16 minute read
September consignors
Jocelyn de Moubray chats with three consignors ahead of this year’s unique Arqana Select Sale, now due to be staged on September 9-11
• Antoine Bellanger, Arcadia Elevage
• Thierry Dalla Longa, Haras de Saint Vincent
• Philip Lybeck, Haras de Bourgeauville
ANTOINE BELLANGER is already a familiar figure at Deauville, but until now he has always been saying that it is better wearing the grey and pink colours of the Haras des to have a little place Monceaux.
Bellanger worked for 11 years at Monceaux of your own than – he won the 2016 Godolphin Award for stud personnel while he was there and finished a big house his time as the manager of the yearling division. This year he will be fronting his own belonging to consignment for the first time as his Arcadia Elevage has five colts and two fillies in the someone else, September catalogue.
Bellanger’s boyish looks and reserved and I decided it was manner serves to conceal the fact that he has spent some 15 years or more working time to pay heed! with top-class bloodstock and, together with his companion Aline Giraud, the marketing director of the Aga Khan Studs, he is set to become an important part of the new generation in French breeding.
“I felt good when I was at Monceaux,” he explains, “it is a privilege to work with such high-quality horses but part of me was not fully satisfied and I needed a new challenge to move forward to continue progressing.
“There is a French saying that it is better to have a little place of your own than a big house belonging to someone else, and I decided it was time to pay heed!”
Last year Bellanger bought an organic cattle farm at Saint-André-d’Hébertot, a small village close to Pont l’Eveque and only 35km from Deauville. The first horses arrived on the farm in November with more coming after the Arqana December Sale.
Pictures show the new farm and buildings at Arcadia Elevage, near Pont l’Eveque
Three purchased foals by Air Force Blue, Dark Angel and Territories will be part of the Arcadia draft for September.
By the time the 2020 breeding season started the farm was able to board and look after the 25 to 30 mares who were to come for the covering season.
Bellanger’s plan is to board mares as well as to present drafts at the sales in Deauville.
“Like a good Norman,” he laughs when pressed for his plan, “I would not want to place myself or the farm in any one category or another. I suppose I would like to become a structure of the same type as Les Monceaux, one which breeds horses who are offered for sale rather than a consignor.
“I am convinced it makes sense to move horses around as little as is possible and it is certainly an advantage to know your horses before you start preparing them for the yearling sales.”
When it comes to sales preparation he has a clear idea of what he is trying to achieve.
“For me,” Belanger expands, “the definition of sales prep is to work out which attributes in any horse we can work on or improve.
“There are some things we can’t change, but we have to try and judge the positive and negative aspects of each individual and decide which of these we are able to change.
“We all know we want to have yearlings who walk well and have good bone and substance, but we have to judge whether or not we will be able to muscle this horse’s back or develop another one’s quarters and hind leg.”
Bellanger’s parents had a small breeding operation not far from Angers in the Loire valley, where they raised both jumpers and Flat horses.
“Horses and racing were always a big part of my life,” he remembers. “My brother and I started following racing early on and we would go into the stables, went racing at weekends and were soon engrossed by the whole racing world.”
His first professional experience came while he was completing his studies at Laval and was taken on as an apprentice by Patrick Boiteau, a leading breeder of jumpers whose has produced many champions including Cyrlight, Spider Flight and Karly Fight.
“When I had finished my studies I was offered a full-time post and was tempted but something told me that it would be too easy to stay with Monsieur Boiteau and I decided to look further afield.”
He ended up leaving France for three years to work first at Derrinstown Stud in Ireland and then at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky.
“In Ireland I did a bit of everything, both mares and yearlings and then in Kentucky I worked at the yearling division and presented horses at Keeneland.
“Lane’s End is an impressive machine, there are a lot of horses and many people there but the whole works together very well indeed.”
Amongst the horses he watched on his visits to the races at Keeneland were Naissance Royale and Coquereles, who both carried the colours of Lucien Urano who had recently bought the Haras des Monceaux and begun to invest in Flat horses.
“I don’t know why they made an impression,” he says, “but at the time I was looking for a position to return to France and when I saw an advertisement for the Haras de Monceaux I decided that’s where I wanted to work.”
Bellanger got the job and began work in 2008. His first year at Monceaux there were only five or six yearlings who were presented at the sales by other studs. Ten years later for his last season there were more like 65 yearlings to be prepared for the sales by a team which had grown to about 15 people for the August sale.
Bellanger sounds very positive in his own little house. “I am not,” he says, “really looking for new clients as my first concern is to provide the best service for the horses I already have in my responsibility.
“We have been lucky in France this year and at the end of the day our sector has suffered less than many others.
“The breeding season was able to continue more or less as normal and our racing was able to restart early. In any event we have no choice; we have to keep going and look to the future with confidence.”
