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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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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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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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?”

The post Oysters, a Broken Ankle and Normandy’s Finest: It Could Only be the Route des Etalons appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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That is in no small part due to the emergence of Storm Heart (Fr), who made a blisteringly-hot start to his hurdling career for Willie Mullins, and more importantly, is by Coolagown's emerging force that is Storm The Stars.

Stack revealed that over 100 mares have been booked into Storm The Stars on the strength of Storm Heart's scintillating debut. The high-class son of Sea The Stars (Ire) stands alongside fellow unexposed dual-purpose sires Kenway (Fr) and Way To Paris (GB) to go with Shantaram (GB) and Zambezi Sun (GB). 

In this week's Q&A with Brian Sheerin, Stack speaks about polarisation in the National Hunt game, why he feels he has assembled his strongest roster yet, how difficult it is to run a sustainable business model as an independent stud and more.

How was footfall at the Irish Stallion Trail and did you do much business over the weekend?

Everyone is looking for value and, with the way the horses are priced with me, they are not going to break breeders' pockets. Kenway, Storm The Stars and Way To Paris are €2,000 for a colt and €1,000 for a filly. Storm The Stars will go up, hopefully, if Storm Heart (Fr) wins the Triumph Hurdle but he won't go too high. He actually has a huge book of mares to cover this year and was very popular on the Stallion Trail. But, a lot of the talk over the weekend was about people getting value for their money. Say for example, the lads who are breeding a mare with an average pedigree, they are only going to be getting €5,000 to €10,000 for a foal out of that mare at the sales. There's no point spending €5,000 on a nomination on a mare like that. Breeders have to distinguish that not all mares are going to get you the €30,000 or €40,000 for a National Hunt foal so they are going to have to cut their cloth to measure. 

And especially over the past few years in particular, you could say that the waters have been even tricker to navigate as a National Hunt breeder. 

They have. Way To Paris is a good example. The first year we stood him was in 2020 when Covid just kicked off so we couldn't get people in to see him in the flesh. I'd say my phone number has been blocked on a number of breeders' phones because I had no other option but to harass people about using him. I bombarded people on WhatsApp and that resulted in us covering about 120 mares with him. When the first foals arrived, I did the same thing again, kept pushing it out and sending the photos around to make sure they knew who Way To Paris was and, more importantly, where he was standing. He seems to have earned a reputation now as a stallion that can get breeders a good foal and a decent return from. The market has become very choosey. It's all about fashion.

Is choosey a Cork term for polarisation?

There's a few others I could use but I better not! To get a nice stallion, it's just become very hard. I am lucky I have good friends in this game and they help me out a lot but there are two things I can't skimp on when recruiting a stallion. That's soundness and a good walk. If they are not good wind and limb, I won't be going to see them and then it's very important that they have the walk as well. Any other pieces with stallions for me, you can forgive, but not those. In fairness to Kenway, Mathieu Alex and the Chehboub family were easy people to deal with. Richard Venn does most of my work and he knows exactly the type of horse I look for. Any time Richard has come on to me, he's usually right. He came to me with Storm The Stars and, you know, when Richard comes to you with one, you have a proper chance. But yes, it has become very fashion orientated and it's tougher now more so than ever.

I'd imagine that Storm The Stars's status has soared since Storm Heart shot towards the head of the Triumph Hurdle market after his impressive debut win for Willie Mullins at Punchestown. How much of a difference can one horse make in a stallion's popularity?

Over 100 mares have been booked into Storm The Stars since New Year's Day. That's purely down to Storm Heart. They've finally seen the light! But that shows you what one horse can do. It can be quite reactionary at times but it was hard not to be impressed by Storm Heart's performance and, in many ways, Willie Mullins is the stallion-making trainer. 

That's interesting you say that because, while Galiway is a top-class stallion in his own right, you could also say that you are banking on Willie Mullins to a certain degree with Kenway given how well he has done with Gala Marceau (Fr), Vauban (Fr) and more of the former's progeny over jumps. 

