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“How Many Can I Have?” – Breeders Queue Up To Use Galiway

When Sunway (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) wrapped up his two-year-old season with a win in the G1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud, it was both a confirmation that his sire's early success was no fluke, and that his breeder has an uncanny knack at stallion-making.

In 2007, Guy Pariente took a gamble on a horse no one else wanted to stand at stud and built an entire farm around him. Within a few years, Kendargent was one of the most popular stallions in France. So when he came up with another unheralded horse a few years later in Galiway, people said lightning couldn't strike twice.

But after producing Sealiway (Fr)-a Group 1 winner at two and three, and now a popular stallion at stud–Galiway is back with a Classic prospect in his full-brother Sunway (Fr). The siblings are out of the Kendargent mare Kensea (Fr). Pariente, it would appear, is not only a stallion maker, but a stallion breeder as well.

The backstories of both Kendargent and Galiway are similar; Kendargent won two races, was second in the G3 Prix Paul de Moussac, and fourth in the G1 Prix Jean Prat. Galiway also won two races, was twice Group-placed, was fifth in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club, and won a Listed race in his final start at three. There were undoubtedly more than a few eyes rolling when Pariente proclaimed his faith in each of them. Now they're not only working, they're working together.

Galiway was raced by Wertheimer & Frere, and was sidelined by a tendon problem at three. He was within 48 hours of being castrated in order to be brought back to the races as a four-year-old when Pariente stepped in with an offer to buy him and stand him at stud.

“He has the type of profile that Mr. Pariente really likes,” said Sally Ann Grassick, who serves as an international representative for Haras de Colleville. “He doesn't necessarily look for Group winners. He likes a horse with a good pedigree, and his being by Galileo was a real attraction. But he likes horses that have had consistent racing careers, and they don't always have had to have performed at the highest level, but just to have had those positive, promising performances at a certain level. It's the profile that Kendargent had as well. He's not going after those Group 1 horses that every other stallion man might be looking for. But Galiway was on Mr. Pariente's radar from pretty early on in his career.”

Guy Pariente has become a stallion kingmaker | Courtesy Haras de Colleville

Galiway retired to stud in 2016 for an initial fee of €3,000, but after siring eight black-type winners-four at the graded level-his star has risen steadily since. Not that there weren't early doubters.

Grassick said that they did hear the `lightning doesn't strike twice' line early on. “Everybody said that Kendargent was a fluke, was lucky. He was a horse that probably should never have been a stallion. Ninety-nine percent of the farms wouldn't have stood him as a stallion. And only through Mr. Pariente's support of him did he end up being as successful as he has been. He kept buying and sending him mares. And Galiway has been similar. In the early days, Mr. Pariente had these Kendargent mares. He needed a cross that would work with them. And that's why Galiway worked so well. But you can say that he's lucky and you can say that he has the Midas touch and all of those things, but Galiway is the proof. He's come out with another good stallion. He's been so popular and has surpassed what we achieved with Kendargent, which was already unbelievable. But now to have a stallion like Galiway standing here, and the breeders that are supporting him, the mares that are coming to him, it's just gone from strength to strength.”

Kendargent | Zuzanna Lupa

From Galiway's first crop, he not only had a Group 1 winner on the Flat in Sealiway, but one over hurdles as well in Vauban. He's the rare higher-echelon stallion who is equally popular with Flat and National Hunt breeders.

“Sealiway really put Galiway on the map, but the fact that he's backing it up with other horses is now making people sit up and pay attention and take note and want to send him mares,” said Grassick.

His 2024 book is shaping up to be his biggest yet, and is expected to top the 169 mares he covered in 2021 and the 170 he serviced in 2022. Those 2022 foals will hit the track this year, and are from his strongest groups of mares to date.

“We've got some really, really nice mares, but also the support from the breeders,” said Grassick. “You know, we've got the Aga Khan, we've also got the Wertheimers sending mares, and we've outside mares coming from international breeders that have never used our stallions before-top-level breeders. Mr. Pariente is very keen on making him a success internationally. So he feels very strongly about encouraging more foreign breeders to come to France and use Galiway. And so now we have people coming and asking, `how many can I have?' And that's that's a nice problem to have.”

But a horse for the Classics could bring a whole other level of success.