Thierry Dalla Longa, Haras de Saint Vincent
There have always been plenty of horses in the south-west of France. In recent years it has been best known internationally as the region where many of France’s most successful Flat trainers are based – Jean Claude Rouget and François Rohaut in Pau, Christophe Ferland at La Teste and Didier Guillemin, Philippe Sogorb and Xavier Thomas Demeaulte at Mont de Marsan.
It is also traditionally been where many of the best Anglo-Arabian and endurance horses are raised, two specialties in which France has excelled.
France’s Flat breeders are, on the other hand, mostly based in Normandy or the neighboring parts of north-west France and in recent years there have been few studs from the south-west represented at the sales in Deauville.
A newcomer from the south-west out to make a mark at the Arqana sales is Haras de Saint Vincent, run by Thierry Dalla Longa and his partner Ludivine Charles.
In 2017 the stud took one horse to the Arqana August Sale – a Zoffany filly they had purchased for €50,000 at the Arqana December Sale.
The filly was sold to Coolmore for €100,000, was called Fleeting and went on to be placed in the English and Irish Oaks as well as the Prix de l’Opera and the Pretty Polly Stakes.
At the following year’s sale Saint Vincent sold two more yearlings for €100,000 and in 2019 it enjoyed by far its best August sale to date selling five for a total of €730,000.
The stallion Faz at Haras de Saint Vincent in the south-west of France
This year Saint Vincent will offer seven yearlings in the September sale including colts by new sires Almanzor and Churchill and a full-sister to the Group 1-winning sprinter Sands Of Mali.
Dalla Longa came to breeding from the training world.
“I always thought I would become a trainer,” he says, “and I spent 15 years working for trainers, the last eight of them with Jacques Ortet at Pau during the years when he was the top jumps trainer in France.
“However, life had other ideas and when I left Ortet I went to join my partner at the Haras de Saint Vincent.”
Saint Vincent now extends over 90 hectares on three different sites close to Lourdes, between Pau and Tarbes at 500 metres altitude in the foothills of the Pyrenees.
“When we bought the farm it had been empty for some 15 years having previously been a cattle farm. Our first idea was to provide a place where the local trainers could spell horses and to keep a few Anglo-Arabian mares.
“We began to breed horses as in the region if you wish to quality for agricultural subsidies you have to own at least five mares.
“We started with mares bought very cheaply and we would find a solution to sell their progeny privately or to make arrangements with local trainers.
“You soon learn that whether you sell your horse for €5,000 or €50,000 the cost of raising them is precisely the same.”
Fleeting
Since 2011 Saint Vincent has specialised in breeding and sales preparation while continuing to take horses out of training in need of a break and to stand stallions.
There are now about 30 mares based on the farm in which Dalla Longa and Charles own shares in a dozen.
THEY STAND three stallions, the Group-winning sprinter Fas, the Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner Lucayan and Silas Marner, who is more or less a private stallion for his owner Alain Jathiere.
“It is hard to know exactly,” Dalla Longa explains, “but I reckon there are around 800 mares based in the south-west and we have a tradition of producing speed horses.
“Fas, a Group-winning son of Fastnet Rock, covered 42 mares for this first season this year.”
If they are, of course, proud of the success of Fleeting they are above all breeders and 90 per cent of horses Saint Vincent presents for sale were bred on the farm.
“With the help of our different partners,” Dalla Longa says, “we are always trying to upgrade our stock and we look to buy one or two new mares every year.”
After a succession of excellent years 2020 has been a difficult one for Saint Vincent.
“Our own mares had mostly left to be covered before the lockdown,” Dalla Longa says, “and while the breeders association did a fantastic job to maintain the covering season we lost several mares who were due to arrive from Spain. It was no longer possible during lockdown, and when there is no racing there are fewer horses in training in need of a break.”
The immediate future is unsure, too. “We have been strong supporters of both the V2 sale in Deauville in August and of the Osarus sale at La Teste in September.
“Both have been cancelled this year and, while it is a great initiative of Osarus to combine with Arqana for a sale in October, I fear some of our horses will be pushed back into the November sale as both companies have been struggling to control the numbers of yearlings on offer.”
Despite the problems 2020 has brought to Saint Vincent and everybody else in the business Dalla Longa remains optimistic for the longer term.
“We have a great racing system in France,” he says with confidence, “and we must make sure it is maintained. I think things are going in the right direction and when I look and see the new, younger people who have taken up positions in the racing authorities I am encouraged for the future.
“We must all try to see the positive aspects of our situation, and if we do there is no reason why we won’t succeed together.”
In the short run he is focused on preparing his yearlings for September and on the sister to Sands Of Mali.
“She comes from a family I know well and she was bred by a friend who asked us to prepare her for the sale.
“The fillies are different from the colts in the family, but I am sure she will turn out to be both precocious and fast. She is calm and cool in her daily work, but when you ask her something she responds like a horse who has speed.”
