Given that the lots are being auctioned for legal reasons as part of her estate, it has been agreed with the Bryant family to hold the sale at a later date.

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Freddy Powell, Arqana's Executive Director, said, “For administrative reasons, the late Mrs. Bryant's estate must be auctioned off, however, some of her family members are determined to keep her silks on French racecourses once the legal issues are resolved. Please do not hesitate to contact the Arqana team, Richard Powell or the trainers for further information.”

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In addition to Richard, who bought the 222-acre farm from his father in 2013, Powell was the father of Freddy, the executive director at Arqana; Leo Powell, a trainer in California; and stepfather to trainer Arnaud Delacour.

During his career, Powell was a longtime contributor of articles on racing and breeding for several major publications in France, Britain and the United States, including Pacemaker and the Thoroughbred Daily News. He was a breeder, owner, manager and trainer of racehorses in France, most recently serving as the European-based racing manager for owner Magalen O. “Maggie” Bryant, one of France's most successful steeplechase owners, who passed away herself June 28, 2021. Powell did the pretraining and layup for her horses, and their recent successes included the G1 Grand Steeplechase of Paris, the oldest and most prestigious jump race in Paris, which they won in 2015 with Milord Thomas. They won the race the following year with So French, who came back to win it again in 2017.

Powell was born in Argentina to an American father and a German mother. His father was a diplomat, and during the family's travels, he went to Longchamp and discovered horse racing. He came to New York to study, and wrote for the Daily Racing Form while still a student at Columbia University. He was one of the original 120 fax subscribers to the TDN.

“He was the consummate horseman,” said Johnathan Miller, Bryant's American equine advisor. “He was very knowledgeable and very meticulous. He was passionate about all the horses that he cared for. I knew his health had not been good, but I know that the death of Maggie Bryant was a real gut punch for him. Those two were an amazing partnership. It was awesome to watch him with Maggie and the reason she was so successful in France was due to his genius.”

In a TDN article on Richard Powell in 2021, Chris McGrath asked what he had learned from his father. “Always to give your best,” Powell said. “And always to search for solutions, to find answers. Even today, I still have questions for him-and he gives me, I wouldn't say the pleasure but the 'envie' to seek the right thing for the right horse. Because you have to work on them all individually, to find the right balance for each one.”

Powell, Remi Bellocq and Pierre Bellocq | courtesy Remi Bellocq

Remi Bellocq, who along with his father Pierre “Peb” Bellocq, were old family friends and who had his first job in racing working for David Powell, said, “With the passing of David Powell, the Bellocq family have lost an old and dear friend and, in my case, a wonderful early mentor. And racing has lost one of its imortant pioneers. Few are aware that before one could find an obscure bloodline through the touch of a smart phone button, there was was only David Powell. My sympathies to his family.”

“A very sad day indeed,” Anthony Bromley of Highflyer Bloodstock tweeted. “David Powell was a very special man with immense passion for the sport he loved and the horses he nurtured, produced and often mended. His eye for a champion was unparalleled and he taught me so much. I cannot believe he has gone. Please rest peacefully.”

“It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of our racing manager in France, David Powell,” co-owner Simon Munir of Double Green tweeted. “A pioneer who loved our sport and put heart and soul into #Doublegreen. RIP dear David. Our prayers and thoughts are with David and his family.”

Added Tinnakill House Stud's Dermot Cantillon on Twitter, “Sad to hear of the passing of David Powell. A great friend for many years. Always enjoyed and looked forward to his company. I valued his opinion as it was based on a mixture of research, fact and experience. Sincere condolences to his family.”

He is survived by his three children, and his wife, Elisabeth.

Information on services will be published when it is made available.

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The two others to surpass the six-figure threshold on the day were the 7-year-old mare Black Luna (Fr) (Soldier Of Fortune {GB}) (lot 834) in foal to Masked Marvel (GB), bought by Chauvigny Global Equine for €125,000; and the 9-year-old mare Femme En Or (Fr) (Astarabad) (lot 837) in foal to Buck's Boum (Fr). She was bought by Yeo Barton Bloodstock for €120,000.

The National Hunt breeding stock session of the Arqana Autumn Sale was being staged for the second time, and figures were well up on 2020 with 291-head having changed hands for €9,218,500, at an average of €31,679 and a median of €20,000.

Eric Hoyeau, president of Arqana, and Freddy Powell, executive director, said upon conclusion of the sale, “The aim of this week, which we put in place last year, was to encourage reinvestment by creating a sequence of specific sales: horses in training including jumpers, stores and yearlings, ending with a day entirely dedicated to breeding stock. After these three days, we can only be positive. The results exceeded our expectations and we would like to thank all our consignors who have put their trust in this new format. The market was very strong and the majority of the National Hunt professionals were present from start to finish from France, Ireland, England and Eastern Europe.”

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Her biggest success in U.S. flat racing came in the 2014 GI Travers S. when her V.E. Day (English Channel) won by a nose. V.E. Day was retired in 2016 after making four starts in France and currently stands at Buck Pond Farm. Bryant was 85 when she won the Travers.

Outside of racing, Bryant was known as a prominent environmentalist based in Virginia. Bryant owned Locust Hill Farm in Middleburg, Va., a 2,400-acre Angus and Hereford cattle operation in Virginia, and was among the first property owners in the area to place her land in a conservation trust. She became the chairperson of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and received the Land Trust of Virginia's Conservationist of the Year Award in 2011.

Johnathan Miller, the former Deputy Director of the Peace Corps in Africa, was a friend and racing advisor for many years.

“We were very, very close friends,” said Miller. “I not only did things with her which revolved around horses, but she had a passion for conservation as well. She was very close to Randall Moore, who created an elephant sanctuary in Botswana. People would come up with creative ideas for her and she was always willing; for example, after the Civil War had decimated Angola, she financed the moving of the surplus of elephants from Botswana to Angola. That was the sort of creative way in which she was always helping. She was involved in a major conservation activity with 6,000 acres in Mississippi. She was very interested in everything. She burned the candle in 84 different ways simultaneously. She had a love of life that was insatiable. She was a scratch tennis player, a scratch golfer, a superb fox hunter. She was an entrepreneur. She financed the first private toll road in over 100 years in the Dulles Greenway. She was a real risk taker and I mean that in the most positive way.”

In racing, Bryant enjoyed most of her success in the steeplechase ranks, both in the U.S. and in Europe. Her biggest passion in racing was for French steeplechasers. Taking over the family stable after her father, George Ohrstrom Sr., a business partner of Christopher Chenery's, passed away, she was the first female owner to win the G1 Grand Steeplechase of Paris, the oldest and most prestigious jump race in Paris, which she did in 2015 with Milord Thomas. She then went on to win it in 2016 with So French, who came back to win it again in 2017.

“It has been an honor and a huge pleasure to have been involved with Maggie Bryant,” said Richard Powell, who raised and kept Bryant's breeding stock at Haras du Lieu des Champs in Normandy, France. “She was more than an owner to me but a close member of my family. She was always with me in the good times, but as well in the not good ones, when I needed her the most.”

Bryant's stable of jumpers in France was active at the time of her death. As recently as Wednesday, her Want of a Nail (Fr) finished third in a Group 3 jump race at Auteuil. In the U.S., she won the 2013 GI Lonesome Glory H with Gustavian and her Ptarmigan won the Life's Illusion Filly and Mare championship in 2011.

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