Bonne Chance Team Making Their Own Luck

Playing chess with nature. That's what Jean-Luc Lagardère called it, and the analogy has always resonated with Alberto Figueiredo.

How, for instance, do we account for the sheer size of King Of Steel (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who sealed his place among the elite sophomores of Europe with his Group 1 success at Ascot last Saturday? You don't particularly see that bulk in the sire; and, tragically, it wasn't in the dam either. In her case, the disparity proved fatal.

“She was a good, medium-sized mare but he was so big it caused her to hemorrhage when foaling,” explains Figueiredo, CEO of Bonne Chance Farm. “That's how we lost her. We understand, that's part of the game. We deal with live animals and, unfortunately, something like will happen from time to time. He was well raised by a foster mare. But when you look at him, and then look at his parents–well, the gene is not obvious, it's not right there. You might have to go back to the fourth, fifth generation. And that's the chess.”

Figueiredo is duly impatient with any attempt to reduce breeding to a simple formula, as though everything comes down to slapping this bloodline over that one. He remembers how one of the best judges of horseflesh he ever saw, in his native Brazil, never even brought a catalogue to the sales. Long experience in different hemispheres tells Figueiredo that such horsemanship transcends cultures, languages, racing environments. We should all be able to learn something, then, from an astounding year for this small but most cosmopolitan of farms.

King of Steel | Megan Ridgwell

Figueiredo modestly protests that there's nothing so extraordinary about the program he operates for Brazilian entrepreneur Gilberto Sayão Da Silva.

“I don't think we have a very unusual program,” he says amiably. “I would not put that way. I think we do the same kind of thing that you normally have to do with horses.”

But nor can we merely say that it's all in the name: French for “good luck”. Something, surely, merits attention when a crop of just 14 Bonne Chance graduates, in the sophomore class of 2023, should include not just King Of Steel but also GI Woody Stephens S. winner Arabian Lion (Justify). On the one hand, a colt that briefly burst clear in the ultimate test of the Classic Thoroughbred, over 12 furlongs at Epsom, until collared late on his first run of the season, and just the third of his life; and, on the other, a top-class dirt sprinter.

The fact is that Bonne Chance, for a boutique operation, has quite exceptional geographical reach: both in blood and schools of horsemanship. King Of Steel himself–conceived in France, foaled in Kentucky, trained in Newmarket–is an apt symbol of internationalism. For Bonne Chance has evolved as an offshoot of the leading South American program Stud RDI, which was launched in 2008 by Sayão in partnership with Paulo Fernando de Oliveira. In 2013, after a tentative experiment at Tattersalls the previous year, Figueiredo (along with colleagues Philippe Jousset and Fernando Garcia) picked out three yearling fillies at Arqana and sent them to Mikel Delzangles. Each has since become a black-type producer.

At €95,000, the least expensive was Eldacar (GB) (Verglas {Ire}), who proved a modest but sound staying handicapper. “She had a good pedigree,” Figueiredo recalls. “Not a fashionable one, perhaps, but she was a beautiful mare and at that time our program was all breed-to-race.”

Eldacar started her breeding career in Normandy, but was soon transferred to the 300-odd acres previously known as Regis Farms on the Pisgah Pike, acquired in 2015. “There was no reason to have 10 mares here, and five over there,” Figueiredo explains. “Having bought this land, we said we'd concentrate them all in one place.”

Bonne Chance had started out with yearling fillies, rather than broodmare prospects, so that the team could get to know them inside out. That way, a complementary influence might be sought from matings.

“People can choose nicks because that's what they think the market wants,” Figueiredo says. “I'm not opposing them, that's okay as a way to conduct their business. Maybe I'm just not smart enough to believe in those scientific equations. But I'm more like, 'Okay, this is a nice filly. She has talent but Mikel has brought us the information that she's more of a galloper, so she needs a little more speed.' And we were lucky enough, at that time, to be part of the Wootton Bassett syndicate. So we could bring in some speed that way.

“Maybe doing something like that won't work immediately. Maybe you need another generation. You can never say we will definitely get this, or that. But that's the same as when we mix blood from South America in the United States or Europe. You might not be able to say why a combination has worked. But when it does, you know that you have only achieved those results from having an open mind.”

Arabian Lion at Spendthrift | Sara Gordon

A perfect example is Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}, the program's breakout success in the United States. A domestic Group 1 winner in Argentina as a juvenile, he was sent to Paulo Lobo and won the GI Shadwell Turf Mile before being involved in three consecutive finishes of the GI Breeders' Cup Mile.