G1 Criterium International Winner Sunway | Scoop-Dyga

“Sunway is a horse that we were always massively excited about,” said Grassick. “But I'll be honest, I never thought he was going to be a true two-year-old. Having seen him as a yearling, I always thought his best was to come as a three-year-old. I was in Doncaster when he was second in the Champagne Stakes last year and I actually messaged Mr. Pariente and said whatever this horse does here is just a bonus, because looking at him next to the other two-year-olds walking around the parade ring, he didn't look the finished article yet. Yet he came out and put up a really good performance that day and then went on and won the Criterium International, so I think this will really be his year.”

Now two-for-four, with that second in the Champagne S., Sunway is being pointed to either the April 7 G3 Prix la Force or the April 14 G3 Prix Fontainebleau at Longchamp. “David Menusier has never hidden what he thinks of this horse. He's called him his Classic hope since halfway through last year. He's just he's a really nice horse and he's just developing and getting stronger and stronger. Mr. Pariente always wanted this to be an international farm. So to then have them performing and racing on the track and having people pay attention and want to come and talk to us about our stallions is is really the end goal for him.”

Kendargent is a sire of sires himself, of course, with Goken (Fr) standing alongside him at Haras de Colleville. In 2023, he was the leading French-based sire of two-year-olds in France by earnings and by percentage of winners to runners (67%). He is the sire of 12 black type horses including Zorken (Fr), a dual Listed-winning two-year-old in 2023, as well as Go Athletico (Fr) and Fang (Fr), both Group 3 winners this year. And of course, he was also owned and bred by Pariente, and stands at Colleville for €15,000.

The fact that pinhookers are coming to France and buying Galiway's foals and then bringing them home to sell at the Irish and English sales is rewarding for the Colleville team, who found primarily French success with Kendargent.

“That's huge for a farm that was started only in 2007,” said Grassick, “and was started by a man who had a horse that he believed in. He bought him to be a racehorse, and he believed in him to be a stallion, and decided to stand him himself when no one else wanted to stand him. So now it's massive for us to have that demand and have people coming, especially to try and buy progeny of Galiway. It really cements what we've done, not just with Kendargent, but now continuing it on with Galiway. It wasn't just potluck. It wasn't a one-trick pony.”

From an initial fee of €3,000 in his first year at stud in 2016, Galiway now commands 10 times that amount.

“I think that the world is his oyster at the moment,” said Grassick. “He's had such success with the crops he's had to date, and it can only get better as he's got bigger crops, but also better quality crops to come. He's got more support than ever before from from really top breeders. For Mr. Pariente, the objective of being a top breeder is huge for him in its own right. But then to be so popular and in demand with all these top breeders, when you've only started your farm in the last 17 years or so, it's a big compliment that all of these breeders going back generations now want to come in and use your stallion. It's a really exciting time to be part of the team with Galiway.”

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Havana Grey To The Fore On Day One Of Goffs February Sale

Commercial weanlings were in demand on day one of the Goffs February Sale as a Havana Grey (GB) colt [lot189] consigned by Kellsgrange Stud led home proceedings at €85,000 to Yeomanstown Stud as turnover dropped 30% compared to last year.

The day one sale-topper is out of the unraced Danehill Dancer (Ire) mare How High The Sky (Ire), who has produced eight winners from 10 foals, including the highly-rated sprinter Up Above (GB) (Bated Breath {GB}).

David O'Callaghan of Yeomanstown Stud commented, “A great model. By a very good stallion and a good dam to back him up. He could come back here next autumn and we are delighted to get him. He could go anywhere.”

One of the big stories to emerge from Wednesday was the excellent trade enjoyed by rookie operators Aisling Noone and Simon Kavanagh of Drumloose Stables. Despite not being in business a full 12 months, the Mullingar-based couple built on some solid results posted in 2023 by selling their colts by Havana Grey (GB) and Galiway (GB) for a combined sum of €114,000.

Such results came after Drumloose Stables secured €95,000 for a son of Blue Bresil (Fr) at last year's Arkle Sale, confirming the theory that Goffs is a lucky place for the pair.

Speaking after selling the Havana Grey weanling colt [Lot 91] to Amy and Con Marnane for €46,000 and the Galiway colt [Lot 201] to Yeomanstown Stud for €68,000, Noone said, “It was a brilliant day and Goffs is becoming very lucky for us. Our operation isn't even up and running 12 months yet. We moved back to Mullingar, where we are based, last April. Since then, everything has gone well and we have got some fantastic clients and friends who are backing us all the way.”

