La Route des Etalons | Horse Racing Free Tips

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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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On Paper, On Course, Onesto Had Plenty in his Favour

Blood will out, so they say, and in the case of Onesto (Ire) this is certainly true. The most cursory glance at his pedigree gives you two of the most talked about and revered racehorses of the modern era – his sire Frankel (GB) and broodmare sire Sea The Stars (Ire). But it pretty much goes without saying when it comes to Frankel's offspring that there's an awful lot more going on as you take a closer look at his page.

Bred by American-based Adam Bowden of Diamond Creek Farm, Onesto could just as easily have appeared in the Juddmonte studbook. In fact, just one generation back his family does just that. His dam Onshore (GB) was sold to Bowden by Juddmonte as a three-year-old for 320,000gns.

“Her pedigree was the huge draw for me,” Bowden said in a TDN interview back in 2022. It is easy to see why. Onshore is a daughter of Kalima (GB) (Kahyasi {GB}), who is a full-sister to the celebrated Hasili (GB), dam of the stallions Dansili (GB), Champs Elysees (GB) and Cacique (GB) as well as the top racemares Banks Hill (GB), Intercontinental (GB) and Heat Haze (GB).

He added, “We had circled the mare and my agent Mike Akers went to see her and said, 'well if you're willing to spend what it takes to buy her, then I think she is the type of filly that we want.' And it worked out.”

Indeed it did. Onesto was stopping the clock even before his first race, with an eye-catching breeze in Ocala, Florida which sent agent Hubert Guy running almost as fast to ensure that he could assemble a syndicate to buy and race Onesto.

That team, which contributed to him being bought for $535,000, consisted of the former champion trotting trainer, driver and breeder Jean-Etienne Dubois, his father Jean-Pierre-Joseph Dubois, Ecurie Hunter Valley, Ecurie Billon, Onesto's trainer Fabrice Chappet and Guy himself. Crucially, too, Haras d'Etreham was involved from the start and now, after a Group 1-winning career, that is where Onesto finds himself as he embarks on his second career as a stallion.

Nicolas de Chambure of Haras d'Etreham recalls, “We got a funny phone call from Hubert Guy after he breezed, and he said that he saw something special from a horse that was not meant to do what he did that early in his career, and because of his breeding. And he said he had a lot of faith in the horse since he saw him breeze. So it was mainly him and Jean-Etienne Dubois at the time that put a syndicate together. And we participated because we agreed that we saw something a bit different, a bit special. And that's how it all started.”

Having returned to Europe to begin his training at Chappet's Chantilly yard, the chestnut colt made his winning debut over a mile at Chantilly that September.

“Onesto got a Rising Star from the TDN when he won first time out,” de Chambure says. “He arrived in Chantilly in June with Fabrice Chappet. Fabrice was taking his time with him. He didn't want to rush him into into fast work too early, but you know, the more he was doing with him, the more he was seeing things that the breeze-up suggested. And it was excitement and relief and a bit of a mix when he won so well in a very good maiden in Chantilly. And the way he did it, with that great turn of foot. The dream was really alive then.”

A below-par run when eighth in the G3 Prix de Fontainebleau on his first start at three may have felt like a setback at the time, but Onesto soon put that behind him when winning another important Classic trial, the G2 Prix Greffulhe, on his next start three weeks later.

His wide draw in gate 14 did not help his chances in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club, in which Onesto was fifth behind Vadeni (Fr) but he again bounced back, this time for his first start in the colours of his new part-owner Gerard Augustin-Normand in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris. Following that first success at the top level, Onesto returned to the land of his birth to run a fine second to Luxembourg (Ire) in the G1 Irish Champion S., with Vadeni just behind him that time.

“His career has been [a mixture of] great results and unlucky moments as well. He got some bad draws, sometimes it was the wrong ground,” says de Chambure in reference to the heavy conditions the horse encountered in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe of 2022. “But, you know, every time things went his way, he showed how good he was, with that turn of foot, and that he was a true Group 1 horse and Group 1 winner.

“The Grand Prix de Paris is becoming one of the main race days in France of the year because it's Bastille Day, so there is a big concert and a lot of people at the races and a great atmosphere. He beat a really good field that day.”

