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Exciting times at Haras d’Etréham with sires Wootton Bassett and Almanzor.

Jocelyn de Moubray chats with Nicolas de Chambure

Nicolas de Chambure is a young man running one of Europe’s most important commercial stud farms, but he was younger still when he took over the reins of the family stud Haras d’étréham from his uncle Marc de Chambure in January 2011.

The same year he bought a stallion prospect and a filly out of training, both at very much the lower end of their respective markets. The pair, Wootton Bassett and Darkova, have proved to be hugely profitable investments, who have helped to give étréham a new boost and the opportunity to consolidate its position as a leader in the European and international market.

Nicolas is the fourth generation of his family to run the stud, which was bought by his great-grandfather Hubert de Chambure at the end of the 1940s. étréham is in the Bessin region of Normandy, close to the city of Bayeux and to the sea, only a few miles from Omaha Beach. Any visitor to the stud is struck by the beauty of the miles-long avenue, which zig-zags through pastures from the gates to the heart of the stud, and the Château with its proximity of the sea. It may be out of sight, but its scent and influence on the weather is always there.

His grandfather Roland de Chambure took over the farm at the beginning of the 1950s and made étréham a name in the international breeding world.

Roland de Chambure bred champions on his own and in partnership with Alec Head, and he stood champion stallions, notably Lyphard and Luthier. After his sudden death the dispersal of his partnership with Head, the Ecurie Aland, was of one the sales of the decade at Newmarket.

Roland de Chambure’s son Marc took over and during his time in charge the stud bred and sold as yearlings Urban Sea and King’s Best and, during what was a difficult time for French racing and breeding, Etréham dominated the Deauville August Sale.

“I was only three years old when my grandfather Roland died in 1988,” explains Nicolas, “and so I have no direct memories of him. In 2010, Marc decided to take up a position with Arqana and so the family decided that I would take over from him running the stud.”

Nicolas de Chambure’s father Eric is an architect and Nicolas was raised in Paris. “I spent my holidays at Etréham,” he recalls. “And from the time I was a teenager I wanted to be involved and started to work on the stud. After going to a business school in Paris I went to Ireland to do the Irish National Stud course and to work for Goffs, and then on to Three Chimneys in Kentucky and a stint with David Hayes in Australia.”

In September 2011, Nicolas was looking to buy a stallion prospect for étréham at a reasonable level. Wootton Bassett was proposed to him and he went with British agent Ed Sackville to inspect the horse at Richard Fahey’s stable.

“In 2011, the French stallion market was still very subdued and I didn’t have a huge budget,” de Chambure remembers. “Wootton Bassett appealed to me as he was a champion two-year-old in France and I had loved his race in the Group 1 Prix Jean Luc Lagardère.

“His three-year-old career had not been a success, but that gave me the chance to acquire him. I liked him physically when I saw him in Yorkshire – he is a great walker and has presence.

“Ed [Sackville] played a big part in getting the deal done as the owners were of course very disappointed at how his value had reduced over the year.”

The deal, however, was done and Etréham bought 75 per cent of the son of Iffraaj with the other 25 per cent being taken up by an investment fund run with Ghislain Bozo. étréham had a new stallion, a Group 1 winner from the first crop of a champion first-season sire in Iffraaj. Yet for the next few years things did not at all follow the plan.

“The original idea was that we would be able to pay for some of the purchase by selling shares in the horse,” says de Chambure. “Unfortunately we succeeded in selling only one share – to Colin Bryce of Laundry Cottage Stud, the breeder of Wootton Bassett.

“I then made another youthful error in taking the horse to the December Sale in Deauville to show him to breeders. He did not look great having just come out of training and I don’t think we did anything other than put people off him.”

In his first two seasons Wootton Bassett covered only 20 mares, most of whom belonged to Etréham.

In 2011, de Chambure decided to buy around ten mares to support Wootton Bassett. Darkova was one of his purchases costing €16,000. She was an unraced three-year-old daughter of Maria’s Mon offered by the Aga Khan Studs.

“I thought she would suit Wootton Bassett,” he says. “She is a well-balanced mare, not too big or too small, she comes from a good Aga Khan family and her dam is a half-sister to the dam of the champion Darjina, a daughter of Zamindar.

“Wootton Bassett is a grandson of Zafonic, Zamindar’s half-brother, and so mating him with Darkova set up a similar cross.”

This was another one of Nicolas’s ideas, which took a bit of time to come to fruition.

“Almanzor was not a good foal,” he laughs. “We had several better Wootton Bassett foals on the farm, and he had a few issues when he was young.

“He started to improve when he had been weaned and then during his spring as a yearling he was transformed. By the time August came he was a very good-looking yearling and was bought by Jean Claude Rouget for €100,000.”

