The air may be full of Cheltenham Festival chatter but, in Rathasker Stud at least, there is only one race on everyone's lips these days: the Derby. It's not hard to understand why. Pierre Bonnard, the ante-post favourite for the Epsom Classic at odds of 6-1, was bred by Maurice Burns, who jokes that he would love to “level the score” with his brother Seamus, breeder of 2008 Derby hero New Approach.Rathasker Stud is home to the speed influence stallion Bungle Inthejungle along with Coulsty and more recently Aclaim, himself a Classic-producer courtesy of Cachet, the 1,000 Guineas winner in 2022. By and large, the farm produces tough and hardy racehorses who have flown the flag on the international stage. But an Epsom Derby winner? This would represent something different for Rathasker and Burns admits to be feeling the excitement. “My brother Seamus has bragging rights over me because he bred New Approach so it would be great to level the score,” Burns jokes about the prospects of becoming a Derby-winning breeder this year, before adding, “but there is an awful lot of water to run under the bridge before then.”So, how has Burns found himself in this position in the first place? It all started when, along with his wife Madeline, the stallion master rocked over to the December Mares Sale at Tattersalls in search of some new blood. Normandie Stud's Group 1 Nassau Stakes heroine Sultanina (New Approach), who was 12 years of age at the time and described by Burns to be “at a bit of a crossroads” given she had only produced one winner at that point, was high on the list. She was sold in foal to Camelot and little did we know then what we know now. Burns recalled, “When you go to the sales to buy mares, foals or yearlings, sometimes it will go right and sometimes it will go wrong but Sultanina went right. She was a mare at a crossroads when we bought her. She had only one winner but she did have a couple of horses to run for her. The people [Normandie Stud] who bred her and owned her were reducing their numbers and that's how we came to buy her. They kept a couple of daughters in the hope that something would happen but put Sultanina in the sale. Madeline and I looked at a bunch of mares and followed Sultanina into the ring. It all just fell into place.”He added, “She was in foal to Camelot. We bred a couple of horses by Camelot and got well paid for them so we like his stock. She is also a Nassau Stakes winner and is a New Approach mare as well. But, above all else, it all came down to price and she came in at 78,000gns, which we felt was a fair price.” Pierre Bonnard is said to have been everything you'd want in a foal by Burns, who opted to offer the future Group 1 winner and leading Derby contender at the Goffs November Foal Sale. It was Timmy Hyde of Camas Park Stud who struck the winning bid of €80,000, meaning Burns had effectively recouped his investment in the mare. But better still was to come. Camas Park Stud turned that initial outlay into €280,000 at the following year's Goffs Orby Sale to Coolmore. Meanwhile, Burns netted himself a cool €200,000 to Amo Racing for a Coulsty filly out of the mare at Goffs last year as well. He said, “Camas Park Stud bought him off us as a foal and I can remember going down to look at the horse as a yearling and, the fella who was on the shank told me, 'this horse will be going to Ballydoyle'. That was before he even went into the ring. They all loved him and they were right. They paid €280,000 and they buy a lot of horses for much more than that who don't turn out half as good. The Coolmore team were right on the button with Pierre Bonnard to be fair to them. But he was always a very nice horse. As a foal, he had a very good frame and very good action. He's just a very nice horse. We debated about selling him as a foal or a yearling but we brought him to the foal sales and said that if he wasn't making enough money we'd bring him back as a yearling. He sold for €80,000 so we recouped our investment on the mare. We are a commercial operation.”He added, “We were very happy when Pierre Bonnard won at Dundalk because it came just before the catalogue was printed for the Goffs November Foal Sale. That was a very nice update for the filly but then a couple of days later the sister, Crepe Suzette (Saxon Warrior), was placed in a Listed race. So at this point we are extremely happy. By the time we got to Goffs, Crepe Suzette had placed in a Group 2 race and Pierre Bonnard was entered in a couple of Group 1s. A lot of people were not aware of the update but we had to tell them. Word got around that she was a nice filly and obviously there was the added attraction with the updates. She attracted what I call the elite buyers coming around to look at her and that was it. In this game, you are always very hopeful that this or that will happen but it rarely comes off. For it to come off is fantastic.”Sultanina is due any day now to Bungle Inthejungle. After that, the world is her oyster. Yet, Burns could not be drawn on firming up plans as to what stallion his star mare would visit this year. He said, “We probably cover 75 per cent of our mares at Rathasker by our own stallions so she is in foal to Bungle Inthejungle and is due to foal in the next week or 10 days. After that, we haven't decided who she will visit but a few studs have been onto us. Camelot will have to come under consideration but I am not going to jump the gun. She's the sort of mare where nobody is going to refuse her.”The post How Pierre Bonnard’s Breeder Maurice Burns Could “Level The Score” With Derby Victory appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.