Remaining in training as a four-year-old, Onesto warmed up with a fourth-place finish over a mile in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois and also took third, beaten just a length and three-quarters when making his second appearance in the Arc last season.

De Chambure continues, “In France you have to have that tactical speed to quicken and that's his main attribute, I think. His last 600 metres in the Arc were amazing and he was only beaten a head for second. His last 200 metres were the quickest of the race.”

Onesto's team of owners, a number of whom are also noted breeders, remains fully behind him at stud.

“It was good because there were some new owners in the game, so it was great for them. There were some older people that have been involved in racing all their life. So it was a good mix,” de Chambure adds. “All of the people that were involved in his career are staying involved for his stallion career. And you know, he's got such a good pedigree, he could really make it as a stallion, and the journey continues because the group is the same. We've opened the horse for syndication but they all stayed involved at a level in the horse.”

Haras d'Etreham's long history of standing stallions includes the recent extraordinary turnaround of Wootton Bassett (GB), from a one-time €4,000 sire to his eventual sale to Coolmore and his current place as the joint-second-most expensive stallion in Europe. It would be no easy feat to emulate that story but de Chambure feels confident that Onesto has enough qualities to at least pique breeders' interest at this crucial early stage.

“When you talk to breeders, you feel that the last few years, some good horses have done it coming from lighter pedigrees and it was more the racing and the [horse's] sire that were important,” he says. “Then a horse like Onesto retires, coming from one of the best Juddmonte families. And suddenly, breeders come to us and say they're so excited about this horse because he's so well bred. So it is very important to breeders, and it gives him credit. It gives him, I think, more chance than just another horse.”

Onesto's next test comes when the doors of the Haras d'Etreham stallion unit are thrown wide to welcome visitors during this weekend Route des Etalons. He's bound to be busy, but de Chambure is not worried about him coping with the extra attention.

He says, “He's travelled the world. He's been to Japan, he's been to America, he's been to the breeze-ups in Florida. So, you know, he's got a great mind and he has settled really well here.”

The post On Paper, On Course, Onesto Had Plenty in his Favour appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

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Hitch Your Wagon for the Stallion Trails

There is an undertone of negativity surrounding horseracing these days, almost all of which is generated by its participants and followers, and greatly exacerbated by the increasingly unpleasant arena that is social media. Where once Twitter was fun and we all gained excellent insight into trainers' yards and, for some, their sense of humour, now X marks the spot at which we should perhaps consciously uncouple from twits and trolls.

Let's get out more. And where better to start than by hitching a ride on the stallion trails? This Friday marks the tenth anniversary of the two-day ITM Irish Stallion Trail which was started in response to the rising popularity of Normandy's La Route des Etalons, which made its debut in 2011 and this year takes place on January 20 and 21.

A recent house move by my old Pacemaker boss Julian Muscat meant that I was gifted a huge pile of Stud & Stable magazines dating back to the 1960s. I've always held firmly to the belief that time spent reading is never time wasted, and only daily deadlines have dragged me away from this pile which has so far been a source of delight and education in equal measure. After all, the best way to avoid present unpleasantness is to bury oneself in the past. It's not only a great diversion, but also a reminder that the problems we face now are not that much different to those faced 50 or 100 years ago. Open up any edition of the Bloodstock Breeders' Review and you're likely to find someone bemoaning the fact that stallions are covering too many mares, though too many 50 years ago was 60 instead of 40. There may well be some grave-spinning at the current book sizes.

In the May 1968 edition of Stud & Stable, at the price of seven shillings and sixpence and with a rather nice cover painting of Lord Leverhulme on a hunter surrounded by mares and a lurcher, there can be found a report by Michael Ross on what was perhaps the first unofficial 'route des etalons'. Ross's tour of Normandy was a bit more of a beano than this correspondent's has been in recent years. He spent a whole week driving around with two pals, visiting 32 studs and inspecting 66 stallions. Impressive.

Some of those mentioned are now no longer in operation as Thoroughbred studs but, comfortingly, a good number of them live on. We hear of Mme Couturié's Haras du Mesnil, where the French Guineas winner Blue Tom (Fr) had recently taken up duties alongside the farm's most famous resident and fellow Classic winner, Right Royal (Fr). These days, Couturié's grandson Henri Devin and his wife Antonia keep the Mesnil name in lights and they have recently taken charge of the G1 Champion S. winner Bay Bridge (GB) to stand alongside the popular Doctor Dino (Fr).

