La Route des Etalons, ‘The Place to be This Weekend’

[Wandering Eyes]

Where to start on the first morning of the Route des Etalons? It was a decision which would have been easy to rush to, what with so many enticing options to choose from, all of them immaculately presented, ready and waiting to welcome the first guests of the day. 'Pace yourself,' I reminded myself. 'There's always tomorrow for anything you don't get to today.'

Anyway, that's enough about the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Suitably fueled with a pile of crepes, cakes and pastries that would have made my dentist wince, it was time to hit the road for the main event. As Normandie Breeding's Guillaume Vitse said shortly after greeting me at Haras de la Huderie, “The Route des Etalons is the place to be this weekend.”

Vitse, perhaps best known for breeding the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf winner Unquestionable (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) in tandem with wife Camille and their children Valentine and Axel, was in punchy form as he sang the praises of the newest Huderie resident, River Tiber (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}).

The G2 Coventry Stakes winner was purchased from Coolmore last year to stand as a stallion by a collection of French breeders which includes Vitse, along with Sebastian Desmontils, David Salabi, and Jean-Pierre and Guillaume Garcon. As well as winning at Royal Ascot, River Tiber was Group 1 placed in the Prix Morny, Middle Park Stakes and Irish 2,000 Guineas, while perhaps his best chance of winning at the top level was taken from him when he was a late scratch from the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf of 2023–won by none other than Unquestionable.

“The first time I saw him was at the Breeders' Cup,” Vitse said of River Tiber. “Unfortunately, he did not run–well, it was good for us that he didn't! But he just caught my eye. And then when he ran in the Prix de la Foret he caught my eye again. Twice in a row, I thought that he was the standout, physically.

“The horse just has everything. He has the looks, the race performance and the breeding. He was a proper two-year-old and he's an outcross for a lot of mares as a son of Wootton Bassett, who is a champion. What more can you say? It's obvious why you should send a mare to River Tiber.”

Of the breeders participating in this year's Route des Etalons, he added, “You can have a good time, go around and see the horses, and then make your choice. But when you come to Huderie, you won't need to go anywhere else.”

The bullish Vitse also confirmed that Unquestionable is set to return to the racecourse in 2025, following a truncated three-year-old campaign. The colt is now in the sole ownership of Al Shaqab, whose breeding operation, Haras de Bouquetot, was also finding favour with visitors on a bitterly cold morning in Normandy.

Six stallions were on parade at Bouquetot, all of them still in the infancy of their careers. Romanised (Ire) and Wooded (Ire) had their first two-year-old runners in 2024, while Armor (GB) was represented by his first yearlings and Thunder Moon (Ire) by his first foals at the sales last year. More recently, the first foal by Lusail (Ire) was reportedly born at the stud just this week.

The Al Shaqab team are also introducing a new stallion for 2025 in the shape of their homebred Al Hakeem (GB), who proved himself a high-class three-year-old in 2022 when he won the G2 Prix Guillaume d'Ornano and finished fourth in the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. The son of Siyouni (Fr) was plagued by injury after that, denying him the opportunity to bid for the top-level success which was well within his capabilities, according to stud director Benoit Jeffroy.

He said, “Al Hakeem was a highly-rated horse, 124 with Timeform. We thought he deserved his chance to stand as a stallion, not only because he's a Group 2 winner but because he had the potential to be a Group 1 winner. All of the time he was showing that, but he just had no luck after he finished fourth in the Arc. As a four-year-old he got injured when a horse ran into him and split his tendon which took a while to recover.”

Last seen on a racecourse winning the G3 Prix Gontaut-Biron at Deauville in August, the now-six-year-old Al Hakeem is reported to have plenty of good breeders in his corner already, with Al Shaqab set to send him around 10 of their own mares in the hope that he produces offspring as good-looking as himself.

“We've also sold a few breeding rights which is something we like to do,” Jeffroy continued. “We've syndicated a few horses in the past and we always like to have some good partners to support the horse through the years which is important. I think we've sold around 25 breeding rights, which is great, and hopefully a few more people will be booking mares to him this weekend.”