She added, “The horses we had today, they were beautiful. The Galiway was very easy to prepare and is a very athletic horse. He walked very well and the sire was a big help to us. The Galiway and Kendargent (Fr) cross has already produced a Group 1 winner. I'm not sure what Yeomanstown Stud are planning on doing with him but I am assuming we might see him back at a yearling sale in the autumn.

“The Havana Grey has gone to Con Marnane, a very good friend of ours. It is about seven or eight years since I did a season with Con at Maisons-Laffitte in France so it's great for things to come full circle. Hopefully both horses will be lucky for both purchasers.”

Tally-Ho Stud is famous all over the world for its association with fast horses on the level but old habits clearly die hard and the master of the County Westmeath outfit, Tony O'Callaghan, went to €75,000 to secure top-notch jumps prospect by No Risk At All (Fr) [lot 148] from Railstown Stud. No Risk At All needs no introduction as a jumps stallion, being the sire of Allaho (Fr), Epatante (Fr) and more. O'Callaghan signed for the colt alongside Hamish Macauley.

Of the 188 lots offered [down from 216 this day last year], 111 were sold, which represents a clearance rate of just 59%. Turnover dropped from €2,081,750 to €1,452,600 while the average fell 18% to €13,087 and the median stayed the same at €9,000.

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Value Sires Part IV: It’s All Relative

We're at the top end now when it comes to stallion fees, but there is quite a range to those prices, which for this feature is anything above £/€20,000. There is of course a massive difference, certainly when it comes to value, in a stallion standing at £35,000 and one at £350,000. In fact, we have two at that latter fee, which makes Frankel (GB) and Dubawi (Ire), the champion sires of the last two years in Britain and Ireland, the most expensive stallions in the world.

Those two representatives of Juddmonte and Darley respectively live within a mile of each other as the crow flies over the stud farms encircling Newmarket. Add to that mighty pair the names of Kingman (GB) at £125,000 and Baaeed (GB) at £80,000, and you have four of the top ten European stallions by price all within that square mile of excellence.

It's not all about Newmarket, of course, with the Aga Khan Studs standing the most expensive stallion in France, Siyouni (Fr), at €200,000, the same fee commanded by their Sea The Stars (Ire) in Ireland, where he matches Wootton Bassett (GB), who heads the Coolmore roster. The lucky ones among us were those who jumped aboard the Siyouni and Wootton Bassett supporters' buses when those two stallions started out at €7,000 and €6,000 respectively. In bloodstock, as in life, there's a lot to be said for those who have carved out their own lofty niches from humble origins.

Of course, with this level of sire power, one needs a mare of equally high standing, whether on the racecourse or as a producer or both. Many of the resulting offspring are retained to race by major owner-breeders, and those that do make it to the sales ring can be expected to fetch the level of return that could make even these high fees look good value. It's all relative.

Dependable

At a more reachable level for many breeders comes this dependable trio – two we can most certainly call stalwarts and one who stamped his presence on the business with his first few crops.

We discussed Yeomanstown Stud's Dark Angel (Ire) in greater depth in TDN last August. For 2024, he remains at €60,000, which was his fee for the preceding three seasons and down from three years at €85,000 between 2018 and 2020. Admittedly, his yearling sales average, which was in six figures for seven straight seasons, has dipped a little in the last few years and to a certain degree he is perhaps a victim of his own success, with various sons and other younger stallions of a similar profile encroaching on this popular sprinter/miler territory. But he had 77 yearlings sold at an average of £88,637 in 2023 which isn't bad going and, now 19, he was also third in the general sires' table behind Frankel and Dubawi.

From one O'Callaghan family farm to another, we switch to Tally-Ho Stud. At 23, Kodiac (GB) is into veteran territory but he is also at his lowest fee for nine years at €35,000. You pretty much know what you're going to get with him because he's been there, done that, siring plenty of fast colts and fillies and regularly providing the highest number of winners in a season. He hasn't lost his touch, as demonstrated last year by his Group 1-winning son and now stable-mate Good Guess (GB) and the G2 Lowther S. winner Relief Rally (Ire).

Before Good Guess gets a shot at the title, the most credible threat to Kodiac's crown within the Tally-Ho empire comes from Mehmas (Ire), who tore up the first-season sire record books in 2020 and has continued to build on that great start. His European results are backed up by some notable success in America, which should put his sales stock, whether as yearlings or horses in training, on the radar of a wider range of buyers, and at €50,000 in 2024, his fee has come down from last year's high of €60,000.