“His second dam came to United States from Chile,” says Figueiredo. “She had a Smart Strike filly we sent to Brazil, where she was very smart, a Group 2 winner. And then we brought her to a Japanese stallion, Agnes Gold by Sunday Silence. And then came Ivar. So, you could see how it can work.”

King Of Steel did not have such an exotic background. Nonetheless the market remained too insular to prevent agent Alex Elliott having to pay more than $200,000 on behalf of Amo Racing at the Keeneland September Sale of 2021. A Wootton Basset was challenging enough. One that size, however, was a bridge too far for most.

“We had high expectations,” Figueiredo recalls. “Don't get me wrong, he brought good money. But people kept saying he was too big. What's the problem in being big? If big means slow, well, he's never been that. He was always a straightforward horse, never had any problems. But his size did scare a lot of people.”

Because of his build, and also because his dam improved with maturity, Figueiredo is confident that King Of Steel will keep thriving if kept in training. But first he is set to return to his native soil for the Breeders' Cup.

Happily, despite the loss of his dam, Bonne Chance now finds itself with a valuable breeding prospect in King Of Steel's full sister Macadamia (Fr). Though not to be confused with her GI Gamely S.-winning namesake (as it happens, a Brazilian-bred), the 4-year-old has won a maiden and allowance race at Horseshoe Indianapolis from 13 starts.

“She's likely to be bred in Europe,” Figueiredo says. “She's much smaller than her brother. If you put them together, she'll look like a weanling. They're both gray, so if you stood her behind him you will lose her. That's the chess again!”

There are, of course, ways of securing your queen on the genetic chessboard. One is to borrow the depth offered by Unbound (Distorted Humor) when acquired for $310,000 at the Keeneland November Sale of 2015, her granddam being none other than Personal Ensign.

“I strongly believe in the foundation of family,” Figueiredo says. “Being a 20-mare operation, we don't have the numbers, money or time to try a different way. I have to reduce the probability of mistakes. So I like to go to a farm, a family that you know produces. Of course, you still have to take your chance, even then, but you know that the substance is there.”

Ivar | Coady Photography

Unbound was one that paid off, and quickly: her 2017 foal, a Giant's Causeway colt, made $450,000.

“And a couple of years later we sent Unbound to Justify for a little bit of size, because she is a compact, Distorted Humor type,” Figueiredo explains. “Again, chess! It did not work as we expected. She had a small, late foal. So I said, 'Okay, let's not put him in the yearling sales, he's not ready.' So we gave him time and sent him to the 2-year-old sales. And that worked perfectly.”

Prepared and sold by Hidden Brook, where Figueiredo's cousin Sergio de Sousa is a managing partner, the colt made $600,000 from Zedan Racing Stables at OBS April. As Arabian Lion, he briefly threatened to give Bonne Chance prospects of a double Derby bid, at both Churchill and Epsom, but ultimately confirmed a single turn to be his métier.

Arabian Lion has now retired to Spendthrift as Justify's first Grade I winner. Of course, his sire has also made an immediate and spectacular impact in Europe. And, if weathervane is finally turning back towards genetic transfusion between hemispheres, then no farm of its size can have trimmed its sails better than Bonne Chance.

That's a gratifying state of affairs for a man whose international Turf education began virtually in boyhood. “I started to work in a sales company when I was 14, researching for catalogues,” Figueiredo says. “So, yes, it's been a lifetime's work. One of the partners in the company was a very successful farm vet, Dr. Jose Luiz Pinto Moreira. And he was the best horseman I've ever been with. Just from the way he talked, the way he looks. I've had so many positive as influences on my life but, strictly on horses, this guy was amazing.”

Figueiredo was also fortunate to work with Moreira during around 20 years working for Linneo de Paula Machado at Haras São José & Expedictus from the early 1990s. That post opened up many new horizons, not least through the export of horses like Siphon (Brz) to California.

“That was best life experience ever,” he says gratefully. “To work with such nice people who gave me such good opportunities in life. Because we can all learn from each other. Richard Mandella was able to go to South America and look at how things work there, and the same for me the other way. When we bought the farm in Kentucky, each year I took one of our team there to Brazil. That meant I could say, 'Look, if I ever I say something that seems stupid in Kentucky, please forgive me–because this is how we do things over here, here's how I learned.' So the same thing that we do with the blood, we also do with people.”

