french stallions
French
revolution
All looks bright for French-based sires, writes Jocelyn de Moubray
Photo courtesy of The Aga Khan Studs
Siyouni: is the first-ever sire in France to stand for a €100,000 fee. He is continuing a strong run of form for the improving French stallion ranks
T
he Bull Run in the French stallion market shows no sign of running out of steam and France’s stallion managers are clearly looking forward to the 2019 covering season in an optimistic mood. There are at least six new sires starting their careers at €5,000 or more following on from the 12 or so who started at the same level in 2018. The Haras de Bonneval’s Siyouni becomes the first-ever French sire to stand at a six-figure fee – even at €100,000 the son of Pivotal has been heavily oversubscribed.
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In recent years stallion owners, breeders and speculators have made spectacular profits from sires such as Kendargent, Siyouni, Le Havre, Wootton Bassett and Dabirsim and have proved to be only too happy to reinvest looking to repeat these successes in the future. Those who are planning 2019 matings with the 2021 yearling sales in mind will be considering not only the current standing of the possible choices and how these are likely to change between now and then, but also how the three crops who are now three, two and yearlings are likely to perform between now and the sales of 2021.
Siyouni: standing at a six-figure fee
Of the French sires who have already had runners the two whose ranking will change the most during this period are Siyouni and Le Havre. Both have had huge international success since beginning their stud careers as relatively cheap domestic stallions, and both have covered large numbers of mares at greatly increased fees. The progeny of these matings will be on the racecourse before the 2021 yearling sales. Siyouni’s fee went from €7,000 in 2014, when the three-year-olds of 2018 including his Classic winner Laurens were conceived, to
