Confidence Behind ‘The Next Sottsass’ Ahead of French Derby

Jean-Claude Rouget is not prone to hyperbole so, when the decorated French handler compared the unexposed Al Hakeem (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) to his only G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) earlier this week, some people did a double take.

Not Benoit Jeffroy, who manages Haras de Bouquetot on behalf of the Al Shaqab operation. Jeffroy has long been aware of the standing in which the multiple Classic-winning trainer has held Al Hakeem and, when the colt won the Listed Prix de Suresnes at Chantilly on Tuesday, he wasn't one bit surprised that Rouget told the French press that 'he reminds me a lot of Sottsass'.

“Jean-Claude is a straight-talking man and he says what he thinks. It was no surprise to us to hear what he said about Al Hakeem because he always told us that the horse was a colt with a lot of ability, he just needed to show it on the track,” Jeffroy explained.

High praise indeed for a horse who has graced the track just four times, winning three of those starts, with Tuesday's Chantilly victory a personal best by some way.

However, Jeffroy is predicting that Rouget's bold comparison between Sottsass and Al Hakeem can become evident to everyone when the highly progressive colt tackles the G1 Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly on June 5.

“Who knows, maybe after the French Derby we can really start comparing him to Sottsass, let's wait and see,” he said.

“He is a great physical and, the fact that he showed what he could do at Chantilly the other day is very exciting with a view towards the French Derby.”

Jeffroy added, “There are a lot of similarities between Al Hakeem and Sottsass. They are by the same sire and have the same broodmare sire in Galileo (Ire).

“But the way this horse has been training, that's what reminds Jean-Claude most of Sottsass, as his work has been very good.

“Even as a 2-year-old, Jean Claude said that this might be the next Sottsass, the way he was training and behaving at home. Let's hope he is.”

It is that Siyouni cross with Galileo mares that not only produced one high-class colt in Sottsass but also St Mark's Basilica (Ire), hailed by Aidan O'Brien as 'possibly the best horse we've ever had at Ballydoyle,' after he scooped the prize for Horse of the Year at the 31st annual Cartier Racing Awards.

It may well be written in the stars for Al Hakeem but the comparables to Sottsass don't end with his pedigree. His dam, Jadhaba (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who showed classy form for Rouget before her career was cut short after she suffered a setback, was purchased by Al Shaqab for €620,000 at Arqana in 2014 from Ecurie des Monceaux, who also produced Sottsass.

“Jadhaba is a Galileo mare and, when it came to mating her, we felt that she needed a bit of speed, which is why we went to Siyouni,” he said.

“We thought the cross might work well and, not long afterwards, along came Sottsass and St Mark's Basilica, on the exact same cross. It just made a lot of sense.

“Galileo (Ire) crossed with Danehill has worked really well, as has Galileo and Pivotal, and she has got both. Hopefully Al Hakeem can be the third top-class colt from this cross.”

He added, “Jadhaba was in training with Jean-Claude as well. She was highly regarded and won twice as a 2-year-old and, after finishing third in a Group 3 on her only start at three, she developed a little issue so we had to stop. But she seems to have passed on a lot of her ability.”

If Al Hakeem can come good on Rouget's praise, it will stand the Al Shaqab operation in good stead for the future as she has a Siyouni filly at foot and is back in foal to the sire.

“Her first colt, Dahiya (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), won for Andre Fabre and Al Hakeem is only her second produce,” said Jeffroy of the broodmare.

“She also has a lovely Kingman (GB) filly in training with Jean-Claude, a very good looking Siyouni filly foal at foot and she is back in foal to Siyouni, so she could be an exciting young mare for us. She also has a Shalaa (Ire) yearling filly that is very similar to Jadhaba, a nice filly with good depth.

“Sheikh Joaan al Thani deserves it. He is passionate about the game and has invested a lot of money into it. He deserves to have bred a good one as a reward for all his investment.”

New dreams abound for a team that will forever be associated with Treve (Fr) (Motivator {GB}), who carried the colours of Al Shaqab Racing en route to recording back-to-back Arcs in 2014.