But while the whole premise is that horse skills are transferable, there's no denying that a harder road in South America–for horse and horseman alike–fortifies those who travel it far enough to compete on the global stage.

“How can I explain to you?” muses Figueiredo. “I love my country, and I love living there. But you learn a little bit differently. Say you want to buy a mare. In the United States, you go to the bank, you present your business plan, and you get a very good rate. In South America, you would find that impossible. To buy a horse, you have to sell your house. But I think that when you have those challenges, it makes you more aware. If one way doesn't work, you're going to find another way. Because you need to do this. If things happen a little more easily, more predictably, maybe you get into a comfort zone.”

Auguste Rodin | HRI

One way or another, between the horsemanship and the bloodlines, here is a farm exuding the dynamism urgently required in what has become a rather stagnant gene pool either side of the Atlantic. But you can think big and still stay humble. Because it's about resisting complacency, about being receptive to other cultures and methods.

“I guess that all of us, in this way of life, end up meeting and working with many different people, in many different places,” Figueiredo reflects. “And every time someone will say, 'Hey, the other day, I was wondering about this…' And this exchange of experience, added together, can become very important.

“What works in Kentucky isn't necessarily going to work in Europe or South America, and equally the other way round. But you're getting information every day, and it adds up to a wider perspective.”

He returns to the trainer he used to watch going round the sales in Brazil, with no catalogue. “His success was amazing, and it was just his instinct, just feeling,” he says. “He was unbelievable, the way he and horses could 'speak' together. And that, to me, is the fascination. That feeling he had. Because I'm fascinated by people who succeed. What he had, you can't put into words, but it also showed why Michael Jordan is like this, or Roger Federer, or Pele, Maradona, so on–even the good politicos!”

Figueiredo remembers the cycles of regeneration achieved by breeders of the past: the Classic sires imported to South America from Britain at the turn of the last century; similar traffic from Britain to America in mid-century; then the revolution achieved by sons of Northern Dancer in Europe. And let's not forget that the only horse to run down King Of Steel at Epsom, Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), was out of Galileo (Ire) mare outcrossed to the principal heir of Sunday Silence's speed-carrying dirt genes.

Maybe we can't leap to definitive conclusions, even when a farm like Bonne Chance produces two of the best sophomores in the global crop. But it would surely be foolish not to emulate something of the sense of adventure that animates its program.

“It's been a remarkable year,” Figueiredo acknowledges. “And first of all that's about a very good job by our team on the farm. That's for sure. But I really believe that this mix of blood helps a lot. Japan has been showing the world how to conduct things. There are a lot of good things in every country. Go to Argentina, you're going to see nice horses. Brazil, the same. Their best horses can compete around the world. Just look at Book 1 at Keeneland, and see how many trace to good Argentinian mares. So we always start with an open mind, we're always willing to try things. Sometimes, it works. Sometimes, it doesn't. But even then it's a good experience. Because you're not just focused on one thing, and you forget that the world is so big.”

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Ivar All Set for Next Chapter in Argentina

Argentinian champion and U.S. Grade I winner Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}) is preparing for his Southern Hemisphere homecoming next month, when he will take up stud duty at Haras Carampangue in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The 7-year-old, who was campaigned by Kentucky-based Bonne Chance Farm and its South American partner Stud RDI, began quarantine shortly after his second-place finish in the GI Pegasus World Cup Turf Invitational S. and will depart for his new home at the end of April, leaving him plenty of time to adapt to his second career before the breeding season begins in August.

While the Southern Hemisphere breeding season is still months away, breeders in Argentina are already eager to send their mares to millionaire Ivar. Bonne Chance Farm CEO Alberto Figueiredo estimated that the new stallion will breed around 140 mares in his first season.

“All the good breeders and important names in the industry in Argentina are interested,” Figueiredo said. “There is general excitement about the horse. When you are in the stallion business, you have to pray that everything keeps going as you hope, but at least we are providing him with the best support he can have.”

Ivar's breeder and co-owner Stud Rio Dois Irmaos (Stud RDI) has retained a 55% ownership share in the stallion, but the syndicate also includes Haras Carampangue–the farm where he will stand–as well as Haras Abolengo, Gran Muneca, San Benito, La Nora and Santa Maria de Araras.

Haras Carampangue is home to four other stallions including 2013 GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile S. winner Suggestive Boy (Easing Along) and 2013 GI Hollywood Derby victor Seek Again (Speightstown).