His two-year-olds of this year were conceived in his first book after that break-out season of 2020, so we can expect the level of of his mates that year to have risen in line with his fee. That is not always a guarantee of increased success but I wouldn't want to bet against Mehmas continuing to be one of the most exciting younger sires in the European ranks. His equable temperament, and that of many of his offspring, appears to be what sets him apart.

Versatile

If you're looking for a stallion with the potential to get you a Classic winner at a mid-level price then the names of Teofilo (Ire) at €30,000, Sea The Moon (Ger) at £32,500, and Galiway (GB) at €30,000 should all be considered.

It would be wrong to compartmentalise Teofilo as a staying stallion, though he is very good at that, as his Melbourne Cup-winning sons Without A Fight (Ire), Twilight Payment (Ire) and Cross Counter (GB) show, not to mention the Ascot Gold Cup winner Subjectivist (GB). But there is much more in Teofilo's playbook than that, and he remains a hugely dependable sire across the distances, and of fillies too, from the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Pleascach (Ire) to Irish St Leger winner Voleuse De Coeurs (Ire). If you also factor in some of his achievements as a broodmare sire – Coroebus (Ire), Mac Swiney (Ire), Cachet (Ire) and Dreamloper (Ire) are among the Group 1 winners in that category – and a case can be made for Teofilo being an elite sire at a much more affordable fee than some in that category.

Sea The Moon has defied the level of commercial acceptability usually granted to winners of the Deutsches Derby and throughout his career to date has posted very consistent sales returns via his yearlings. His fee has remained sensible – starting at £15,000 for the first six seasons, and then rising steadily to £22,500, then £25,000 and to his current high of £32,500. No doubt helped by the fact that he tends to get very good-looking stock, Sea The Moon has a following in both hemispheres despite never having left Lanwades since retiring to stud, and he coasts into 2024 having sired the winners of the equivalents of the Derby and the Oaks in his native Germany, where he is the champion sire.

Climbing up the ranks in France is Galiway, whose two Group 1 winners are the full-brothers Sealiway (Fr), who was also busy last year at Haras de Beaumont, and Classic prospect Sunway (Fr). We can perhaps expect Galiway to make as much of an impact at the Cheltenham Festival as he may do at Chantilly or Epsom, and that has increased his appeal to the National Hunt crowd, with another of his sons, Kenway (Fr), having recently joined Coolagown Stud in Ireland.

But it is the Flat with which we are chiefly concerned here, and Galiway's French yearling results last year – six sold at Arqana in August for an average of €131,667 and 23 in October for a €44,761 average, all from his 2021 fee of €12,000 fee – make him a stallion worthy of closer attention. Since 2021, his price has increased to €30,000.

The Next Step

This year is a critical one for the two young stallions who made the biggest impression with their first-crop runners in 2023. Understandably, both Blue Point (Ire) and Too Darn Hot (GB) have been given fee increases, the former from €35,000 to €60,000 and the latter from £40,000 to £65,000. Getting a mare in to either of these Darley stallions might have been the toughest first challenge for the many breeders who wanted to use them at their higher fees. There is plenty of sales-ring and some racecourse evidence to back up those decisions, and a Group 1-winning three-year-old, preferably a Classic winner, will be required to keep these reputations soaring.

A year ahead of them is Coolmore's Sioux Nation, whose juveniles of this year were conceived at his lowest fee of €10,000. He is now at €27,500 thanks to the exploits of the hugely likeable Brave Emperor (Ire) and Matilda Picotte (Ire) among his 10 Group winners from his two crops of runners to race. Sioux Nation was third in the second-season sires' table last year behind Ace Impact's sire Cracksman (GB) and Havana Grey (GB), and while the latter had the highest number of black-type winners (11), Sioux Nation was represented by the most Group winners of this intake (7). He is definitely a horse to watch, even though his fee has increased by €10,000 in the last year.

Everything to Prove

I'm going to pitch in two names here who are teetering on the brink of triumph or disaster. That's not actually true, of course, but such is the knee-jerk reaction to the early results of stallions by industry people who really should know better, that some horses can be commercially 'dead' before we have even had a proper chance to see what they can do. If mass desertion by breeders follows then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy that the stallion will fail, sometimes through no actual fault of his own, other than the fact that he is unlikely to get you a Brocklesby winner.

Anyway, as I climb down off my soapbox for the umpteenth time with the fading hope that folks will just wait'n'see awhile, I will put forward Ghaiyyath (Ire) at €25,000 and Hello Youmzain (Fr) at €22,500 as two of the more interesting names among those with first runners in 2024.

