Pharly

Pharly (22 April 1974 – 10 November 2002) was a French Thoroughbred racehorse and sire. He won five of his thirteen races, finished second five times and third once and was rated among the best colts of his generation in France at two and three years of age. As a two-year-old, he won one minor race in his first four starts but then defeated an all-aged field to win the Group One Prix de la Foret. In the following year he added major victories in the Prix Lupin, Prix du Rond Point and Prix du Moulin and finished second in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, Prix d'Ispahan and Prix de la Foret. After his retirement from racing he had some success as a breeding stallion in both France and England. He died in 2002 at the age of twenty-eight.

Background

Pharly was a dark-coated chestnut horse with no white markings bred in France by Jean-Paul Van Gysel. He was from the first crop of foals sired by Lyphard, an American-bred stallion who raced in France, winning the Prix Jacques le Marois and Prix de la Foret in 1972. Lyphard went on to become a very successful breeding stallion in both Europe and North America, siring Three Troikas, Dancing Brave and Manila. Pharly's dam Comely, was close to top-class as a racehorse (she finished second in the Prix Chloe, and became a very successful broodmare: she had previously produced Comeram the runner-up in Irish 2000 Guineas and went on to produce the Poule d'Essai des Poulains winner Melyno.