Absolutely. I'll be honest, that's the main reason I went for Kenway. I saw how well that Willie was doing with the progeny of Galiway and felt that Kenway had the right credentials to make it as a good National Hunt stallion. When you look at it, there's Gala Marceau, Vauban, Jimmy Du Seuil (Fr) and a couple more for Willie and then Gary Moore's horse, Royal Way (Fr), hosed up over hurdles the other day as well. He had been second to the Triumph Hurdle favourite [Sir Gino (Fr) (It's Gino {Ger})] the time before that so he's a pretty serious horse in his own right. The Galiways are tough and consistent horses and that's why I decided to give Kenway a chance. We're going to go down the dual-purpose route and market him as a proper dual-purpose horse. We have set up a syndicate comprising myself and Haras de Beaumont and we bought a good few half-sisters to Group 1 and Grade 1 horses on the Flat and National Hunt. We've bought half-sisters to Harry Angel (Ire), Dashel Drasher (GB), Mojo Star (Ire), Rich Tapestry (Ire) and more. They'll all visit him this year. 

And am I right in saying that you are planning on playing the long game with the progeny of Way To Paris, Kenway and Storm The Stars by putting some in training over the coming years?

We will be trying to do that, mainly with Ger Lyons. I've always found him the easiest to deal with. I can hear you laughing at that comment but it's true! You have Johnny Murtagh, Michael Halford and a few others there as well. We have clients who have horses with these trainers so they would be a natural choice for us. In an ideal world, whatever the horses do as two-year-olds, they will step up to a mile or further, show a bit of form, and then rock up to a horses-in-training sale and get sold on to one of the bigger National Hunt operators. If we could blood a few Triumph Hurdle types, that would be great. The market for those types of horses bought out of training is quite strong so it's just another avenue worth exploring. I'm not stupid, I know that the Flat game is very tough, so I'm under no illusions. I'm very good friends with Joe Foley and, what the likes of Joe has to go through to make a Flat stallion successful, it's very tough. The new stallions on the Flat, they have one or two years at a maximum to prove their worth. It's crazy. In my business, the stallions have that bit longer.

As it says on the website, Coolagown Stud is the culmination of over 30 years of hard work. You mentioned that things have never been tougher for the independent studs. How sustainable is it going forward in 2024 for the smaller operations?

The doom and gloom of the game comes with the rise in costs. The price of feed, straw, hay, staff and everything else has gone up. You have to be optimistic about the future but the reality is that things are very tough. You can't skimp on feed, otherwise you don't have a product. This is not a game to half-arse things because then nobody will want to buy off you. The breeders are in the same boat. We get people through our gate because they know they're getting value for money. I know you say 30 years of hard work to get to where we are now but we are still trying to get it right. You have to keep trying. Breeders are going to be watching their pockets this year more so than ever and we think we can offer value. 

Well, there you go. They can't all go to Blue Bresil (Fr) or Walk In The Park (Ire).

We'd all love a Blue Bresil or Walk In The Park but, unfortunately, both horses cover about 200 mares and are the most sought after National Hunt stallions in the country. With that comes a pecking order. To be fair to the Cashmans, they took a chance on Blue Bresil. I've always been a fan of the stallion-he gets you a stunning individual and he gets you a racehorse. It's great to see him doing so well. 

But you clearly feel you offer a value alternative for the man whose mare may not be in that top percentile of what the Walk In The Parks or Blue Bresils of this world will cover?

