Barouche Brings Bumper Draft To Tattersalls

[Wandering Eyes]

This year marks Rory Mathews’s 30th year as manager of Barbara Facchino’s Barouche Stud. During that time, the operation has undergone significant changes, moving from the Isle Of Man to its current base in County Kildare, as the focus switched from owning racehorses to breeding and selling them.

In Mathews’s milestone year, Barouche will offer four quality yearlings at the Tattersalls Book 1 Yearling Sale, followed by a five-strong consignment at Book 2 and rounding up the sales season with another two at Book 3. The farm’s 2019 yearlings comprise of a mix of homebreds and pinhooks, and the first through the ring is of the latter.

Lot 71 is a first-crop son of Darley’s G1 Dewhurst S. victor and champion 2-year-old Belardo (Ire) and was his highest-priced foal at a cost of €77,000. The half-brother to Group 3 winner Ayaar (Ire) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}) impressed Mathews as a foal and still does to this day, as he explains, “For us, this colt was easily the best we’d seen at the Goffs Foal Sale. The first thing we noticed when he came out of his stable was his walk and he had immediate presence. We went back to look at him a number of times and every time, he held that walk. He still has all those qualities and the fact that he goes to Book 1 tells you what we think about him. The general consensus of those who have seen him on the farm is that he’s one of the best that they’ve seen by the sire.”

Belardo was a key draw for Mathews, he says. “I was keen to buy a Belardo and we were happy to spend a bit more to get one of his better foals. I liked that he was a first-crop sire, that he was by Lope De Vega, and that he himself was a very good racehorse.”

Four of Barouche’s Tattersalls yearlings are, in fact, by first- crop sires, and Mathews explains their appeal. “Nowadays, there’s a tremendous desire for pinhookers, particularly at foal level, to look at first-season sires. They’re well marketed by the stallion farms, they’re promoted wherever you go–between brochures and advertising, so we’re driven in their direction.”

The influence continues at the yearling sales, he says. “When you get to the yearling sales, the commercial appeal and advertising is once again driving trainers and agents to look at the progeny of new sires who were great racehorses. Because the breeding world is now living in a commercial market, we need to follow suit to a certain degree.”

Not that Mathews relies on trends. “I, myself, like to have a mix of proven and young sires, which you’ll see in our draft,” he says. “There is potential to pay a lot of money for a first-crop foal and sometimes you can get caught with it making its yearling price, so you have to be careful.”

Correctional surgery has become increasingly prevalent when it comes to preparing young stock for the commercial market, and although Barouche breeds to sell, they aim to produce racehorses, not sales horses. On the subject of correctional surgery, Mathews says, “Personally, I’m not a big fan of it. I know a lot of it goes on in America, which I’ve seen first-hand. I completely work with my farrier and take things as they come. I think that interfering when horses are too young can create issues. I’d rather to leave the horse alone and leave them to develop naturally. I think that’s the best way and that’s how we do it at Barouche.”

Returning to the theme of first-crop sires, lot 134 from Barouche has the unique selling point of being the sole progeny of Tamarkuz to feature in the catalogue, with the added benefit of being out of a listed-winning Danehill mare from the family of Unbridled’s Song. The $140,000 pinhook will appeal to both American and European buyers, Mathews says. “When we saw him at the sales, he had this fantastic action and he really stood out. He’s what I’d call a typical American yearling–he’s grown a lot, he has great size and scope, and he has held his fantastic action. He comes from a European family and, of course, Tamarkuz himself is by Speightstown, who gets turf horses and is popular in Europe.”

When buying American stock to bring back to Europe, there are some key points to consider, Mathews says. “You need to have some sort of European influence in your pedigree, which could be that the sire raced on turf or in Europe, or was owned by one of the bigger organizations, so that European buyers are familiar with them.”

The increase in American buyers at the European yearling sales is a key factor in doing this, Mathews explains. “Particularly in the last two to three years, through the work done by Goffs, ITM and Tattersalls, we’ve seen a huge influx of American buyers. Increased prize money for turf racing in the U.S. is a big draw, as is the success of trainers like Chad Brown and Graham Motion on the turf. That has really opened up a demand for European horses and pedigrees over there, particularly with the fillies, who then go on to be bred to their American-bred sires.”

Mathews’s formative stage of his career was spent in New Zealand, where he worked at Cambridge Stud for three years from the age of 18, as well as being sent to Australia on their behalf. Sir Patrick Hogan is mentioned a number of times during our conversation and Mathews quickly nominates the legendary horseman as the greatest influence on his career. “He taught me so much about what’s needed in a horse and a great amount about horsemanship,” Mathews says. “When he spoke to you, you listened. He’s the one who told me that when you’re looking at a horse, there are three things you look at, and that’s pedigree, pedigree and pedigree. I’ve never, ever forgotten that. That was 30 years ago, but if you adopt that today, you won’t go too far wrong.”

It was from Cambridge that he was headhunted for the position at Barouche. Mathews places a high importance on passing on his knowledge to the next generations, with Barouche regularly taking on students and young people looking to carve a career in the industry. Rather than be applauded, he quickly passes the regard back to the farm’s human graduates, saying, “Barouche have been the lucky ones with some of the young people who have come through our hands. It’s nice for me to show them what the industry is about, but also to teach them horsemanship, which is something I think is lacking today in abundance.” Educational courses continue to grow in the bloodstock industry, but as Mathews explains, not everything can be learnt in a classroom; “I don’t think we’re teaching enough horsemanship–if they grow up on a farm and handle horses day-to-day, that’s fine, but some students come to us with none of that experience and to teach them horsemanship is something I quite enjoy doing.”