Given Al Hakeem is being compared to another Arc winner in Sottsass, it seems fitting to ask if the mind has been allowed to wander as far as the great race on Oct. 1.

“No, step by step,” Jeffroy laughed. “The Arc is an important race and of course it's in the back of our minds but let's take it race by race and hopefully–hopefully it takes him one year less than it did for Sottsass!”

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Mating Plans: Haras de Castillon

Benoit Jeffroy's Haras de Castillon, a burgeoning force on the French racing and bloodstock scenes, burst into international prominence in December when it consigned the Group 1-winning Grand Glory (Ire) (Olympic Glory {Ire}) at the Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale, where she sold for €2.5-million. The quickly growing Castillon has only been in existence under its current guise since 2015, but the Jeffroy family has a history of breeding quality racehorses from their SCEA des Prairies, with just one recent example being Zelda (Fr) (Zelzal {Fr}), a listed winner last year at two bred by Castillon and SCEA des Prairies and raced by the Jeffroys in partnership with basketball star Tony Parker. Jeffroy is assisted at Castillon by Amelie Lemercier-and both also work at Sheikh Joaan's Haras de Bouquetot-and Jeffroy and Lemercier shared details of Castillon's 2022 mating plans.

TEXALOULA (FR) (m, 18, Kendor {Fr}-Texalouna {Fr}, by Kaldoun {Fr}), visits Sea The Moon (Ger)
Texaloula is the dam of Dubai Group 2 winner Frankyfourfingers (Fr) (Sunday Break {Jpn}). She is also the second dam of G3 Prix de Psyche winner and €1.2-million Arc sale topper Penja (Fr) (Camelot {GB}) and listed winners Taos (Fr) (Toronado {Ire}) and Texas (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) through two of her daughters. “Texaloula will visit Sea The Moon, a proven sire at good value, and we hope to have another filly,” said Castillon's Jeffroy.

TEXALOVA (GB) (m, 8, Dream Ahead-Texaloula {Fr}, by Kendor {Fr}), visits Wooded (Fr)
Texalova is an unraced daughter of Texaloula and is the dam of last year's listed-winning 2-year-old Texas. Texalova is currently in foal to Mehmas (Ire) and visits G1 Prix de l'Abbaye winner Wooded in his second season this year. “Wooded is by Wootton Bassett so we will try to breed on the same line to get a three-quarter sibling to Texas,” Jeffroy said. “Wooded was a talented sprinter and I believe he has a big chance to make it.”

JUST WITH YOU (IRE) (m, 10, Sunday Break {Jpn}-Texaloula {Fr}, by Kendor {Fr}), visits Zelzal (Fr)
Just With You, a daughter of Texaloula and a half-sister to Texalova, is the dam of Taos and Penja. “Just With You is probably our best mare,” said Jeffroy. “She has a beautiful Wootton Bassett yearling filly and she is in foal to Siyouni. She will visit Zelzal. We are big supporters of Zelzal, having bred Zelda and having invested into him. We will support him strongly again this year with eight mares.”

AWE STRUCK (GB) (m, 12, Rail Link {GB}-Aspiring Diva, by Distant View), visits Victor Ludorum (Fr)
Awe Struck is the dam of German Group 3 winner and GI Canadian International second Alounak (Fr) (Camelot {GB}) and is barren this year. “Awe Struck will be bred to Victor Ludorum, who should bring her some precocity and speed,” Jeffroy said. “He is from a great stallion family and had a terrific turn of foot as a 2-year-old.”

GALILEO'S MOON (IRE) (m, 11, Galileo {Ire}-Adoration, by Honor Grades), visits Toronado (Fr)
Galileo's Moon is a daughter of Breeders' Cup winner Adoration who was purchased for $37,000 at Keeneland November in 2018. Galileo's Moon is in foal to Blue Point and visits Toronado. “I think Toronado is the best value stallion on the French roster,” Jeffroy said. “I have done the same cross with a filly named Jouza and she is a very promising filly, a winner on her second start as a 2-year-old last year.”