Argentinian breeders are already more than familiar with Ivar from his undefeated 2-year-old season there in 2019, where he claimed two Group 1 victories and was named champion 2-year-old colt before shipping to the U.S. Under the tutelage of Paulo Lobo, Ivar was a winner in his second start in North America and then claimed the GI Turf Mile S. at Keeneland four months later. He ran third the following season in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile and last year, won the Jonathan B. Schuster Memorial S. and placed in two additional Grade I competitions.

Following his second-place finish in the GI Pegasus Turf in January, the decision was made for Ivar to retire. Figueiredo said that, had the horse won the Pegasus, they might have considered a trip to the Saudi Cup or keeping him in training for one last Keeneland spring meet, but ultimately they chose to give Ivar plenty of time to get through quarantine and let down before the fall breeding season.

Ivar wins the 2020 GI Turf Mile S. at Keeneland | Coady

“He ran in 11 Grade I races in his career and was so competitive, so we needed to look toward his second career,” he explained. “Since his first race in Argentina, he showed that he had a ton of potential and that he was a freak. He was a different horse. He won on the dirt and the turf and he ran until he was a 6-year-old, so he showed versatility, durability and soundness. He ran in three Breeders' Cups in a row. He was a tough boy.”

Figueiredo said that a stud fee is not yet set for Ivar's first year, but noted that he believes there is a good space in the Argentinian market for a stallion with his credentials. Ivar's sire Agnes Gold, a son of Sunday Silence who stood in Japan and Florida before making his mark in Brazil as a three-time leading sire, passed away in 2019.

Ivar was one of the first top-level performers to bring attention to Bonne Chance Farm, which is located off Pisgah Pike in Versailles and was founded by Brazilian businessman Gilberto Sayao Da Silva. Silva is a partner in Stud RDI, a breeding and racing operation established in 2008 with locations in Brazil and Argentina. In 2015, he launched Bonne Chance as his own boutique commercial farm in Kentucky.

Bonne Chance Bloodstock Manager Leah Alessandroni spoke on the significance of Ivar carrying the farm's silks to Grade I success so soon after the operation was off its feet.

“To have a horse like Ivar come up here and do what he did, holding his own against some of the best in the world on the turf and really showing up at the biggest stage every time, it's kind of hard to quantify what that means for a young organization like us. It's definitely something that we're thankful for every day and the significance is not lost on us.”

Of course Ivar is not the only success story of South American-breds performing at the top of the game in the U.S. for the Bonne Chance and Stud RDI partnership. Top performers include In Love (Brz), a gelding son of Agnes Gold who followed Ivar to victory in the GI Keeneland Turf Mile S. in 2021, and Imperador (Arg) (Treasure Beach {GB}), winner of the 2021 GII Calumet Turf Cup S. Now back at Stud RDI, Imperador bred over 80 mares in his first book and is expecting his first foals to hit the ground this year.

“There is a pipeline of these outstanding racehorses coming from the programs in Brazil and Argentina,” Alessandroni said of the Stud RDI operation. “The program that they've built there is so underappreciated on a global scale. When you look at the numbers and what they've done in South America with groups of horses that arguably aren't as respected as much as they should be, they have kind of forced people to look at the South American product and respect it.”

“To have even a little bit of that influence through Bonne Chance is awesome,” she continued. “I feel like we're sleeping on a giant because I'm so excited to see the future for Ivar as a stallion, but also for the future of the partnership of Stud RDI and Bonne Chance.”


At Bonne Chance, Ivar's dam May Be Now (Smart Strike) is creating her own pipeline of future broodmares for the Kentucky operation. Her 2-year-old Open Heart, a May-foaled daughter of Yoshida, was retained by the farm and is in the early stages of training under Paulo Lobo.

This year she produced a filly by Uncle Mo. Alessandroni said that they will take a few months to let the Mar. 11-foaled filly develop before deciding if she would be pointed toward the racetrack or the sales ring.

“She definitely favors Uncle Mo, which is one of the reasons why we bred the mare to him because we were looking for that type. She's a good mover out in the field and is a very quality filly. We're really excited about her.”

May Be Now was acquired as a yearling by Stud RDI and was a Group 2 winner in Brazil. She spent her first few years as a broodmare there before returning to the U.S. shortly after producing Ivar. She was sold in foal to Hard Spun in 2017, but was bought back by Bonne Chance as Ivar was making a name for himself.

