France's racing and breeding community is in mourning following the passing of Larissa Kneip, breeder, trainer, sales consignor, and the owner of Haras de Saint Arnoult, who died suddenly at home on Tuesday. She was 51.
Originally from Luxembourg, Kneip gave up a career in broadcast journalism to pursue a life with horses, settling near the town of Exmes, where she ran her picturesque Normandy farm in tirelessly successful fashion while wearing a number of different hats.
Active in all divisions of the sales market, from foals to breezers, she also stood a roster of five stallions, including Elarqam (GB), the Group 2-winning son of Frankel (GB) and Attraction (GB). A licensed trainer and pre-trainer, she was represented by her final winner, Charlotte Tagada (Fr), at Chantilly on May 16, while Haras de Saint Arnoult sold a draft of eight 2-year-olds at last week's BBAG Breeze-up Sale in Baden-Baden.
Multi-lingual and ever the enthusiast on all facets of the Thoroughbred, Kneip explained her various roles in an interview in TDN in 2020.
“Haras de Saint Arnoult is a bit of peculiar stud,” she said. “We don't really specialise in one particular thing but we are really trying to produce racehorses and we are producing them right from the start. What do you need to breed a horse? A mare and a stallion: well, we've got mares and we've got stallions. What do you do with the foals? You can either send them to the sales as yearlings or to the breeze-up sales as 2-year-olds, which we have also been doing quite successfully, or you can send them racing.
“I always felt that it was a bit frustrating if you had gone through so much pain and effort to raise them and then they leave and it's up to somebody else to do their racing career, so I decided to take out my trainer's licence so I could follow through with the horses myself until they go racing.”
Kneip's fellow Normandy stud farmer Julian Ince of Haras du Logis paid tribute to his close friend.
He said, “Larissa was passionate about her horses, about her people, and about striving for success. She loved the game and set herself many challenges that most of us wouldn't set ourselves. She will be sadly missed as she was one of a kind and she was a really good friend to so many people.”
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