hubert guy
H
UBERT GUY has had a long career in the bloodstock business. He moved to California in the early 1980s for a few months’ work experience and stayed for 35 years. He started working as a bloodstock agent when advised by a lawyer that doing some international business was a good way to get a valid visa while he was waiting for a green card. Over the years he worked with some of the leading California-based trainers and bought numerous Grade 1 winners from France to the US. He is now based in Lexington, Kentucky but over the last few months has had an outstanding run in France having bought, and for a time part-owned, two of the best three-year-olds of their generation – the Group 1-winners Zellie and the Frankel colt Onesto, last month’s impressive winner of the Grand Prix de Paris. “I had bought a horse for Elizabeth Fabre before which had worked out well,” Guy recalls when recounting the story of Zellie. “When I said I was looking to buy a foal by Wootton Bassett at the sales in 2019 she and her daughter Lavinia were keen to be partners. “We bought Zellie for €140,000 from the Haras de Grandcamp in Deauville. She had the pedigree – her dam is a half-sister to the 1,000 Guineas winner Speciosa and her second dam a half-sister to the top racemare Pride. She was a little small, but what I loved was her walk and her way of moving. “We took her back to the yearling sale in 2020, which was moved to September because of covid, and there was no interest in her at all, no vets, and when she went through the ring, no bids. “She was still a little small, still walked beautifully so she went into training with André Fabre. When he first worked her Fabre said he was pleased. “She made her debut at the end of May and won by a head at Saint-Cloud in the colours of Lavinia Fabre beating a wellregarded filly of Jean-Claude Rouget’s. “She won her next start three weeks later
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Group 1 buying
Zellie and Onesto, two of the best French three-year-olds of this year, were both purchased by bloodstock agent Hubert Guy. Guy is based in Lexington and he chats to Jocelyn de Moubray about his recent high level of success and the international bloodstock markets of France and the US
French-born bloodstock agent Hubert Guy went on a working trip to the US 35 years ago and is still there! Photo: Keeneland
