Owned by White Birch Farm, under the auspices of American industrialist Peter Brant, in whose two-tone green colours he ran, and trained by Jean-Claude Rouget in Pau, southwest France, Sottsass won six of his twelve races between August, 2018 and October, 2020; all told, he collected £2,976,627 in prize money.
A son of the highly successful young sire Siyouni, Sottsass ran twice as a juvenile, running on well to win his maiden, over a mile, at Clairefontaine in October, 2018, on his second start. He was beaten, albeit not far, on his first foray into Pattern company, in the Group Three Prix la Force, over nine furlongs, at Longchamp on his three-year-old debut the following April. However, stepped up to a mile-and-a-quarter, and beyond, he won his next three starts, including a ready, two-length victory over Persian King in the Group One Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly in June. He rounded off his three-year-old campaign with a highly creditable third, beat 1¾ lengths and the same, behind Waldgeist and Enable in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp in October.
Sottsass won just two of his five starts as a four-year-old, but both his victories came at Group One level. After being turned over, at odds-on, in the Group Two Prix d’Harcourt at Longchamp on his reappearance in May, reversed the Longchamp form with Shaman, Way To Paris and Simona when winning the Prix Ganay at Chantilly the following month. After two subsequent defeats over a mile-and-a-quarter, he made his second attempt at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and, having taken the lead a furlong from home, was driven out to win by a neck. Shortly afterwards, at tilt the Breeders’ Cup Turf at Keeneland, Kentucky was mooted, but later Peter Brant announced that Sottsass would not race again and, instead, be retired to Coolmore Stud in Fethard, Co. Tipperary while he still looked ‘fine like a shiny penny’.