Hand In Glove xx

Born 1978 - died 2003 172 cm Brown

One of the most successful Thoroughbred sires of performance horses of modern times – Hand In Glove – died at the age of 25.
Hand In Glove's sire, Best Turn stood at Calumet Farm, Lexington, for a fee of $40,000. Aside from his racewinners, Best Turn also sired the international jumper, MVP (with Debbie Shaffner) and a dressage winner, Shining Moment. Best Turn is out of Sweet Clementine by Swaps, a sire of numerous jumpers, and bred from the crossing of two important jumping stallions, Khaled and Beau Pere.
Hand In Glove's dam, Miss Betty was a race winner at the age of two, and is a daughter of the champion racehorse, Buckpasser who was famous as a sire for breeding hores with great temperament and soundness.
Miss Betty bred several race winners including the stallions, Red Attack (a Group 1 winner) and Tom Buck. Exit Five, a full sister to Hand In Glove, was a successful racehorse. Miss Betty is also a three quarter sister to Settlement Bay, the stallion who was exported to Chile where he sired French Buffet, the showjumping champion of Chile, and now standing at the VDL stud in Holland.
Hand in Glove had an extraordinary career: placing on the racetrack as a two year old, he then won dressage classes up to Prix St Georges, before he commenced a showjumping career at the age of 10!
He was purchased by the French equestrian journalist, and breeder, Bernard le Courtois who had been impressed by Hand In Glove’s remarkable performances in a series of Grand Prix showjumping events, including a 7th place in the $100,000 Oaks World Cup.
Hand In Glove moved to the Brullemail Stud (also home to such luminaries as Almé, Laudanum and Boran) in France and commenced his French breeding career in 1992.
In 1997 his first crop were four year olds, and took Hand In Glove to the number one in the sire’s rankings for that group. In 2002 he was proclaimed the leading sire of eventers in France and joined the ranks of the all time great eventing stallions on the WBFSH standings.
His eventing progeny include Free Style (a bronze medallist at the 2002 World Championships for 7 year olds, 2002 French National Champion and team silver medallist at the Jerez WEG), Gypsy de Volsin, Hippolyte du Livet, Hiawatha Borealise, Harvest du Tilliard, and numerous others.
In showjumping his progeny include Festival de River, Frisco Mail and Hogger Mail, the French 6 year old champion in 2001.
During his lifetime, Hand in Glove was approved as a stallion by 15 different studbooks, and he was used by breeders in Germany, Argentina, Belgium, Brasil, Spain, Great Britain, Holland, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Sweden, Switzerland, USA etc etc.
His two sons, Hogger Mail (out of an Almé mare) and Jaguar Mail (out of a mare by Laudanum) continue his line and are already producing exciting jumping horses.
According to Bernard Le Courtois, the man who brought Hand In Glove to Europe,
“He produced only dark bay, some grey, never chestnut. He produced very nice movers, with his power. He needed mares that were not too big, because he could produce very tall very big progeny. I think Hand In Glove was perfect with a medium sized Selle Français mares.”