If you're paying me €2,000 for a colt and €1,000 for a filly and then you go to the sale and get €8,000 for your foal, that's good business. You're in profit from your nomination. We're akin to the small friendly neighborhood corner shop. My roster is stronger this year than ever. We've five stallions here; Storm The Stars has a number of potentially classy horses to run for him while Way To Paris and Kenway have interesting profiles and are going well as well. This game is unrivaled when things go well. For me, it provides you with a buzz that drugs would never compare to. Don't get me wrong, it's a difficult business. But as I said earlier, I'm confident that if breeders cut their cloth to measure in 2024, they can make money. We've carved out a niche as being easy to deal with and easy to pay. I don't send out a bill until July of the following year so I'm not knocking on your front door. My bank manager might want me to do it-and definitely my wife does-but I don't. I try to work with people and there's always a middle ground with me.

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The rising 13-year-old is the sire of 14 black-type winners, eight at group level, including G1 Champion S. and G1 Prix Jean Luc Lagardere hero Sealiway (Fr) and Sunway (Fr), victorious in the G1 Criterium International. Galiway is also the sire of Vauban (Fr), a Group 3 winner on the flat and a jumps horse of considerable talent.

A share in Sealiway, whose first foals are due next season, was knocked down to France Turf International for €56,000, while a breeding right in Cracksman (GB) (Frankel {GB}), sire of G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Ace Impact (Ire), was sold to Ladyswood Stud for €50,000.

Following over 200 bids, seven of the eight breeding rights and stallion shares were sold for a total of €383,000 (outside of the sealed bid).

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By mares covered in 2023, Galiway was second only to his son Sealiway (Fr), the full-brother to Sunway who stands at Haras de Beaumont. Galiway covered 153 mares and Sealiway's first book numbered 166.

Kendargent (Fr), who is the broodmare sire of Sunway and sire of the Group 1 winner Skalleti (Fr), has been trimmed to €15,000 from €17,000, while his son Goken (Fr) remains at €15,000.

Dual-purpose stallion Soft Light (Fr) (Authorized {Ire}) also remains unchanged at €5,000 for his third season at stud.

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Bought for €41,000 by Pegasus Bloodstock, the colt is from the family of Sarayir, the half-sister to Nashwan, Unfuwain and Nayef who made her own mark on the breed as the dam of 1,000 Guineas winner Ghanaati.

A Kendagent (Fr) half-sister to G3 Prix du Bois winner Cosachope (Fr) (Soave {Ger})  (lot 146) was signed for by Laurent Benoit on behalf of Capucines Bloodstock for €40,000 and was the leading filly on a day when trade picked up a little on the opening session.

A larger catalogue this year saw 224 horses pass through the ring over the two days, with 144 sold (64%) for a total of €1,423,950. The average price of €11,069 was largely on a par with last year's trade, while the median dropped by 10% to €9,000.

Haras des Faunes, which consigned the Kendargent filly, was the sale's leading consignor with 23 horses sold for €291,500. Marseille-based trainer Christophe Escuder was the leading buyer after signing for 11 yearlings. 

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That was followed by a Doctor Dino (Fr) gelding that was snapped up by Gordon Elliott for €185,000 from Altenbach Bloodstock and a Jeu St Eloi (Fr) gelding to Paul Nicholls and Tom Malone for €175,000. 

Galiway, the sire of dual Group 1 winner Sealiway (Fr), has made huge strides as a National Hunt sire with Mullins training two of his best jumpers, Vauban (Fr) and Gala Marceau (Fr).

The dominant force of National Hunt racing returned to the market to secure the strapping King Rasko Grey from Tony Costello, who Mullins bought Goffs Defender Bumper winner Predators Gold off.

Mullins said, “He's a gorgeous horse by a sire who has been very good to us. He was poetry in motion walking around the ring and I loved him. We've gone back to the source of success in Treannahow Stables.”

Mullins saw off the attention of Nicholls for the Wednesday top lot who was christened by the Costellos as Elvis for a very simple reason. 

“Very simply he was the king,” Tony Costello told Bernard Condren, head of sales at Goffs. “I bought him as a foal in Osarus [for €18,000] in the height of Covid. There were only a hundred people at Dublin Airport when we got there. His racing name is King Rasko Grey so Elvis was an easy decision. He's the king today.”

