5 minute read
Great expectations
GREAT expectations
Haie Neuve’s new owner Tangi Saliou talks about the fresh challenges ahead and the farm’s exciting young stallion, Pedro The Great
Tangi Saliou is a well known figure at the Deauville sales. For eight years Saliou was director at Haras de Montaigu and during those years he was responsible for the preparation and sale of the yearlings presented by Aliette Forien’s stud.
Those August Sale consignments included a Galileo filly, who made €1 million in 2014, the Derby winner Wings Of Eagles, who sold for €220,000 in 2015, as well as the Galileo colt Magneticjim, who is now part of his life every day – at beginning the year, Saliou became the owner and director of the Haras de la Haie Neuve.
At Arqana this August he will be standing outside his own boxes rather than those of Montaigu as the Haie Neuve will offer six yearlings in the V2 sale.
In front of his own boxes, but not yet his own yearlings.
“Alain Régnier and his wife Anne-Marie set up the Haie Neuve about 25 years ago,” explains Saliou. “They wanted to hand on the daily responsibility for the stud although they will continue to invest and be involved. I am now the owner of the stud; I rent the land and have taken a 50 per cent share in the mares and the foals.
“Part of the deal was that this year I will sell the Régnier’s yearlings – we have six for the V2 at Arqana in August, 15 for the Osarus Sale in September and 15 for Arqana’s October Sale. We prepare and consign other people’s yearlings as well as the stud’s own and in total the Haie Neuve will offer nearly 50 yearlings this year.”
Régnier moved from farming to thoroughbred breeding in the early 1990s setting up the Haie Neuve on the eastern edge of Brittany at Mondervert, which is mid-way between Laval and Rennes and about a three-hour drive south-west of Deauville.
The Haie Neuve soon established a reputation for selling sound, tough racehorses; the farm’s own horses are mostly named using Bere, an amalgamation of the names of Régnier and his wife.
The recent Group winners bred and sold by the Haie Neuve include Fatale Bere and Flamboyant, both winners of Graded races in California this year, Vizir Bere, as well as many other stakes horses such as Hurricane, Feralia and Francisco Bere.
The stud has also had great success with its stallions. Verglas stood a few seasons at the Haie Neuve and it was there that his Group 1 winner Stormy River was conceived before the son of Highest Honor was sold to the Irish National Stud.
Other successes have included Hurricane Cat, Peer Gynt and now Pedro The Great, whose first crop made a big mark in 2017. “Pedro The Great,” continues Saliou, “belongs to a syndicate headed by Alain and his partners, while Coolmore has retained some shares in the horse as well.
“He is a small, 1.61 metres or just under 16h, but is a strongly built horse – he is made like a bull and many of his progeny look like him.
"They tend to be strong and precocious and for the time being there have all been either bay or grey.”
A leading 2017 first-season sire in France, the son of Henrythenavigator had 13 two-year-old winners in France from only 26 runners, including the useful stakes performers, Feralia, Fatale Bere and Bonita Fransisco.
By the end of June this year he had already had several winners from his second crop, including the stakes performer Sens Du Rythme.
“Pedro The Great has been very popular this covering season,” Saliou says. “He ended up covering 137 mares at €6,000. He has been a success because in his first year he was well supported by Alain and the Haie Neuve.
“Now there are plenty of people who like Pedro The Great – Jean Claude Rouget likes him, André Fabre likes the two-year-old filly he has and his wife Elizabeth sent him two mares this year. He also had his first winner in England when The Great Heir won for Kevin Ryan.
“He was a Group 1 winner at two himself and comes from a great family as his dam won a Group race at two and he is a half-brother to the Classic winner and sire Footstepsinthesand.”
Haie Neuve bought Pedro The Great through the international French agent
Emmanuel de Seroux, who has been a partner and investor in the Haie Neuve for 20 years.
“We keep Emmanuel de Seroux’s mares,” Saliou explains, “and he has played an important role in the stud for years now and has helped find stallions and clients from all over the world.”
Haie Neuve had two new stallions for the 2018 season – Whitecliffsofdover, a son of War Front and a close relation of Pulpit, and the jumping sire Magneticjim, a Galileo half- brother to the Group 1 winners, Corre Caminos and Recital.
“It was a busy first covering season as between the three we covered 350 mares this year,” reports Saliou. “The stud has about 50 mares and the stallions have always been selected for how they will cross with the stud’s mares, physically and also of course by bloodlines too.
“Nearly all of our mares are covered by our stallions. We prioritised the young ones this
“Most of our mares will go first to one of our sires and then to another one the year after. We offer all of the progeny we can for sale, but are happy to buy some of the fillies back later – we have just bought the sister to Feralia, a stakes-winning filly from Pedro The Great’s first crop.”
Saliou is very happy to be back in Brittany as he grew up in Morbihan, and it is where he started out his career with horses.
“I worked for ten years for the Haras Nationaux and was based close to here. We are very well situated, close to the motorway and only a few hours’ drive of the heart of the Normandy breeding area. We are surrounded by some of the best dairy farms in France, which is a sure sign of how good the land is here,” he smiles.
“There are plenty of local clients and at the same time it is easy to send mares here from Normandy or further afield.”
He is well aware that the Haie Neuve is a great opportunity for him.
“The Régniers have done a great job here,” he says, “and it is a far easier to take over something as successful as this stud than to start out with a completely new structure.”
An obvious question then to ask is has he changed anything since taking over?
“Not a great deal,” he laughs. “Perhaps things are just a little less rustic. For the essentials nothing has changed and our horses spend as much time as possible outside together in groups.
“Life in a herd is very important for the development of young horses. And we have the same staff, including Sarah Le Helloco who was France Galop’s stud worker of the year in 2017.”