By this time things had already started to brighten up for Wootton Bassett. His first foals were a big success at the 2013 Deauville December Sale averaging nearly ten times his initial fee of €6,000.

As a result Wootton Bassett covered 50 mares in 2014 and 2015, producing the three-year-olds and two-year-olds of 2018.

Almanzor then changed everything. Under Rouget’s care and carrying the colours of Antonio Caro he dominated the 2016 Flat season winning Group 1s in France, Ireland and England and ending the year as Europe’s champion three-year-old with an official rating of 129.

“After Almanzor had won the Irish Champion Stakes we decided to buy back into the horse,” de Chambure remembers. “Plenty of people wanted to buy him as a stallion, but we thought it would be a shame to retire such a champion as a three-year-old and so we bought 50 per cent of the horse with our

“Wootton Bassett and Almanzor have certainly made things easier. It has been a great thrill and incentive for all of the team on the stud partners with a view to racing him at four and trying to win the Arc de Triomphe with him.”

The same autumn Wootton Bassett was finally fully syndicated. Etréham retained 45 per cent of the horse and the new shareholders included leading breeders from all over the world. The stallion has been fully booked ever since covering 130 mares in 2017 and 2018 at €20,000.

Unfortunately, Almanzor’s racing career was brought to premature end after he was one of those who caught the virus in Rouget’s stable at the beginning of 2017.

His new part-owners had had the joy of watching him win the Champion Stakes (G1) at Ascot before having to endure such an unexpected disappointment. The horse did recover and he saw 140 mares during his first season at stud at étreham.

This year Almanzor travels to Cambridge Stud in New Zealand for the southern-hemisphere season.

Darkova has a two-year-old full-brother to Almanzor called Rey Pelayo, who was retained by étréham and is in training with Fabrice Chappet.

“His trainer likes him,” de Chambure adds, “and he should make his debut this autumn, if everything goes to plan.”

Darkova was sold privately to George Strawbridge in-foal to Le Havre in 2016. She is still based at étréham and has a yearling colt by Le Havre, a foal full-brother to Almanzor and is in-foal to Frankel.

Success creates momentum in any business and this is particularly true in the bloodstock world where recent victories change the value of everything.

“Wootton Bassett and Almanzor have certainly made things easier,” smiles de Chambure. “It has been a great thrill and incentive for all of the team on the stud, and it has made it easier to find partners and opportunities outside.

“People want to be part of, or partners with, an operation which is investing and building for the future.”

“It will take a generation to change the way racing is viewed and appreciated in France, but we have many advantages here

In a world where finding the right staff can be very difficult étréham has the advantage of an experienced team.

Farm manager Ludivine Marchand-Morin has been at Etreham for nearly 20 years, while commercial manager Franck Champion has been there for more than 20 years.

Selling yearlings is still an important part of étreham’s business plan and the farm has 23 entered in the Deauville August Sale and another five in the V2 section.

However, the yearling sales are not quite as important to the business as they used to be.

“The yearling market is very selective and not every yearling with potential is suited to the market,” de Chambure explains. “We keep more fillies to race these days and own, together with different partners, shares in some 25 horses in training in France and some others in England, Australia and the US.

“There is a strong market for horses in training and it makes sense to try to give value on the racecourse to some we bred.”

Etréham has 23 yearlings entered in the first section at Arqana August and five in the V2, but the farm is keeping more of its fillies and has shares in 25 horses in training around the world

Around 90 mares are based at Etréham of whom the stud owns about half. “We are always trying to upgrade our broodmare band,” adds de Chambure. “For the future we would like to reduce the number of boarding mares and take on mares in which we have a share ourselves.” Etréham is also a leading jumping farm and stands one of the best jumping sires in Europe in Saint Des Saints, as well as the younger NH sires Masked Marvel and Kamsin.

“We are planning,” he explains, “to develop both the Flat and jumping sides of the business in the future. It is possible that we may create a different structure for each part, but for the time being we are just thinking about the best way forward.”

The French breeding and sales markets have been transformed over the years since Nicolas de Chambure took the helm at étréham. The French stallion market is far more competitive than it was – Wootton Bassett is just one of several proven international sires and Almanzor one of a handful at of high class new sires in France.

“There is more competition,” de Chambure reasons, “but the market is bigger too. I am optimistic for the future of racing and breeding in France. There remains a lot to be done and France Galop still has a great many things to achieve, but it would be unrealistic to think it is possible to transform something so complex in just a few years.

“It will take a generation to change the way racing is viewed and appreciated in France, but we have many advantages. My life would have been a lot more complicated if the family stud had been in Italy!”