NEKO (FR) (m, 9, Dansili {GB}-Epopee {Ire}, by Sadler's Wells), visits Zelzal (Fr)
Neko is the dam of the listed-winning and G2 Prix Eugene Adam second Caprice Des Dieux (Fr) (Declaration Of War), and her second foal, the 3-year-old Gemmyo (Fr) (Shalaa {Ire}), is a winner. She has a 2-year-old colt by Wootton Bassett and is in foal to Hello Youmzain. “She has got the walk but she needs some strength,” Jeffroy said. “Zelzal will inject some speed and strength.”

SPACE ANGEL (FR) (m, 4, Shalaa {Ire}-Space Quest {GB}, by Rainbow Quest), visits Ten Sovereigns (Ire)
A maiden mare from the family of Enable (GB) and Flintshire (GB) who ran three times last year, Space Angel will be bred to Ten Sovereigns for her first mating. “Space Angel showed a lot of potential in the mornings but was too keen in the afternoons,” Jeffroy said. “We have four nice foals on the farms by him [Ten Sovereigns], and I liked what I saw at the sales as well.”

SUNDAZE (FR) (m, 4, Shalaa {Ire}-Tropical Mark {GB}, by Mark Of Esteem {Ire}), visits Bated Breath (GB)
Sundaze is an unraced half-sister to the Group 1-placed Danza Cavallo (Fr) (Sunday Break {Jpn}), herself now the dam of Group 3 winner Cheshire Academy (Fr) (Flintshire {GB}). She visits Bated Breath, like Flintshire a son of Dansili, for her first covering.

ARLETTA (FR) (m, 4, Lethal Force {Ire}-Milena's Dream {Ire}, by Authorized {Ire}), visits Almanzor (Fr)
Arletta is a half-sister to GI EP Taylor S. winner Etoile (Fr) who was bought for €50,000 at Arqana in December in foal to Sottsass (Fr), a son of Etoile's sire Siyouni (Fr). She visits Almanzor in 2022.

AMARA (FR) (m, 4, Olympic Glory {Ire}-Lunaba {Fr}, by Anabaa), visits Hello Youmzain (Fr)
Amara is a half-sister to the dam of the GI Garden City S. winner Alterite (Fr) (Literato {Fr}) as well as the dual stakes-producer Dianaba (Fr) (Diktat {GB}). “She is from a great Louviere family,” said Jeffroy. “All her sisters who have been average race mares have been good producers including one who gave Group 1 winner Alterite. Amara has size and scope. She lacks strength behind so we will breed her to Hello Youmzain, who has plenty of speed and great, powerful conformation.”

RESTLESS (FR) (m, 6, Le Havre {Ire}-Reine Zao {Fr}, by Alzao), visits Romanised (Ire)
Restless is a half-sister to GI EP Taylor S. winner Reggane (GB) (Red Ransom) as well as to the dam of last year's G3 Prix des Reservoirs victress Rosacea (Ire) (Soldier Hollow {GB}). “She gave us a colt by Hello Youmzain as her first foal and will visit Romanised,” said Jeffroy. “We have five foals on the ground by him and I like them already.”

LEMON TWIST (IRE) (m, 14, Marju {Ire}-Lia {Ire}, by Desert King {Ire}), visits Ectot (GB)
Lemon Twist is the dam of G2 Prix de Malleret winner Al Wathna (GB) (Nayef). “Lemon Twist is a medium-sized, compact mare and Ectot is producing progeny with size and scope,” Jeffroy said. “He has started well with his first 3-year-olds.”

COMPLICATION (FR) (m, 4, No Nay Never-Sleek Gold (GB), by Dansili {GB}), visits Mehmas (Ire)
Complication is a winning and listed-placed half-sister to the Castillon-bred Ouraika (Fr) (Zelzal {Fr}), who won the GIII Sweet Life S. at Santa Anita. Another half-sister, Simplicity (Fr) (Casamento {Ire}), is listed-placed. Complication visits Mehmas for her first mating.

