It's a Fairway up

It has been a big year for Charles Brière and Fairway Consignment with a farm bought, a Royal Ascot Group 2 winner graduate and its biggest Arqana August draft catalogued

Charles Briere

Photography by Debbie Burt

CHARLES BRIÈRE and the young Fairway Consignment had achieved several important firsts over the last year. Brière has found Fairway Consignment’s first permanent base, not far from St Julien-le-Faucon in the Vallee d’Auge in Normandy, only 40kms south of Deauville and close to the Aga Khan’s Haras de Bonneval and the Ecurie des Monceaux.

There is a new American barn and paddocks for the yearlings, but work has yet to begin on the house itself.

“It is a relief to have found somewhere,” Brière says, “as I have been in three different places since returning to France in 2014. I wanted to find somewhere not too far away from Deauville and the coast. I was born in Paris and grew up close to the city and, although I may be a country person, I didn’t want to end up in the middle of nowhere!”

He also achieved his first major winner as a consignor and pinhooker.

Brière and his partners bought a No Nay Never colt at the 2017 Tattersalls December foal sale for 65,000gns from Houghton Bloodstock. This was a lot of money for the sire as No Nay Never’s top-priced colt at the sale made 75,000gns.

We liked No Nay Never, the colt’s physique and his pedigree as his dam is a half-sister to the dam of Dabirsim. He didn’t walk but we felt that he would improve as he grew.

The opinion turned out to have been a series of good calls. By the time the 2018 Arqana August Sale came around No Nay Never had developed into a leading first-season sire with more than 15 winners and several Group and stakes performers.

Fairway’s colt was the only one in the sale in Deauville and had progressed sufficiently to sell for €260,000 to MV Magnier.

And this was just the beginning. After finishing second on his debut the colt, now called Arizona, won his maiden by 8l at The Curragh at the end of May and then went on to Royal Ascot to win the Group 2 Coventry Stakes.

Another first came a little earlier at the end of 2018 when Brière felt secure enough to take on his first full-time employee after several winters where he took care of the mares and young horses on the farm alone.

“I enjoy being on the farm alone,” he says, “but obviously it is a plus to have somebody who can share the daily tasks and take care of anything the horses need.”

Aside from the foals who come from the sales – last year Fairway and partners invested in eight – Fairway also takes a few mares for the breeding season before the yearling preparation starts.

Brière, who is now in his early 30s, was not born into the racing world.

“My father was a banker and my mother a painter,” he explains, “and I was not supposed to end up doing this. When I first realised there was little point my continuing with academic studies my mother in particular was very supportive and told me to follow the path I wanted.

“My interest in horses began through riding when I was young.

Once I had switched to a practical agricultural course I was sent by chance to do some work experience at the Haras de Hoguenet. It was my first contact with the racing and breeding world.”

It is a world he has lived in ever since, beginning with six months working for Bill Dwan at Castlebridge Farm in Ireland.

“When I arrived I knew little and didn’t even speak English! I used to work with a French/English phrase book in my back pocket,” he remembers.

From Castlebridge he moved on to Coolmore. “I worked in every different branch during my years at Coolmore,” he says, “although most of my time was spent with yearlings and I worked at the sales in Newmarket for both Barronstown and Glenvale.

“I did work with the stallions, but I realised I wanted to work with yearlings. Things change more quickly with the young stock and there are more decisions to be made.

“I spent some weeks at Ballydoyle with Aidan O’Brien, too, and it was he who helped me to find a position working for Peter O’Callaghan at Woods Edge Farm in Kentucky.”

Yearling filly by Kendargent

O’Callaghan, who is the son of Gay and Annette O’Callaghan of Yeomanstown Stud, has built up Woods Edge into one of the leading consignors and pinhookers in Kentucky, prepping and consigning around 80-90 yearlings each season mainly for the Keeneland September Sale and the Fasig-Tipton October Sale.

“It was very hard work, but I learnt a great deal,” summarises Brière. “Being young and working in Kentucky was a great and enjoyable experience, but I wanted to come back to Europe. My first plan was to find a position as a yearling manager on one of the established farms in France.

“I didn’t find anything suitable and after working at the Haras de Bouquetot for six months decided to set up on my own.”

“Things change more quickly with the young stock and there are more decisions to be made

The first Fairway Consignment draft appeared at the 2015 Arqana August Sale where it sold two yearlings, including a Kendargent colt for €105,000.

“We had bought the Kendargent colt for €55,000 as a foal at the Arqana December Sale, so it was a good beginning.”

Brière chose the name Fairway after a place near Palm Beach which meant something to him. It was only later that he realised it is also the name of a champion belonging to Lord Derby, who raced in the 1920s, and of what was once the biggest bloodstock agency in France run by Alain Decrion and Guy Armengol!

OVER THE LAST FOUR YEARS Fairway has grown quickly. In 2019 it will present 13 in the main part of the August Sale and a handful more in the V2 sale which follows it.

It will offer its first draft of yearlings in Newmarket with two due to go to October Book 2 and over the yearling season in total it will offer some 50-60 yearlings at Arqana, Osarus and Tattersalls.

“I want to experience the market in Newmarket as a consignor,” reasons Brière. “The future is unclear with Brexit, but clearly as a consignor you need to have the option of going to sell in different places.”

For the immediate future Fairway’s business plan is to focus on consigning and buying foals to resell. Yearling preparation and consigning is a seasonal business, even if the season lasts from June when the prep begins to the February sale.

Brière has a regular team who work with him for the prep and the presentation at the sales during this period.

For the pinhooking he has worked with Hubert Guy, the US-based French bloodstock agent.

“Hubert was one of the first to propose working with me,” he explains. “And with other partners we bought seven or eight foals together last year. There was a time when there were few good foals on offer at Arqana and, as a result, there were few Irish pinhookers. It produced some opportunities, but this is changing fast and the quality of foals on offer in France is better.”

Fairway’s 2019 Arqana August draft includes a No Nay Never colt out of Je t’Adore, who was bought for 120,000gns as a foal in Newmarket as well as a Showcasing colt out of Just Joan who made 130,000gns at the same sale.

At the beginning of the sales prep Brière is, of course, positive about all of his draft.

One relatively cheap buy he enthuses about is a colt from the first crop of Dariyan out of a half-sister to the Wertheimers’ good threeyear-old Shaman, who was bought for only 16,000gns and will sell on the Monday of the August Sale.

“Are some foals too good-looking, and others not good looking enough?”

Brière turns over the questions. There are, of course, no definitive answers, and as the O’Callaghan family and others have shown the only answer which find the solutions are hard work and experience.