11 minute read
A European Ace
NOW THAT things have settled down after the amazing performance of French-trained and bred Ace Impact at ParisLongchamp some surprising figures can be noted. The size of the foal crop in France is stable, with a small increase for the last five years, yet the numbers of horses trained in France has dropped by a 1,000 over the last decade.
Looking at it from that perspective, it’s not a surprise that so many French-bred horses are winning abroad, but it’s quite unexpected that the best European horse is trained in France.
The co-dependency of French and German racing
Ace Impact was bred in France by the German couple Waltraut and Karl Spanner, and the colt’s story reveals the situation that can be seen on the ground: that French and German racing are very much now two pieces of the same puzzle.
With prize-money collapsing in many European countries, owners and trainers have decided to run as often as they can and take advantage of the generous racing programme in France.
In return, and more than ever, the French racing system relies on foreign horses to be sustainable, as the Gallic Tote – aka Le PMU – desperately needs runners: there are not enough horses in training in France to support the number of races and the betting turnover.
Foreign raiders are completely integrated into the system. Every year they represent 10 per cent of the total runners on the Flat – they compete in the smallest claiming races in the French countryside to Group 1 events in Paris.
Forget the dozens of English and Irish horses who cross the Channel for black-type races – among the 5,000 runners who are trained outside of France yet race in the country many come from Spain, the Czech Republic, Poland, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal. However Germany is the biggest provider of runners for the French racetracks – French racing is completely part of the daily life of the German racing community.
And the owners of those horses with German trainers understand that if they are going to run their horses so much in France, then their horses in training should have the benefit of French premiums.
This is just one reason that has pushed so many German breeders to buy studs in the French countryside, or to board their mares in France.
Ace Impact’s breeders Waltraut and Karl Spanner live near to Baden-Baden. They do not come from a racing background, but a passion for horses brought them to the sport. They have now owned racehorses in Germany for many years, but they decided to relocate their broodmares and horses in training.
“We prefer to breed and race in France. Of course, there is the prize-money and the premiums, but it’s not only that,” said Karl Spanner. “France provides a larger programme and the possibility of running with more regularity, on a daily basis and against better quality opposition.”
And while they have mentioned that it is not only the premiums that are attractive, Ace Impact has collected them a handsome €272,029. Something not to be ignored!
As the couple do not speak French, they have boarded their mares at Haras du Long Champ in Normandy, a stud that is owned and directed by Barbara Moser.
“She’s German and that’s a great help for us in terms of communication,”explains Spanner. “She also helps us with our mating plans.
"We like the fact that Barbara and her partner are at the head of a small farm and they take care of the horses themselves.”
With a small mare band and limited funding, Haras du Long Champ is now known in France to punch “above its weight” having bred a dozen Group horses, including the six-time Group 1-placed Light Infantry (Fast Company), but also the Prix de Jockey-Club runner-up Patascoy (Wootton Bassett), the Group 3 winners Mythico (Adlerflug), as well as the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf runner-up Testa Rossi (Dr Fong). They must do something right!
An old French line
Ace Impact’s pedigree traces to an old French family, which is based on La Grêlée (Helicon). She was born in 1918 and was a key broodmare at the famous Haras du Mesnil, where Doctor Dino is based now.
Her offspring spread around Europe and she is an ancestor of Ouija Board (Cape Cross) and her son Australia (Galileo).
Barakat (Bustino), a sister to the high-class Ibn Bey (Mill Reef), comes from the same female line and she was bought in the 1980s by the late Sheikh Hamdan.
Barakat did not turn out to be an outstanding broodmare at Shadwell, but she was good enough to deliver the farm with 11 winners, including two minor black-type Flat winners.
Angus Gold advised Eric Puerari of Haras des Capucines to buy Tadawul (Diesis), a daughter of Barakat.
A feminine filly with imperfect hocks, Tadawul was a decent broodmare, and five of her seven runners were winners. Before being sold to Turkey – where she has produced at least one daughter – she gave birth in Normandy to Absolutly Me (Anabaa Blue).
You could have bought the dam
Although he was a Classic winner with a perfect pedigree Anabaa Blue (Anabaa) failed as a stallion, and when Absolutly Me was a yearling her sire was already known for being a commercial disappointment.
Anabaa Blue moved from stud to stud before finally ending up at the Hungarian National Stud.
It was not exactly the most commercial profile for Absolutly Me, and Puerari sold her privately to a client of the Chantilly-based trainer Myriam Bollack-Badel.
On starting to receive the first bills that every owner is supposed to pay, this client soon realised that having horses was expensive and he decided to sell the yearling filly as soon as possible.
Absolutly Me first appeared in public as a supplement to the Osarus November Sale held at Le Lion d’Angers in the west of France countryside. The local (but Classicwinning) trainer Henri-Alex Pantall bought her for €16,500… and she was the top price of the 92 yearlings that were offered that day.
(With an average price of €5,422 and only half of the catalogue changing hands, it’s easy to understand why Osarus stopped this sale!)
Pantall took home the inexpensive filly and offered her to new clients who wanted to have their horses racing in France, Waltraut and Karl Spanner.