Ross also calls in at Haras de Mortrée, which he describes as “one of the principal vendors at Deauville each year”. He is shown around by the young stud manager Antoine Bozo. Sound familiar? Bozo, who later managed Haras du Mézeray and died in 2020 at the age of 83, was the father of Henri Bozo of Ecurie des Monceaux, which can also be described as one of the principal vendors at Deauville each year.

I can almost hear you thinking “get to the point”, so let's try. This Friday and Saturday 37 farms in Ireland will throw open their doors to visitors, with 156 stallions on show, from the properly established to the up-and-coming, and of course the latest intake, which includes Paddington (GB), Good Guess (GB), Pyledriver (GB) and Native Trail (GB). If you've missed Authorized (Ire), sire of the wonderful Tiger Roll (Ire), since he left Britain for France then Turkey, he has recently been repatriated to the land of his birth and you can call in to see him at Capital Stud, one of Ireland's newest stallion operations.

It is certainly worth checking out the informative Irish Stallion Trail pages on the ITM website to plan your route. Registration is suggested, and is compulsory for visitors to Coolmore, and not all studs are open both days. You will find opening hours under the listing for each stud.

They say that there is no point getting older if you don't get a little wiser. I don't have an abundance of wisdom to impart generally but as a veteran of stallion trails I would say that less is more (and by that I don't necessarily mean when it comes to the generous hospitality on offer).

When these initiatives first started I took the view that I had to try to see as many studs as possible all in one weekend. Big mistake. Approach this weekend as if it's merely part one: you can always return next year. Study the map and try to pick a few within reasonable proximity to each other so you can properly appreciate not just the stallions, but also the farms and their surrounding countryside, chatting with fellow visitors, and of course the aforementioned hospitality.

In previous years I have toured with Nancy Sexton in Ireland and Alix Choppin in France, and far be it from me to question my dear friends' navigation skills but we spent an awful lot of time attempting to find Ballylinch Stud and Haras de Bonneval respectively. Let's just say we had them surrounded.

The time wasted negotiating three-point turns in country lanes in Co Kilkenny in particular happened to be in the year that the stallion trail coincided with the Bacchanalian gathering otherwise known as the ITBA Awards. The long hours on the road, culminating in a dram or two of Maurice Burns's whiskey during our last port of call at Rathasker Stud, meant a shamefully early departure from the dance floor, though in our defence the dancing at the ITBA Awards never really starts until the wee small hours at the earliest.

If you manage to see Workforce (GB), Waldgeist (GB) and Sottsass (Fr) in Ireland this weekend, in France a week later you can view the latest winner of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Ace Impact (Ire), who drew plenty of visitors during Arqana's Breeding Stock Sale in early December. He is the most expensive new stallion in the country and is bound to ensure that Haras de Beaumont remains busy during the route des etalons, which includes 20 studs and 97 stallions.

The French TBA has compiled another excellent website with a full list of farms and stallions, as well as that all-important map. Depending on which studs you would like to visit there is often quite a bit of driving to be done, but even in gloomy January a tour through Calvados country and beyond does wonders to lift the spirits.

Back on that first official route des etalons in 2011, Elusive City topped France's list of stallions at a covering fee of €15,000. It is not simply this initiative which has helped to revive the French breeding industry, though it is easy to believe that it has helped. That was also the first year Siyouni (Fr) stood on the Aga Khan Studs roster, at an introductory fee of €7,000. Now he's top of the pops and commands the lofty nomination price of €200,000. They were shrewd breeders who backed him in the early days.

Guessing who will follow in his wake is all part of the fun of being involved in the breeding industry. So let's leave the naysayers to their doom-scrolling and take to the great outdoors to see if we can narrow it down ourselves with some important research on the stallion trails.

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French Stallion Trail Dates Set For January

The Route des Etalons will be held in Normandy from Jan. 20-21, 2024. Featuring many of the best French stud farms, La Route des Etalons will allow breeders and racing fans to view some of the best stallions in France. For more information, please visit the La Route des Etalons website.

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