Jeffroy also reported that last year's G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner Look De Vega (Fr) is another who will receive around 10 mares from Al Shaqab, after they bought into him in July last year, together with Ballylinch Stud where the colt is preparing to embark on his first season at a fee of €20,000.

The son of Lope De Vega (Ire) promises to be hugely popular in his second career, much like his predecessor, Ace Impact (Ire). An emphatic winner of the Prix du Jockey Club in 2023, he retired unbeaten at the end of that year, having produced another explosive performance on his swansong to win the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe,

Now, the team at Haras de Beaumont excitedly await the arrival of Ace Impact's first foals after he covered 180 mares in 2024, with the first homebred arrival said to be imminent.

“A mare is due very soon with us,” confirmed Beaumont stud manager Mathieu Alex. “That's obviously very exciting–this is the next step for him. He's had tremendous support from all over the world and he's very popular again this year. He's just a very exciting horse. His acceleration was tremendous and he won the Prix du Jockey Club which is a very successful race where making stallions is concerned.”

Ace Impact was not the only Prix du Jockey Club winner to be shown at Beaumont. The 2013 hero Intello (Ger) also paraded for visitors when they could be dragged away from the cosy scene indoors, which offered seemingly all-you-can-eat charcuterie and a glimpse at the impressive Arc trophy won by Ace Impact, but it was the next generation of talent which really got bums off seats.

 

 

New recruit Puchkine (Fr) continues to earn rave reviews, according to Alex, while there was an enjoyable encore to the stallion parade when we were taken off to be introduced to a bunch of now-yearlings from the first crop of their G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and G1 Champion Stakes winner Sealiway (Fr).

“We're very happy with his first crop,” Alex added of the son of Galiway (GB). “We've got 25 by him on the farm. As you've seen, we're showing some here to the visitors and they are going down very well. They have a lot of quality and Sealiway himself was a true champion.”

Speaking of champions, there could be no place better to head next than Haras de Bonneval for a visit I described in Thursday's preview as a bucket list item. That was before I knew there would be crepes on offer, too, a weakness I fear could very quickly get out of hand should I ever have to be in France more than a few days at a time.

At least a prolonged stay would bring my French speaking on, a skill which is virtually non-existent, hence my terror when Charlotte Tessier from the Aga Khan Studs suggested I get some practice by conducting my interview with Pierre Gasnier in French. The man who recently succeeded Georges Rimaud as the manager of the Aga Khan Studs in France certainly didn't deserve that torture, especially as my Yorkshire accent is already hard enough to understand.

“We don't have any first foals born yet,” Gasnier confirmed after lip-reading manfully through my question about that imminent milestone for Erevann (Fr) and Vadeni (Ire).

“We have a couple of mares due in Ireland from Vadeni but they haven't foaled yet. He's a stallion who we're very excited about because he was such a champion himself on the track. He was the European champion three-year-old in 2023, after winning both the Prix du Jockey Club and the Eclipse and finishing second in the Arc. He was a black-type winner at two and he covered a very strong book of mares, including the dams of three different Group 1 winners.

“Erevann was also well supported by French breeders and with mares from England and Ireland. We actually have our best older mare in foal to Erevann and she's already due. That's Daryakana, a Group 1 winner and the dam of Dariyan. Being a son of Dubawi, who is a sire of sires, he has all of the credentials to be another superstar. If he does as well as Zarak, we will be in business.”

There are certainly similarities to be drawn between Erevann and Zarak (Fr), both being by Dubawi and out of multiple Group 1-winning mares in Ervedya (Fr) and Zarkava (Ire), respectively. The sire of three individual Group 1 winners from his first four crops, Zarak is “well established as being the next top stallion in France” according to Gasnier, with his best-bred crop of two-year-olds to come in 2025.

Perhaps the only stallion conclusively ahead of Zarak in the pecking order of French stallions is his stud-mate, Siyouni (Fr), and most worrying for those trying to topple the top dog is Gasnier's confidence that the 18-year-old hasn't peaked yet.

“He's a real success story,” Gasnier said of the sire who remains at a fee of €200,000 for 2025, having started at €7,000 back in 2011 when the Route des Etalons debuted. “You quickly forget quickly that he started at such an affordable level. We're excited about him because we truly believe that his best years are yet to come, with the quality of the mares he has received for the last three years–especially last year.”