When identifying broodmares to acquire, Mathews again harks to his lessons learnt from his mentor. “The specifics that we look for in our broodmares is something that I learned from Sir Patrick Hogan and that is pedigree,” he says. “We’ll match up the physical thereafter. We look for a deep pedigree and sometimes, if we don’t want to pay too much, we will go back a generation–look back to the second dam.

“I don’t particularly like mares who are under 15.3h or hitting 16.2 and above. We consider form to a certain extent; I’ve no problem with an unraced mare and I can get past a mare who only ran once, but I would like a bit of form to show she can win a race, to whatever level that may be. Generally, I like to look at the mare’s ratings and aim for one who is rated above 70.”

Buying broodmares, like everything else at Barouche, must be given the go-ahead by Barbara Facchino.

“At the end of the day, nothing is ever done without her approval,” Mathews says. “She’s very astute when it comes to buying broodmares; she knows what she likes and I can put up as many as I want to her, but she’ll have the final choice of what we buy.

“She generally leaves most of the young stock and yearlings to me. On a day-to-day basis she’s on the farm the whole time, always checking in and chatting with the lads, keeping her finger on the pulse.”

Over the years, Barouche has made significant investments in their broodmare band, most notably when going to $900,000 for a grey daughter of Unbridled at the 2002 Keeneland Breeding Stock Sale. Named Tap Your Heels, her Pulpit yearling colt had sold for $620,000 two months prior and provided Barouche with an unbelievable update when taking the GI Wood Memorial as a 3-year-old. His name was Tapit.

Barouche lost Tap Your Heels in 2016 but has two of her daughters to continue her legacy. Lot 213 at Book 1 is out of Caressor, a full-sister to Tapit. The son of Kingman has three siblings from the Galileo sire-line and on comparing the mare’s produce, Mathews says, “He’s not too different to his Galileo-line siblings in the fact that he takes after his dam’s side of the family. He’s scopey, he’s strong, he has a great action. He’s a very nice horse.”

Discussing Caressor’s retained sibling, Mathews says, “We have another filly, an Elusive Quality half-sister to Tapit called Brusquer who we raced in America and she is now a winner. She’s at Dromoland, she has her first foal by Orb on the ground and is in foal to Uncle Mo.”

Completing the Barouche draft at Book 1 is lot 520, an Exceed And Excel (Aus) filly who is the first foal out of Pyrean (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), an unraced three-parts sister to Aryaam (Ire) (Galileo), herself the dam of three stakes winners. Mathews says he is particularly excited about this filly. “There are a lot of Exceed And Excel’s looks about the filly, but she more takes after her dam’s side,” he says. “She has fantastic looks and great scope, with a lovely walk. Pyrean is a three-parts sister to the Galileo mare, so I’m quite excited about her, especially having produced a first foal as good as this. She’s followed that with a beautiful Caravaggio foal who would probably be the best foal on the farm at the moment.”

There’s plenty to look forward to from Barouche at Book 2, including a No Nay Never half-brother to Grade III winner and Grade I runner-up Turning Top (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}). Mathews reveals that the bay takes after his top sire, as all of the mare’s produce have, and on taking a chance with No Nay Never in his third season, he says, “I was a big fan of Scat Daddy from being in America myself and I saw that the vibes were beginning to transfer to Europe. I thought he was very well-priced at the time and he made good, commercial sense.”

Galileo has recently enjoyed notable success with speedy broodmares and in a similar vein, Barouche’s Book 2 Kodiac filly is out of Night Fever (Ire) (Galileo), a full-sister to G1 Epsom Derby second Sandro Botticelli (Ire). Mathews is clearly very taken with the bay, commenting, “She has that speedy stamp of Kodiac, but she has all the beauty of the Galileo line that stands out the minute you see her. She has the power and strength you would expect from Kodiac and looks like she’ll be very fast, but could maybe go a mile or upwards in her 3- or 4-year-old career. She’s a very nice filly and would probably be one of our favourites on the farm.”

Barouches head to Newmarket on a positive note, having enjoyed a successful sale at Keeneland with their homebred yearlings. As the European bloodstock market has become more unpredictable due to issues including overproduction and economic downturns, the U.S. operation has been key to Barouche’s stability. “We’ve been fortunate enough that we’ve been in America for the last 20 years,” explains Mathews. “I would say that nearly half of our operation is based in the States, number-wise. The market place is far more secure in the commercial world out there and that’s how we’ve adapted. Given the number that we have, it was difficult to make everything work over here, all the time.”

As important as the sales are, the ultimate dream of every breeder is to win top races, and Mathews has always dreamed big. “When I was growing up, it was always the Derby,” he says. “It was always the most exciting race for me–it’s the one I wanted to watch, to watch Lester Piggott, who was my idol. Even now, the Derby holds great esteem, though there are lots of great races at Royal Ascot that I wouldn’t mind winning as a breeder, but the one other race is the Arc de Triomphe. It stands alone as the race where the young horses meet the older horses at the end of the season. We’ve had some great duels over the years and seen some great horses like Sea The Stars and obviously this year we’re looking forward to Enable.”

Having spent so much time in the US, Mathews says he envies the American Triple Crown and would love to see the concept built on in Europe. He explains, “I think there should be a European Triple Crown, but not just for 3-year-olds–for older horses too. For me, the best 10-furlong race in Europe is the G1 Irish Champion S. and older horses participate in that. The Arc comes after that, which links in perfectly. For the mile race, it would have to be one in Britain, and I’m not quite sure which race would suit. Maybe the Sussex S. at Goodwood.”

It would provide a major incentive to keep horses in training, he says. “I think we focus far too much on 2-year-old racing. I think the industry needs to focus on 3-year-olds and look to a fantastic campaign for the older horses.”

Book 1 is known for producing Group 1 horses and Classic contenders, so what better mindset for a consignor at the prestigious sale.

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