Of the 217 lots offered on Wednesday, 185 were sold for an aggregate of €9,514,000, representing an average of €51,427. The median stood at €45,000.

Goffs chief executive Henry Beeby said, “The Arkle Sale may have a new name this year but there was nothing new about the hunger for top class NH prospects at Goffs in June. For the last number of years this sale has enjoyed a meteoric rise as so many NH vendors have sent a larger and larger share of their best to us and we cannot thank them enough for we are nothing without their horses. 

“Over the last two days trade has matched the outdoor temperatures as both were hot, hot, hot! That trade was generated by a simply stunning group of Three-Year-Olds and it was so gratifying to hear judge after judge commend the standard of entry over the two days. Last year the sale grew by 25% so we are delighted to have consolidated those results and it is especially pleasing to see an average and median so close as that points to a sale of true consistency with the latter important figure growing by another 7%.”

He added, “The top of the market enjoyed some titanic bidding duels, none more so than for the top lot with Harold Kirk for Willie Mullins just outlasting Tom Malone for Paul Nicholls. To have the two Champions battling it out is testament to the horse in question and the sale in general, and they were just two of the many significant personalities to play an active part from start to finish.

“So the two days have clearly illustrated the appeal of NH sales at Goffs and we have been so pleased to welcome shoals of buyers from the UK, France and USA following a very proactive campaign by the Goffs Purchaser Attraction Team working in tandem with our friends at Irish Thoroughbred Marketing. They have locked horns with every Irish buyer of note including the mighty band of Point-To-Point handlers who have made such an impact in recent times.

“As we turn our focus to Part 2 of the sale tomorrow, which is bound to produce another significant group of winners, we extend our thanks to every vendor for the trust they placed in the Goffs service and wish each purchaser the best of luck, safe in the knowledge that they have bought from a sale that is truly the measure of any.”

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Normandie Breeding brought 16 horses to the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale from their operation in Beuvron-en-Auge about 30 minutes southeast of Deauville, after bringing 23 to the October sale and selling 18 of them.

Vitse left Haras de Colleville in 2018 after 11 very successful years there, where he not only oversaw the stallions' careers, but helped Pariente to build the farm. But in 2018, he and Camille decided they were of an age where they were either going to go out on their own, or miss the chance and spend their lives working for others.

“We thought it was time,” said Vitse, now 49. “Camille and I were very ready to have our own place. We liked having our own horses and doing business. We wanted to do it before we were 50 and we said if we don't do it this year, we'll never move. Sometimes, you have to move on and do something new. We started from scratch. No money, no farm, no clients. We had two little kids. And we said `let's go.'”

The first five or six months were tough going, he said. “We leased a farm,” he said, “but the farm was empty. We had no horses. It's a good experience when you set up your own place. You think it's going to be easy, that clients are going to come, but that's not the way it goes. You have to prove yourself anew. You have to show you have enough money to feed the horses, to do a good job. So it was pretty difficult, but we made it.”

Not only have they made it, but they have made it look easy, even if it weren't so.

“Before we started, we had two mares in association with trainers Phillippe Decouz and Yann Barberot. And we had two horses born that year that we kept, and they turned out to be very good horses–black-type performers. One of them, Go Athletico (Fr) (Goken {Fr}) went on to win a Group 3 at two and ran in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf at Keeneland in 2020, so that was amazing. And the other, Axdavali (Fr), went on to be Group 3-placed at two.

“We bought a mare for 4,000 guineas at Tattersalls called Miss Pimpernel (Ire), who wound up being the dam of Toimy Son (Fr), who was a listed winner at three. We sold him at the Arc Sale for €160,000 and now he's headed to David Menusier, so hopefully he'll be an even better horse. We bought Artifix (Ire), who is now the dam of Around Midnight (Fr), by Almanzor (Fr), trained by Jean-Claude Rouget, who is a listed winner at two and Group 3 runner-up, beaten a nose, at two. She's a Classic prospect for next year, so we have been very lucky. We have done a good job, but we have been very lucky that everything has gone well, and we just hope it keeps on going like this.”