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Castillon’s Glory The Result Of Years Of Hard Work

DEAUVILLE, France–When Arqana issued the news, on Oct. 11, that Grand Glory (GB) (Olympic Glory {Ire})—the Group 1 winner raced by a partnership of Albert Frassetto, John d'Amato, and Mike Pietrangelo—would be offered at their upcoming December Breeding Stock sale, there was something curious about the story.

Reading the alert from the TDN, Benoit Jeffroy and the team at Haras de Castillon immediately picked up on it: the story did not list a consignor.

“Amelie [Lemercier] sent me a text, and she said, 'Did you see? She's going to Arqana,'” recalled Jeffroy, sitting in the restaurant above the Arqana sales ring the day after the mare sold for €2.5-million, the second-highest price of the sale. “We read the story, and we had the same thought at the same time.”

Jeffroy continued, “I picked up my phone and called Marco Bozzi [who had originally bought her as a yearling]. We know Marco, because we have been consigning yearlings now for the last four or five years. So I rang him up and I said 'who is consigning the filly?' and he said, 'nobody. The trainer [Gianluca Bietolini], maybe?' I said, 'Well, listen, maybe we can help you guys. There's a little bit of work to do to promote the filly.' He said he would speak to the owners, and they came back and said 'okay, yeah, that's fine.' So we worked together and the result was a €2.5-million filly.”

If that sounds like it was much too easy, it actually was the result of a lifetime of very hard work on Jeffroy's part. The native of Finistere in the Brittany region of Western France grew up on a cattle farm. His father was a cattle breeder and livestock agent, but they also always had a few Thoroughbred mares to breed.

“They bred on a smaller level, but they have been quite successful on that level, and they had a Group 1 winner with Never On Sunday (Fr) (Sunday Break {Jpn}),” he said. “I grew up on the farm around cattle and horses and then one day, it clicked for me when I was 11 or 12, and I really got into pedigrees. I really loved it. Trying to do pedigrees for my parents and my grandfather, I said, 'this is interesting.'”

Jeffroy attended an agricultural school and specialized in their equine program. But he was eager to get out into the world, learn English, and go to work.

When he was 18, he took a job at Cambridge Stud in New Zealand, not speaking a single word of English. He quickly picked up the language, and applied to the Darley (now Godolphin) Flying Start course and was shocked when he was chosen without ever having attended university. He found that a flying start was exactly what the two-year international management course gave him.

“It was my university,” he said. “If you've done the Flying Start, and you've traveled a bit, you can't imagine the number of people you know. And if you have all of that, it's unbelievable. It's a big help at the beginning.”

His first job out of the programme was for Darley, where he spent five years setting up a program to work on nominations from the French marketplace, among other things. But in 2009, his father asked him if he and his brother would take over the farm in Brittany.

“My brother was already a farmer, and so we said, 'okay, we can do that, but we're going to do it our way.' There were nine mares there at the time. We sold six of them.”

In the ensuing twelve years, they have grown the farm in Brittany, SCEA des Prairies, to 300 hectares, where they board around 90 mares for themselves and for clients.

Jeffroy caught the attention of Qatar's Sheikh Joaan, who recruited him to set up Haras de Bouquetot in Normandy for the Qatar Racing operation. Jeffroy continued to run the farm in Brittany with his brother Thomas, as well as Bouquetot, and realized that it would be beneficial to have his own farm in Normandy.

“So I bought Castillon, and I thought, 'it's going to be a small operation,'” he said. “And you know how it goes; you know people, and they ask if you can take their mare. And we can grow, so we grew. We went from 30 hectares to 160 in six years. We are in Livarot, which is about a 40-minute drive from here, and it's a great location. We have access to every kind of facility we need.”

Jeffroy continues to keep all of those balls in the air—dividing his time among the three farms. “We are employed by Sheikh Joaan at Bouquetot, and he gives us the chance to do our own things, so Castillon is my farm,” he said. “Amelie shares her time between the two entities, and that's why she was recruited in 2020. And it's not a question of numbers, it's a question of who is working with you and having a good team, and whether it's Bouquetot or Castillon or Brittany, we have a great team of people on the ground and at the office who do the day-to-day work. I go around to every farm, and I do weekly or monthly strategy meetings, what we want to do for the season. I look at every foal and every yearling every week, but I let the managers do their job. I can't be everywhere, and we have a good team.”