A dual Group 1-winning son of Kodiac, Hello Youmzain's yearlings were in demand in Deauville last year and he must be odds-on to be France's leading first-season sire this year. He covered 140 mares in his first season at Haras d'Etreham at his opening fee of €25,000.

Ghaiyyath's fee has also been trimmed slightly from his starting point of €30,000. Not all sons of Dubawi are created equal, of course, and there is now no shortage of them at stud, but Night Of Thunder (Ire), bred on the same cross as the 130-rated Ghaiyyath, and Too Darn Hot, bred on a similar cross, have set the bar high.

Both Hello Youmzain and Ghaiyyath became Group winners themselves for the first time in the second half of their juvenile seasons. If their offspring can follow suit, it is easy to imagine that both stallions could be more expensive by this time next year.

TDN Value Podium

Bronze: Acclamation (GB), Rathbarry Stud, €25,000

If we are spruiking Dark Angel and Mehmas in this piece, then we must have their sire on the podium. At 25, Acclamation is still going strong and is an increasingly significant influence. As last year's G1 Hong Kong Cup and G1 Cox Plate winner Romantic Warrior (Ire) showed, he is far from just a one-trick pony, though he is obviously best known as a sire of sprinters, with the brilliant Marsha (Ire) among them. Al Shaqab's Orne (Ire), who was bred at home by Rathbarry, has Classic claims ahead of this season, and with Acclamation's fee sliding down from his career-high of €40,000 in 2018 and 2019, he's very much still one to keep on your side.

Silver: Pinatubo (Ire), Dalham Hall Stud, £35,000

Perhaps boosted by the success of his fellow son of Shamardal, Blue Point, last year, Pinatubo seems to be many people's idea of this season's leading freshman in waiting. If you had the chance to see him last week during Darley's open days, then it would be hard to disagree, as he has swagger and substance in spades.

His yearling average of almost £154,000 for 41 sold tells of his commercial popularity to date. It's up to him now, and up his sleeve he has the fact that he is from the same family as Invincible Spirit and Kodiac.

Pinatubo has remained at £35,000 throughout his stud career and that could look very reasonable if his stock live up to expectations this year.

Gold: Sottsass (Fr), Coolmore, €25,000

We hear a lot about 'stallion-making races' and I'm not sure I believe in the concept, but all we need to know about Sottsass is that he won the G1 Prix du Jockey Club and the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe – two races that most owners would give their eyeteeth to win – not to mention the G1 Prix Ganay and G2 Prix Niel. He was also third in the Arc as a three-year-old behind the older horses Waldgeist (GB) and Enable (GB).

Sottsass is from one of the current 'it' families, with his half-siblings including the stellar Sistercharlie (Ire) and My Sister Nat (Fr), while full-brother Shin Emperor (Fr) looks a Grade 1, or even Classic, winner in the making in Japan this year.

He is the first cab off the rank when it comes to Coolmore's sons of Siyouni (Fr). In general, his first yearlings looked athletic and together, and they may raise a few eyebrows by coming to hand sooner than expected. More importantly, however, they should go on, and as we know, it's best to rely on a Classic winner to get you a Classic winner.

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Oysters, a Broken Ankle and Normandy’s Finest: It Could Only be the Route des Etalons

Not even a blanket of snow and some icy country lanes could deter those on the annual Normandy bloodstock pilgrimage more formally known as the Route des Etalons.

With plenty of new sires to show off this year, many of France's major stallion studs welcomed in breeders and members of the public during the weekend showcase which is now in its 14th year. At Haras de Bonneval, the French home of the Aga Khan Studs stallions, more than 600 people turned out on Saturday to see the quartet of stallions neatly split into established stars and freshmen, with Vadeni (Fr) and Erevann (Fr) filling the role of the latter.

“We had a large number of people. I don't know if it's the place where you do a huge amount of business as such, but you see a lot of people that you don't see through the year so it's a great time to catch up and talk about the horses,” said Georges Rimaud, manager of the Aga Khan Studs.

“The horses showed themselves well. Rather than people talk about them amongst themselves without seeing them, it's lovely to be able to show them to people and for them to make their own minds up. We were lucky to have very good weather – although it was very cold – but when you see a horse in the sun you can really appreciate them, so it was a very good day.”

