Ferrario Aiming At Arc Dream

[Wandering Eyes]

Fate put them together. Paolo Ferrario didn’t even give the horse the name that now, as he lines up for the G2 Grand Prix de Deauville today, seems charged with a specific, personal destiny. Way To Paris (GB) (Champs Elysees) was registered as a yearling, long before Ferrario assumed ownership. And he only did that after his trainer’s original client had disappeared. But if he can run well today, Way To Paris will be eligible to satisfy a lifetime’s ambition: to carry the yellow and light blue silks so closely associated with a better epoch for Italian racing, with a legitimate chance, in the G1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

It is a dream commensurate with the long years of patience, dignity and experience that have fed it. Ferrario, at 91, has been migrating from Milan to Deauville every summer for decades, just as his father did before him. He is the last custodian of a stable revered, in his homeland, all the way back to the era of Tesio himself. But Ferrario is still looking forward, even adding a couple of yearlings to his stable at Arqana last Monday.

“I’ve been coming here every summer for many years,” he reflects. “The first time in 1983, I think. Every day I go to the races, whether here or at Clairefontaine. Some days, I’ll go and play at the casino. And some years I will buy a horse or two. One I bought here a couple of years ago looks a good one, he recently won a nice race on his debut at Saint-Cloud.”

“So I pass very happy days here, among horses–a passion I owe to my father. I lost my wife 30 years ago. But I still have my children. And my horses.”

His speech is measured but strong; his bearing dignified but charming; and his laughter speaks of a generous spirit. Within the Italian racing community, the prospect of Way To Paris making the Arc is a matter of universal glee.

“Our Scuderia Fert stable was founded by my father in 1954,” Ferrario said. “He bought his first horse in France, actually, and with his partners Signor [Nanni] Falck and Signor [Angelo] Tanzi would come here every summer. They had many very good horses. Probably the best was Bacuco, who was bought from the Scuderia Mantova. He won many races, including the Premio del Jockey Club, and he was third in the Washington DC International.”

There is a connection to the old days in Way To Paris. He is trained by Andrea Marcialis, whose father Antonio has long served the Ferrario cause–and learned his trade under the Scuderia Fert’s longstanding master trainer, Mario Benetti. And it was Antonio who found Way To Paris as a yearling, for 50,000gns out of Tattersalls Book 2 in 2014.

He was consigned by Highclere Stud, but had been bred by the Vittadini family (of Grundy fame) from the very accomplished Grey Way (Cozzene), a Group 2 winner in Italy. Her maternal line, seeded by several Classic American influences, traces to the great La Troienne. Grey Way has already produced Distant Way (Distant View), a dual Group 1 winner in Italy.

“I knew it was a lovely family,” Antonio Marcialis explains. “And the horse pleased me with his conformation, too. I knew this would certainly not be a precocious horse, by Champs Elysees, and the mother wanted a distance. Really the only possible owner for this horse was Signor Ferrario. Because these owners of the old school, they never rush their trainers. This gentleman will give the horse time to mature. Today they aren’t like that, they don’t have the same patience.”

Sure enough, Way To Paris is better than ever at five, finishing very strongly for third in the G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly last time. Andrea Marcialis said he feels that he has developed mentally as much as physically; that “he was very hot before; now he’s asleep.”

The horse’s presence here, sadly, does not merely reflect his owner’s predilection for the Normandy seaside.

“These days nearly all my horses run in France, after I saw that Signor Marcialis’s son was starting a stable in France, I decided that I would have some trained here,” said Ferrario. “But I’m hopeful the situation in Italian racing will get better soon, the new Italian Minister of Agriculture already met with some Italian Horsemen after only two months in office, while his predecessor never met with them during his five-year tenure. I still have some horses in training in Italy at the San Siro racetrack with the young Gianluca Verricelli; I bought most of them in the U.S. through my friend and agent for the past 23 years, Paolo Romanelli. Some did very well like Haigh Point and Minarello, bred by Allen Paulson, and Roman Forum from the OBS Sales in Ocala.”

“It’s difficult to see how things can improve in Italy but as horsemen we are eternally optimistic. It’s a shame, because the Italian horses that come here can almost always win. That shows that the production is still working, that Italian breeding remains very good. But we once had many group races at home. Now there is just one Group 1 race left, the Lydia Tesio.”

A nonagenarian whose greatest virtue is patience? How wonderful, if Way To Paris could earn this venerable figure the thrill of a lifetime–and what a lifetime!–by contesting the Arc. He is, after all, a link to a golden age on the Italian Turf. He even remembers Federico Tesio, as “a fine man, and a genius, but a little distant–or shy, rather.”

“There is only me left now, to keep the stable going,” Ferrario said. “The others are all dead. But I have been lucky. Signor Marcialis proposed this horse to me, this beautiful grey, and he saw it all, the way the horse would improve and improve. He was a backward horse, but now he’s really thriving.”

“He has had a break and the track here probably isn’t ideal, so he doesn’t have to win this race. I’ll be delighted if he can finish second or third. He’s not a speedy horse, so the faster the gallop the more his stamina can kick in.”

“I am so pleased. For the first time in my life, I have a horse who could go for the Arc. Signora Vittadini named the horse, not me. But it’s a good name, and could become a very apt one. Even if he’s not good enough to win, it would delight me so much if he made it to the Arc. Because, at my age, it will surely be my last chance!”

View the full article