The name Normandie Breeding is fitting for Vitse in more than one way. A native of the region, he was born in Argentan in 1973. His father Jean-Patrick managed Haras de la Verrerie, the farm of Elie de Brignac, the late president of l'Agence Francaise de Ventes du Pur Sang, the predecessor to Arqana. He lived there until he was six and his parents divorced. He moved to Paris with his mother but came back to Normandy to live with his father at 14. “School wasn't made for me,” he said with a smile. “I kept on working with horses while I finished school,” he said, “and I traveled around.”

For someone not yet 50, Vitse has accumulated a resume which has grounded him in every aspect of the business. He worked at Plantation Stud starting in 1991, working with Rafha (GB)–who would go on to produce Invincible Spirit (Ire) and Kodiac (GB)–when she was a maiden mare. He worked at sales and started riding out for a jumping yard, “just to know how to ride racehorses, to have another feeling, another connection with them. And the following two, three, four years I continued on like this, working the breeding season at Coolmore and Kildangen Stud during the yearling season.”

He spent a very formative two years in the United States at Lane's End where he worked with mares. “I was in Mare Barn 4, where we had some complicated mares to get in foal, some sick foals. It was a great learning experience. It's a very good farm to work at. They have the best stallions, and a very good team. Mr. Farish was in charge, and Bill was also there–such nice people and a very good place to work. I saw a lot of things. And if you want to be the best, you have to work with the best.”

After two years, he decided to return to France to get some experience running farms on his own.

“I was a young guy and went down to the south of France and ran Haras de la Clauzade, then Haras du Vieux Pont and then I went on to the Haras du Thenney, where I met my wife. And then I met Mr. Pariente. We started Colleville in 2007.”

Kendargent stood his first season at stud for €500 before going on to become one of the great French stallion success stories, and a successful broodmare sire. He was followed by Galiway, purchased from Wertheimer & Frere as a 3-year-old, and sent to stud with just a listed win and a Group 3 placing to his credit. He quickly become the Champion first-crop sire in France, and a Group 1 producer with Sealiway (Fr), who has just retired to stud not far away at Haras de Beaumont. Galiway stood for €30,000 in 2022 after covering more mares than any other stallion in France in 2021.

Jan. 1, the family, including their children, ages 11 and eight, are scheduled to move into their new farm. They have 23 hectares where they will keep only their own mares and those of their associates. “We're not going to board any outside mares,” he said. “We're going to keep the consignment, because we have an annex where we can keep fillies on one side and colts on another. So we can have 15-17 yearlings per sale.”

“We had a big draft in October, with 23 horses. But 15 is a good draft. We have some very good foals. We have regular clients, who come every year, we are expecting some very good horses to come along.” Vitse said that Sylvain Vidal and Mandalore Racing Stables were among those who have supported them loyally from the beginning.

Vitse said he believes in bringing home horses rather than selling them cheaply. “If a horse is going to sell cheaply, for 10, 15, 20,000 euros, we would rather keep her. If you sell at an average price, you end up with an average trainer and an average horse. You may as well get rid of the mare. If we have a cheap mare, it is because we believe in her.”

With Normandie Breeding, Vitse has come full circle. He is selling horses this week in the Elie de Brignac sales pavilion, named after his father's employer. He has worked with foals, yearlings and mares, and helped to launch two of France's best stallions. Now, he's just looking for the chance to do it for himself, and for his family. It has given him a satisfaction and a contentment that some people never achieve.

“We are very happy with where we are now,” he said. “It's family work. I am very in tune with my wife Camille; everything is 50-50. We see the horses together, we sell them together, we do the matings together. We see the stallions together. It's a family story, and nothing would be possible without my wife. Two of us together, we can do the job. I love my job, and I love my wife. Everything is perfect.”

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