Alezane was  foaled at a stud called Haras d'Etreham in Calvados in France. She was registered in the Stud Book Francais as Always Special and was re-registered with Wetherbys when she came to England at  18 months old to race as a 2 yr old.

We know nothing about her owners during her racing years, but luckily both her trainers, Barry Hills (flat) and Martin Pipe (National Hunt) remembered her and let us have what information they could. The photo of her jumping (left) came from Martin Pipe, along with a copy of her entry in the Newmarket December Sales catalogue. Anne Hills remembers her as “that kind chestnut filly”!

When her racing career was over she went to stud and had two filly foals. We have met up with Carol, the lady who had her at stud and who still owned Alli's daughter, Mims. Unfortunately Carol's circumstances changed and Alli was sold on to a riding school. Her name was changed to Styk, (a fairy story princess, not a reference to her weight!) It was from there that we brought her.

And so to her last name change. Not knowing about the fairy princess, I felt her name made her sound like a dried up old twig and it had to go. We decided to use the French word for ‘chestnut'. She nearly got lumbered with ‘maron' until we remembered that maron glace was a chestnut sweet! A quick check in the French put us right.

'alezane, a chestnut coloured mare.'