Philip Lybeck, Haras de Bourgeauville
Robert and Amelie Ehrnrooth bought the Haras de Bougeauville in the hills close to Deauville in 1992, and the Finnish couple have been part of the Normandy breeding world for a long time.
The stud has, however, evolved in recent years and is now run by Philip Lybeck, Amelie Ehrnrooth’s son and it is enjoying an excellent run on the racecourse.
In 2019, Bourgeauville came close to achieving its first French Classic victory when the Olympic Glory filly Grand Glory flew from miles off the pace to finish third in the Prix de Diane only a head and half a length behind the winner.
The Gianuca Bietolini-trained filly has maintained her progress at four winning a Listed race brilliantly at ParisLongchamp on her reappearance and looking a little unlucky in the Group 2 Prix Corrida.
Meanwhile, the Sea The Moon colt Privilegiado completed the Norwegian Triple Crown, winning the Norsk Derby by over 15l, before finishing third to Ghaiyyath in the Group 3 in Dubai and returning to win the Group 3 Oslo Cup in June 2020.
Other recent highlights for Bourgeauvillebreds have included a Listed win at Goodwood for Lyzbeth and some promising three-year-olds in France headed by the stakes-placed filly Padovana and the colt Bois d’Argent.
“I arrived at Bourgeauville in 2004,” Philip Lybeck remembers. “At the time the farm was managed by Sylvain Vidal [who was to go on to look after Le Havre at the Haras de la Cauviniere].
“My role and the farm itself have slowly changed over the years since. I believe today we have a very good team on the farm. You can’t, after all, do anything on your own.”
LYBECK’s wife Diane Lybeck is the owner of the pre-training establishment Ecurie Diane, which is only a few kilometers away from Bourgeauville at Reux.
“Diane and my business are very complimentary,” says Lybeck.
“At least we know where to send our horses for pre-training,” he jokes.
Lybeck is more than hopeful that Grand Glory will find the Group 1 win she deserves.
“Grand Glory went through the ring in Arqana and we bought her back before, sadly, deciding to sell her privately to Marco Bozzi for only €18,000,” he recalls. “And then, of course, her dam died after producing the three-year-old Toronado colt Bois d’Argent, who has won his only start at Chantilly.
“We do have two half-sisters to Grand Glory – Morlanda by Exceleration, who was not fast herself who has a foal by Olympic Glory and is back in-foal to the same sire.
“And we have also bought the Approve mare Aqua De Valencia. She was a tough handicapper winning six times from 40 starts. This is a family Bourgeauville has had for a long time as my parents bought Grand Glory’s second dam Maria De La Luz as a yearling in Deauville with Luigi d’Allesandri in 1997.”
Bourgeauville’s other Classic star Privilegiado was sold as a yearling in Deauville October for €67,000.
Grand Glory
“It would be nice to see him run in France or Germany,” Lybeck admits, “but I don’t think it is very likely.
Highly regarded Padovana (Sea The Moon)
“They enjoy their racing at home and then if you win every time you go to the races you are going to be happy with the way things are going. He did run a great race to be third to Ghaiyyath in Dubai.”
Bourgeauville has another possible star by Sea The Moon in their own filly Padovana, who is trained by Francis Henri Graffard.
Padovana won by 4l on her debut as a three-year-old in Chantilly before finishing an excellent third in the Listed Prix de Thiberville at ParisLongchamp beaten by the highly regard Aga Khan filly Valia.
“I know Francis [Graffard] was a little disappointed to be only third, but my mother and I were thrilled. For us it would be absurd not to be if you finish third on your second start in a Listed at ParisLongchamp!”
Bourgeauville has a total of 22 yearlings in 2020 of which only three for one reason or another will not be presented at a sale.
There are six in the Arqana September sale, including a Wootton Bassett half-brother to Padovana and an Almanzor colt out of the Grade 2 winner Minakshi, who is a half sister to the dam of Grand Glory.
“Minakshi raced for us in the US,” Lybeck explains, “and won her Grade 2 in Canada with trainer Mike Matz.
“She has been an unlucky breeder and the Almanzor colt is only the second of her progeny who will have the opportunity of going into training.”
Another of the draft is a Wootton Bassett colt out of Maiden Tower who was bred by Lybeck himself with different partners.
“Maiden Tower has,” he says, “turned out to have been an amazing buy. We bought her in-foal to Teofilo from Darley for €45,000 in Goffs and we then sold the Teofilo for €210,000 and her Shalaa colt last year for €600,000. I thought he was a lovely colt, but never imagined he would make quite so much, although I am happy he did!”
For the time being the daily routine at Bourgeauville has not been transformed.
“Like everybody else we carried out all of the special COVID precautions,” Lybeck says, “but the breeding season was close to a normal one.
“The postponing of the sale suited us in many ways as our yearlings will benefit from the extra time before the sale.
“For the future I just hope they eventually restore prize-money in France to where it was before.”