Known these days as the French trainer with the biggest number of runners, Pantall trains on his own sand track. His horses very often rarely gallop on the grass before their first race, and they usually have a big margin of progress after their debuts.
Absolutly Me had been showing plenty of promise to Pantall so he entered her in a good two-year-old mile maiden at Saint-Cloud, instead of opting to take on countryside competition.
She won by two and half lengths finishing in front of two fillies who won black-type later in their careers, and won in a very good time.
For her second and last start as a juvenile she was entered in the Listed Prix des Sablonnets, a race the trainer had won two decades before with the famous Hasili (Kahyasi). Nantes is not the fairest track of France and Absolutly Me finished third.
Unfortunately, although the filly still managed to pick up some Listed placed form through her three-year-old season, she was never the same again. The Spanners tried to give her another chance by sending her to German trainer Michael Figge, a plan that did not work out.
A very good broodmare
At stud Absolutly Me’s broodmare record is almost perfect: she has had five runners, five winners, three black-type horses.
The Spanners mated her four times with sons or grandsons of Galileo (Sadler’s Wells) to generate an inbreeding on Allegretta (Lombard) – it is a pedgiree profile very similar to the 2023 Arc third Onesto (Frankel), who is inbred to Urban Sea (Allegretta’s daughter), and the 2021 Arc winner Torquator Tasso (Adlerflug), who’s inbred via Anatevka (Allegretta’s dam).
For Absolutly Me this inbreeding produced the modest winner Adlon Rose (Nathaniel), who will be sold in December at the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale by his owners Haras des Etincelles, the Listed-placed Alessandro (Australia), Ace Impact and Arrow Eagle (Gleneagles), who is an unraced two-year-old in training with Jean-Claude Rouget for the Spanners.
She had a foal in 2023 by Waldgeist (Galileo) and was covered by Hello Youmzain (Kodiac) in March and April and then by Almanzor (Wootton Bassett) in May. The 2024 Absolutly Me mating is not planned yet.
Of the mare’s mating with Cracksman to produce Ace Impact the stallion was selected not only for the Allegretta inbreeding, but the Spanners reported that they had been really impressed by the son of Frankel as a racehorse. His impressive Prix Ganay (G1) victory certainly provided him a few French-based mares.
He was not bred to be sold
The Spanner are not strictly commercial breeders, and race many of their homebreds often with three or four horses in training.
In 2023, the Italian Oaks (G3) third Maylin (Footstepsinthesand) ran in their own colours, and when they started breeding, the dream was to have a Group 1 horse wearing their pink silks.
However, when Ace Impact was a yearling, they decided to cut the numbers a little in order to keep things sustainable.
There was some thoughts of keeping him, but as he stood out among Haras de Long Champ yearlings the decision was made to have him prepared for Arqana’s August Sale. Serge Stempniak, owner of the colt’s older half-brother Alessandro, asked Rouget to take a look, the trainer liked what he saw and paid €75,000 for the yearling by Cracksman.
The price was okay considering that the stallion’s average that year was €64,585 – yet neither was it outstanding as the sale’s average was €163,574.
He was not on the “A” team of Rouget Rouget admits that Ace Impact was not one of his Classic prospects as a two-year-old.
The horse could have debuted in the autumn but, as he was off colour on entry day, Rouget was forced to look at two choices: either a late maiden in November or wait for an easier race in January as a three-year-old.
Rouget took the second option, and Ace Impact started in one of the very first maiden races of the 2023 French racing calendar. No one would have ever imagined an Arc winner could come from a Cagnes-surMer Polytrack maiden!
From then on and from race to race, the colt progressed impressively, and the first indication of his outstanding ability came at Chantilly where he won the Prix de Suresnes (L) like a superstar.
The style of his victory pushed me to try to contact the Spanners, a very discreet couple who remained unknown to most of the French industry members, and on May 8 their first interview was published in Jour de Galop.
Ace Impact’s subsequent Jockey-Club victory in a record time produced purchase offers from all around the world.
Serge Stempniak made a bold move: he refused the massive figures from Ireland and Asia and accepted Chehboub’s offer to buy half of Ace Impact – even though it was not the biggest price. As a true countryman of France, Stempniak wanted to keep the horse in France and he felt confident in his ability to work with his new partners. Kamel Chehboub and Stempniak have the same story: two self-made men from humble beginnings who discovered racing as kids by having a bet on Sunday with family.
Both started with small horses bought in claiming races decades ago. And both have started to raise the profile of their investments only recently.
Ecstasy of victory and mixed feelings
At Longchamp, after the Arc victory the Spanners were struggling to realise what had just happened.
But who could, right?
“Honestly, we find it hard to believe… We won! He always runs the same style... and it’s not good for our hearts to see him this far down the pack!” they laughed then
“We are very happy to have our mares with Madame Moser. She does a great job and takes care of the horses perfectly. We still have the dam, it’s a waking dream for small breeders like us.”
They would probably tell you they should not have sold Ace Impact.
Racing can be cruel at times, as they just had in front of them the horse that could have fulfilled their dreams of Arc victory in their colours.
But they still have the dam and she’s only 14.
