Zeus Forlonge
We couldn’t be more excited to unveil our latest purchase from France, Zeus Forlonge. A four year old, he is from an exceptional family and has the physique to suggest he can develop a high-class chaser in time.
He’s also the first Pimlico horse to go into training with Olly Murphy, who has finished fifth in each of the past two Trainers’ Championships and been second to Dan Skelton on both occasions based on number of winners.
Olly has built up a fantastic yard and is looking forward to the season ahead with his strongest team to date. We’re delighted to have a horse in training with him for the first time and you can see further details below.
‘Second in Auteuil. A four-year-old son of one of the most exciting sires in France in recent years. Half-brother to five winners, including a top-notch Grade 1 winner. He ticks every box!’
Zeus Forlonge is a big, scopey four year old at the very beginning of what we hope will be a big career!
He has run just six times to date, finishing a close fourth behind some useful rivals on heavy ground in Moulins in December, and ran his best race to date when runner-up at Auteuil last week, when conceding 9lbs to the winner.
As you’ll see from the photo above, he is a fine individual, but will undoubtedly improve for a month at grass and, in short, there should be a great deal of improvement to come. He is the classic type that we have done well with from France and the feedback we have had on him has been very good indeed.
THE PEDIGREE
This part is equally exciting! Zeus Forlonge’s half-brother Asterion Forlonge made his debut under rules as a five year old, but went on to win a Grade 1 over hurdles at the Dublin Racing Festival in phenomenal style just two starts later. He was runner-up on three occasions in the Grade 1 Champion Stayers’ Hurdle at the Punchestown Festival and his six other career wins included Graded success over hurdles and fences.
Another half-brother, Beau Du Brizais, took seven runs to get off the mark, but proved highly progressive with time and recorded a Racing Post Rating of 140 when scoring impressively at Kempton Park.
There aren’t many better damsires around than Turgeon (Allaho, Politologue, The New One etc.) and sire Nirvana Du Berlais’ progeny continue to really impress on the track, headed by Grade 1 winners Lulamba and Leader Sport.
THE PLAN
Zeus Forlonge is due to arrive in the UK on Friday and will head straight to Lambourn for a break with pre-trainers Chris and Claire Bonner, who do a fantastic job.
He’ll likely come into training in mid-July, with a view to heading over to Olly’s yard in September ahead of an October start on the racecourse.
As he is still a maiden, we have so many options with him, but at this stage it is very tempting to go novice handicap chasing with the four-year-old allowance, and we are sure he will prove to be very well-handicapped. We could then revert to a season novice hurdling in due course, but plans are fluid!
Olly Murphy
Based at Warren Chase Stables in Warwickshire, Olly Murphy has rapidly established himself as one of the most successful young trainers in the UK.
The second winning-most trainer in each of the past two seasons, he trained a career-high 144 winners in the 2025/26 campaign. A multiple Grade 1-winning trainer, Olly has Champion Jockey Sean Bowen to call on and we are delighted to have a horse in training with Olly and the team for the first time in 2026/27.
