La Tendresse

La Tendresse was a bay filly with no white markings bred in Britain by the Irish breeder Frank Tuthill. Her sire, Grey Sovereign, a son of Nasrullah, won the Richmond Stakes in 1950 before becoming a successful breeding stallion. Her dam, Isetta, never won a race, but was a good broodmare who went on to produce the Coronation Cup winner I Say.[1]

La Tendresse was brought back to Europe and in September 1960 she was offered for sale at Doncaster where she was bought for 4,800 guineas by the Irish trainer Paddy Prendergast, acting on behalf of Pansy Parker Poe.[2] Prendergast, who had built a reputation for handling precocious juveniles such as Windy City and Floribunda,[3] trained the filly at his stables at the Curragh, County Kildare.

Until the British, Irish and French handicappers collaborated to produce the first International Classification in 1977, each country produced its own ratings of the best two-year-olds. In the British Free Handicap for 1961, La Tendresse was the top-rated two-year-old of either sex, four pounds clear of her stable companion Display and six ahead of the leading colt Miralgo. The independent Timeform organisation assigned La Tendresse a figure of 135, making the highest rated European two-year-old of either sex.[9]

In their book A Century of Champions, based on a modified version of the Timeform system, John Randall and Tony Morris rated La Tendresse the sixth best British or Irish-trained two-year-old filly of the 20th century.[7]

La Tendresse was retired from racing to become a broodmare. Her most notable offspring was Prince Tenderfoot,[10] a colt sired by Blue Prince who won the Coventry Stakes in 1969 and became a successful sire of winners. La Tendresse died at the age of thirteen in 1972.[7]