Jean-Claude Rouget was the trainer responsible for both Vadeni and Erevann, and though he was required to be on duty in Cagnes, his assistant Jean-Bernard Roth was in attendance to reminisce about the racing careers of both horses with Pierrick Moreau, best known as one of Arqana's auctioneers, who was the MC for the day at Bonneval.

“We've already had a lot of bookings and when people are here to see the horses you can have a different discussion with the breeders about their mares and their matings,” Rimaud added. “It was great to have Jean-Bernard here, he's a well-known figure, and I think that added something special to the shows. At the end of the day I think we were all quite pleased but quite tired. It was very pleasant to see so many people.

“We see some people who are not horse people, for example our neighbours, who are farmers next door. They are busy most of the year but it is a good opportunity for them to come in and see what we do here.

“It's important to show what we do to a larger public, especially in these days when racing can sometimes be looked at unfavourably.”

Through the sale of caps and wrist-warmers, the shows at Haras de Bonneval also raised money for Au Dela des Pistes, France's organisation for the retraining of racehorses.

All in all I thought it was great, and I wonder, are we Brits being left behind by not having something similar? – Sara Cumani, breeder

Sumbe's Haras de Montfort et Préaux was open for both days of the Route des Etalons, with manager Tony Fry battling on despite recently breaking his ankle and requiring the surgical intervention of seven screws and a plate. While he wouldn't pass the trot-up at the moment, it takes more than mere broken bones to deter the hardy Fry, who was on parade along with the farm's five stallions, who certainly were moving with a lot more fluency.

“Yesterday, we had around 250 people and again today [Sunday] there has been a good steady stream of visitors,” reported Fry. “I think in a week's time we'll know how much business we have actually done but the horses seem to have been well received and it's just a wonderful opportunity to show them.”

Sumbe of course has three new recruits, Angel Bleu (Fr), Mishriff (Ire) and the homebred Belbek (Fr), who were the subject of a recent TDN feature. The latter, who won the G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in the colours of his owner-breeder Nurlan Bizakov, has a bonus incentive scheme to launch him on his stud career, with the breeder of Belbek's first maiden winner set to receive €10,000 and the breeder of his first group winner in line for a €50,000 bonus.

Fry added, “There are a lot of people who come on the Route des Etalons just for a day out, but that's fine, you want to encourage people to get involved, and there have been a lot of young people coming through as well, which is great.”

Sara Cumani of Fittocks Stud was one of the English breeders to have travelled to France for the weekend and joined a united nations touring party which included Alix Choppin, Tina Rau and Marina Marinopoulos. It was the first time on the Route des Etalons for Cumani, who said that it had been a worthwhile weekend.

“It was lovely to see the studs, the horses, to meet the people and to put faces to names,” she said. “I had my list of horses I wanted to see and we managed to see them all, which was great.

“We had a really lovely time at Haras de la Hetraie. [Stud owner] Pascal Noue is a real character and I was so impressed with the horses, who looked amazing with fantastic coats. He gave us a lot of insight into stallion psychology, which was fascinating, and all his stallion handlers are women. The horses were so well behaved and Pascal said he'd always rather have women handlers over men.

The condition of the horses was what really stood out, but they also offered us some lovely oysters and crepes, so all in all it was a really good visit.”

The Cumanis own a mare in partnership with Henri Bozo's Ecurie des Monceaux who is heading to Galiway (GB) this year. The stallion's home, Haras de Colleville, was the final stop on the tour after two days on the road.

Cumani continued, “Luca is a very big believer in knowing what a stallion does, rather than what they look like, but I think that if you spend a lot of time trying to get the physical aspects right then it is important to see them, especially when they first go to stud, rather than when they are more rounded and have let down. I certainly find it useful and I particularly wanted to see Zarak and Galiway as we are using them, and they didn't disappoint.”

She added, “It was very nice to go to Haras de Beaumont and to meet Pauline Chehboub. It's always nice when you go to a farm and the principal is there, and I was taken with Sealiway.

“It was also fantastic to see Haras d'Etreham, which is a beautiful farm, and I absolutely loved Hello Youmzain. He's got so much chunkiness and size, and he walks really well. I'll be very interested to follow him this year, and my fellow travellers very much liked Onesto, who is in a similar mould to Chaldean.”

Cumani's final thoughts on the Route des Etalons initiative are surely shared by others. She said, “It was an interesting trip, and of course it helps enormously when you get delicious French eats on the way. All in all I thought it was great, and I wonder, are we Brits being left behind by not having something similar?”

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