Gasnier described the experience of opening the doors at Bonneval as “business but with pleasure”, referring to the fact that the Route des Etalons caters for both potential clients and your average racing fan. Those sentiments were later echoed by Nicolas de Chambure as he welcomed around 50 people to his Haras d'Etreham on Saturday morning as part of a trip organised by France Galop.

“Those people aren't necessarily breeders, but there were some owners and racing fans [among them],” de Chambure said of the group. “It's great for us to be able to show this side of the business to them. It's our duty to make sure that our industry gets seen and appreciated.”

One horse certainly being appreciated by visitors to Etreham was the imposing Hello Youmzain (Fr), who is now up there with the likes of Zarak among the most expensive sires in France at €40,000 (from €22,500 in 2024), with his hike in fee reportedly doing nothing to perturb breeders after he sired 21 individual two-year-old winners in Europe from last year's first crop.

“He's got a full book now for 2025, so it's very exciting,” de Chambure said of the high-class sprinter. “We had high expectations for him, obviously, but he was not that precocious himself. He progressed from two to three, and from three to four. I think we're going to see the best of them this year, so what he's done until now is probably a bonus already.”

 

 

Last year's G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains winner Metropolitan (Fr), now based at Etreham, was one of the new stallions on show during the Route des Etalons to gain his fair share of admirers, including bloodstock agent Tina Rau and Alexis Navet, the manager of Haras Voltaire.

“Metropolitan is a very encouraging prospect,” said Navet. “He had a very good racing career and was the best miler in France last year. He's an outcross for a lot of mares and he's got a nice physique and a good walk. I think breeders will be delighted with him.”

Rau concurred as she eventually came down on the side of the son of Zarak in a close fought contest for the title of most exciting recruit to the French stallion scene.

“I think all of the new boys I've seen were really nice horses,” she summed up. “Obviously, Charyn was an outstanding racehorse and he has a nice physique. I really liked Metropolitan and Big Rock at Haras de Grandcamp, while Puchkine is very much in the mould of his sire, Starspangledbanner. Of all the new stallions, I think it would be Metropolitan for me.”

Metropolitan might have had the final say over his G1 Prix Jacques le Marois conqueror in that argument, but there was more than enough love to go around for Charyn (Ire), the outstanding miler of 2024, as he prepares to stand his first season at Sumbe's Haras de Montfort et Preaux.

“We have five Group 1 winners on our roster, but I think he's been a big part of the attraction here over the weekend,” Sumbe's Mathieu Le Forestier said of the popular grey.

That was most definitely true for one young boy in attendance on Saturday who went away clearly delighted by the experience, having managed to secure a Charyn baseball cap and a picture with his hero. Just as he did on the racecourse throughout last year–when winning three Group 1s and filling the runner-up spot in another two–Charyn took everything asked of him in his stride, displaying an unflappable nature which should continue to stand him in good stead as he limbers up for what has the makings of a busy first season in the covering shed.

“He's been going down incredibly well and his book is nearly full now,” Le Forestier added. “We're going to cap him to 120 outside mares and there's just a few spots available, so we'll be handpicking them from now on. On top of that we'll add 20 mares of our own and around another 20 from the shareholders. All in all, he should cover around 160 mares.”

Among those in attendance at Montfort et Preaux was Andreas Putsch, the owner of Haras de Saint Pair, who was firmly in Charyn's corner when it came to choosing the best of the stallions who have retired to France for 2025.

“Obviously, Charyn stands out as the most accomplished racehorse retiring to France this year,” said Putsch. “He had great acceleration at the end of a race and his true ability is in his soundness. He had a long career, dancing every dance, and he was there as a two-year-old. There are no holes in him.”

Whilst there might not be any holes in Charyn, it's fair to say that there were plenty of holes in my plan to pace myself over the two days, in every sense as I sit here now overtired and having overindulged.

It's going to take a few days to recover from, no doubt, but here's hoping the memories stay with me much longer than that when it comes to my first Route des Etalons, most definitely the place to be this weekend.

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