorious in January, then in February, he knocked on the door of the semi-classics, once spring had come, and began to line up victories there. He missed out, however, on the Group 1 Criterium des 3 Ans and had to wait until the following year to win at classic level, in the Group 1 Criterium Continental, although Lazio du Bourg, who had been in his way, was demoted.
This would be his only Group 1 success, a level at which he would nevertheless place six times throughout his career, notably as runner-up to his elder, Jag de Bellouet, in the Prix René Ballière, and as third, to the same horse and to Késaco Phédo, in the Prix de l'Atlantique, a placing which was also his in the UET Grand Prix and in the Prix de Sélection. Love You went on to win an impressive fteen Group 2s, including a memorable Prix des Ducs de Normandie at Caen, where he easily defeated the best gelding of the day in Général du Lupin. He retired from racing in the autumn of his 6th birthday, with a record of twenty-two wins, including seventeen in Group races, and a record of 1'10''2, set when second over the 2,100 metres, mobile start, in the Prix René Ballière.
Award-winning all over the world
Love You became a kind of universal stallion, making a major contribution to the expansion of French trotting blood outside France, even more so than his sire. His reputation reached as far as Oceania and the United States, where his offspring are particularly appreciated, as they correspond to the criteria in force: cold horses with no problems.
On two occasions, in 2012 and 2013, Love You was even the number one stallion in the world in terms of earnings, while, as already mentioned, he was three times top of the list of sires of winners in France, in 2012, 2013 and 2015, four times in Sweden, in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, and, as an extension, four times in Europe, in 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2015.
Evocative figures
In France, Love You has produced two Prix d'Amérique winners, Royal Dream 1'10" and Bélina Josselyn 1'10", both of whom have added the Prix de France to their list of honours and, in the case of the mare, the Prix de Paris, twice what's more. Her other Group 1 winners on home soil are Quaker Jet 1'09'', Qualita Bourbon 1'12'', Queen's Glory 1'10'', Ulysse 1'11'' m., Village Mystic 1'10'', Boléro Love 1'10'', Booster Winner 1'10'', Galius 1'09'', Just Love You 1'10''...
The richest of his French offspring is Bélina Josselyn, with €2.686 million in earnings. Among his foreign offspring, it is also a Haras du Bois-Josselyn pupil who holds the prize, namely Uza Josselyn 1'08", born of a cross outside the French trotting studbook, who amassed €1.299 million, slightly more than the Swedish winner of the Elitloppet, Nahar 1'09" (€1.260 million). Sanity 1'12'' is another euro millionaire (1.088 million), as are the aforementioned Quaker Jet (1.758 million), Royal Dream (1.591 million) and Qualita Bourbon (1.538 million). To date, according to his French statistics, 1,000 of Love You's 1,478 offspring, including current yearlings and foals, have qualified and the total earnings of his sons and daughters amount to €71,677,255, giving an average earnings per offspring of €48,496 and per qualified offspring of €71,677. These figures speak for themselves. .
The success of a perfect match with Ready Cash
Love You's progeny are not yet extinct, as he has 117 offspring in 2022 and 2023, while 80 broodmares visited him this spring. And then, above all, there are his sons, who continue the work, starting with Booster Winner and Royal Dream, who are Ready Cash's current runners-up in the 2023 list of sires of winners, of which he himself is fifth at the time of writing. It goes without saying that his success as a sire of dams is another, and by no means the least, of his contributions. In this respect, Ready Cash in particular is a perfect match, epitomised by the two phenomena of the past decade, Bold Eagle 1'08'' and Face Time Bourbon 1'09'', both illustrating the crossing of one with a daughter of the other.
