“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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Haras de Colleville Releases 2024 Stallion Fees

Haras de Colleville has announced the 2024 fees for its four stallions, with Galiway (GB), who was recently represented by new juvenile Group 1 winner Sunway (Fr), set to remain at €30,000 for the third consecutive season.

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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Galiway’s Showay Books Pouliches Ticket With Imprudence Upset

With 10 prior efforts recorded on the palmares, Le Haras de la Gousserie's sophomore distaffer Showay (Fr) (Galiway {GB}–Show Gorb {Spa}, by Caradak {Ire}) was, by some margin, the most experienced contender for Thursday's G3 Prix Imprudence at Deauville and her ringcraft told in the dying embers of a thrilling renewal. She stepped up from claiming company to twice hit the board at stakes level last term and was let go at a whopping 42-1 for this seven-furlong feature coming back off a third in Cagnes-sur-Mer's Feb. 12 Listed Prix de la Californie. The eventual winner was swiftly into stride and tracked the tempo in a handy third through the halfway mark. Last off the bridle inside the two pole, she inched ahead with 150 metres remaining and was driven out to hold the late bid of Ritournelle (Fr) (Camelot {GB}) by a head for a career high.

“We loved this filly from day one, when she ran in a claimer at Saint-Cloud, and we bought her privately at the end of last season,” explained Pauline Cheboub. “She ran well in Cagnes this winter, but had not come around yet. The two races there helped her be spot on for this race, which was our first major target, and it's mission accomplished.” Looking to Classic targets ahead, Chehboub added, “She is entered in the [May 14 G1] Poule d'Essai des Pouliches [at ParisLongchamp] and, most definitely, she is an intended runner.”

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Normandie Breeding: `It’s a Family Story’

Guillaume Vitse is probably best known as the man who helped to launch the Cindarella-story careers of the top French stallions Kendargent (Fr) and Galiway (Ire) when he worked at Guy Pariente's Haras de Colleville. Now, Vitse looks to write his own fairytale story alongside his wife Camille with their new project, Normandie Breeding, and it appears they are well on their way to doing so.

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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