In a few years, the team at Bonne Chance hopes to be represented by sons and daughters of Ivar. Because Southern Hemisphere horses are at a disadvantage early in their racing career as they are born in the later months of the year, Figueiredo said that Stud RDI's Ivar babies will likely race as 2-year-olds in Argentina and those that show promise will ship to the U.S. after their juvenile season.

“We would be really excited by that,” Figueiredo said enthusiastically.

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Brazilian Champ, U.S. Grade I Winner Ivar Retired

Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}–May Be Now, by Smart Strike), a dual Group 1 winner in Argentina and later winner of the GI Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland, has been retired from racing and will enter stud for the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season at Haras Carampangue in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The news was announced jointly on Twitter by Stud RDI and Bonne Chance Farm, who campaigned Ivar in partnership.

Perfect in three starts as a late-season juvenile in Argentina, Ivar annexed a Churchill allowance in his second U.S. appearance for Kentucky Oaks-winning trainer Paolo Lobo in the spring of 2020 and two starts later defeated Raging Bull (Fr) (Dark Angel {Ire}) and Without Parole (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the Shadwell Turf Mile. He went on to finish a close fourth at 7-1 behind Order Of Australia (Ire) (Australia {GB}) in that year's GI Breeders' Cup Mile.

Fourth when first off a five-month layoff in defense of his Turf Mile title in the fall of 2021, Ivar ran home strongly to round out the trifecta behind the impressive Space Blues (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the Breeders' Cup Mile at Del Mar and was subsequently runner-up to champion Modern Games (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in last year's GI Ricoh Woodbine Mile, to 'TDN Rising Star' Annapolis (War Front) in the Coolmore Turf Mile and closed his career with a second in this year's GI Pegasus World Cup Turf. The Southern Hemisphere 6-year-old retires with a record of 5-3-2 from 15 starts and earnings of $1,551,053.

Ivar's dam, a $60,000 Keeneland September yearling purchase, became a Group 2 winner in Brazil before her immediate female family took off. Her year-older half-sister Ann of the Dance (English Channel) won in stakes company and was placed at Grade III level and Al's Gal (English Channel) took out the GI E.P. Taylor S. in 2016. May Be Now was sold for $67,000 in foal to Hard Spun at Keeneland November in 2017. Ivar's late sire was also responsible for Stud RDI and Bonne Chance's 2021 GI Keeneland Turf Mile hero In Love (Brz).

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Brazilian-Bred Ivar Named Morning-Line Favorite For Pegasus Turf

With the recent retirement of two-time winner Colonel Liam (Liam's Map), MG1SW Ivar (Brz) (Agnes Gold {Jpn}) was named the narrow 5-2 morning-line favorite for the GI Pegasus World Cup Turf. A winner of three of 12 starts in the U.S.–topped by the 2020 GI Shadwell Turf Mile at Keeneland–he has run in the GI Breeders' Cup Mile each of the last three years, running third in 2021 and fourth in 2020 and 2022.

“I think his [last] race was very good,” said trainer Paulo Lobo. “He lost to a very top horse [Modern Games]. Javier Castellano was riding him for the first time. He rode a very good race, and since then we've pointed for the Pegasus Turf and we've never missed a day and never had a bad day. Everything that we planned is happening, no problems.”

Hall of Famer Castellano will be back aboard Ivar from Post 10.

Also among the dozen contenders are 4-1 second choice MGSW City Man (Mucho Macho Man) and GISW Decorated Invader (Declaration of War), both trained by Christophe Clement, who respectively ran 1-2 in Gulfstream's GII Fort Lauderdale S. Dec. 31.

Third choice at 6-1 is Charles Fipke's homebred GISW Lady Speightspeare (Speightstown), who will face males for the first time. The 5-year-old owns seven wins from 13 career starts, six of them in graded-stakes including Woodbine's GI Natalma S. Third last time out in the GI Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf, she retains the services of Luis Saez from post six.

Rounding out the field are MGSP Atone (Into Mischief), MGSW Master Piece (Chi) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}), MGSW Who's the Star (Tonalist), GSW One More Bid (California Chrome), MGSP Good Governance (Kingman {GB}), and another pair of stablemates, Graham Motion-trained GISW Speaking Scout (Mr. Speaker) and MGSP Hurricane Dream (Fr) (Hurricane Cat), making his first start in North America.

On the also-eligible list, in order of preference, are GSW King Cause (Creative Cause) and Dark Shift (Dark Angel {Ire}), winner of the Royal Hunt Cup last summer at Royal Ascot.

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