The farm in Brittany continues to turn out top runners, including the exciting 2-year-old filly Zelda (Fr) (Zelzal {Fr}), who they race in partnership with the Franco-American basketball star Tony Parker. Jeffroy learned that Parker was looking to buy a few nice fillies, and his manager, Clement Tropres, was from Jeffroy's hometown of Finistere. After an initial four-hour lunch meeting, Tropres asked him if he had any young fillies who would fit the bill.

“I said, 'yes, there's a yearling filly I really liked. I kept her.' She's a sister to [their homebred] Chez Pierre (Fr) (Mehmas {Ire}), who was unbeaten at that time. She couldn't go to the sales because she had two abscesses behind, so we kept her, but I asked Jean-Claude Rouget if she was worth what I thought. Jean-Claude said, 'She's really good,' so we did a deal and Tony came in. And we've been lucky.”

Maybe never as lucky as they were on Saturday at Arqana. “It was very exciting,” said Jeffroy. “It's our first really big mare that we had to consign and I think we were already thinking it would be a good idea to try to promote better drafts in December in Arqana.”

Castillon is part of a wave of new younger consignors popping up in France, and they watched with interest as Sumbe topped the sale this week with their first-ever consignment.

“We thought there was an opportunity in France to do better,” he said.” We see what is happening in America, and in France, there is this potential. What Sumbe has done is great. We're pretty much thinking the same things at the same time, and it worked out pretty well. We're just starting at Castillon. It's pretty new. We're trying to do better as consignors of stock at the December sale.”

For Castillon, who had already started to make a name for itself in a more local marketplace, having consigned a V2 Yearling sales topper, it was a chance to break into the international spotlight in a big way.

“I think a lot of people now will probably recognize Castillon,” said Jeffroy. “'Oh, yeah, those are the guys who sold Grand Glory.' It's a big help, and it's a good promotion for us. And I'm so happy it went so well for the connections, who are great, great people. We knew Marco, but the owners had no idea who we were. We are a new, young consignor. But they trusted us, and I think we did a great job, so I hope they are happy. Happy team, happy clients.”

And what's the ultimate goal? The likeable 36-year-old struggles with the answer. “To win the Arc? With a homebred from Brittany? I don't know. I'm not a guy who aims for things. I just go with the flow. I just keep working. I have always worked, since I was a kid. And at the end of the day, you have to thank everybody who works so hard for you every day, because Castillon is not only me. There are a lot of people behind it.

“I just take it year by year, we try to improve, have happy clients, that's the most important thing, probably. There's no great aim, really. Should I want a bigger farm? I don't know. I just go like it goes, and see.”

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Amelie Lemercier Joins Haras de Bouquetot

Recent Godolphin Flying Start graduate Amelie Lemercier has been appointed to the role of business development at Al Shaqab’s Haras de Bouquetot. Previously a marketing assistant for His Highness The Aga Khan’s Studs, Lemercier has also worked for the Wertheimer brothers, Coolmore, Primus, as well as Graham Motion and Elite Sales in America and Newgate and Star Thoroughbreds Down Under. She will be heavily involved in stallion nominations, sales and marketing at Bouquetot.

“We’re delighted to welcome Amelie as her dynamism, her skills and her wealth of recent international experiences will be a strong addition to the Bouquetot commercial team,” said Haras de Bouquetot Stud Manager Benoit Jeffroy.

Added Lemercier, who is also a member of the steering committee of French Thoroughbred charity Au-Dela Des Pistes, “In a few years’ time only, Haras de Bouquetot has established itself as one of the largest stallions operation in France. Having already had the opportunity to collaborate with the Bouquetot and extended Al Shaqab team members during the Flying Start course, I am looking forward to be working within this operation along with people I admire for their experience and involvement within the industry.”

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