Value Abounds in Wertheimer Draft

Just before the 2015 Arqana December sale, Pierre-Yves Bureau, the manager of Wertheimer et Frere, predicted that one member of their draft that year, Polygreen (Fr), was going to prove popular to breeders, and a good buy. “She sells in foal to Invincible Spirit (Ire),” he told the TDN at the time, “and we think she's going to be our star.”

Bureau could have been accused of salesmanship at the time–of justifying why they were letting this one go if she had such value. Instead, his words have proven to be prophetic.

Ecurie des Monceaux picked up Polygreen (Fr) from that consignment for €200,000. She had given birth to an Oasis Dream filly that spring, who has gone on to be Polydream (Ire), the winner of this year's G3 Prix du Calvados and the runner up in the GI Prix Marcel Boussac. So when it came time to sell the 2016 Invicible Spirit filly at this year's Arqana August yearling sale, she brought twice her dam's purchase price, €400,000.

Rather than inspiring regret at the one that got away, Bureau says that it's exactly the result that proves his point. “This just shows that we're selling from nice families and everybody can buy with confidence,” he said. “We are keeping members of the families we are offering; daughters and sisters.”

The Wertheimer draft got another nice update when Kenya (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) banged out back-to-back wins in Ireland, including the G3 Killavullan S. to stamp himself a Classic contender. His dam, Tender Morn, came out of the Wertheimers 2012 Arqana December consignment, and she's now the dam of four black-type horses, including 'TDN Rising Star' Zantenda (GB) (Zamindar).

This year's highlights from their consignment include the full-sister to Intello–Gravitee (Fr) (Galileo {Ire}), lot 159), who, says Bureau, “might be one of the leaders. That's a family that we use a lot. We want to maintain our same number of broodmares, so of course we have to sell some of them. When we look at the family, we consider how many we have in the family. For instance, this year, we are retiring Gravitee's full-sister, Atomique, who won a race in Deauville this year. And of course, we still have the dam, Impressionante, and a few others from the family. It's not an easy choice, but at the same time, we cannot keep all of them, so it's a good way to make sure the family will go on to succeed with different people. And that's a good thing as well. She's a nice mare, and I'm sure there will be plenty of interest in her.”

Gravitee sells in foal to Maxios (GB), the son of Monsun (Ger) who stands at Gestut Fahrhof and who is enjoying success as a first-crop sire, just a few spots down the leaders' list from Intello (Ger), the Wertheimers' first-crop stallion who stood 2016 and '17 at Haras du Quesnay. (See the TDN first-crop European sire list here.)

“We bought a share in Maxios,” said Bureau. “He has been doing quite well, and that's a stallion we like a lot. We always loved this family, and he has everything he needs to be a good stallion. We keep sending mares to him, and this was a good mating, as Gravitee is by Galileo.”

Mating their mares to their own stallions is something Wertheimer and Frere is known for, and Bureau said the decisions are driven not by commercial considerations, but by belief in their stallions' quality.

“Any mating we do, we do it because it's a good mating,” said Bureau. “We're not doing matings for the sales. In fact, when we do the mating, we don't know if we'll be selling the mare at the end of the year, and so we do it because we trust that it's a good mating for this mare. I think that's important to keep in mind.”

Also among the 21 fillies and mares being sold in December is Lot 141, Guerriere (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), the half-sister to Soustraction (Lope de Vega), the G3 Prix d'Aumale winner, who is selling as a filly still in training. “Since the catalogue, Guerriere was placed in a stakes. That's a very good thing because she's now twice stakes-placed, and being the sister to Soustraction, who is a 2-year-old group winner and one of our best for next year, from the family of Solemia, The Gurkha and Silasol, I think she's going to be very popular.”

Also selling as a 3-year-old filly in training is Vicugna (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) (lot 146). “Again, this was not an easy choice to make, but we have the dam, Beautifix (Ger), and we have two black-type sisters, including Spiritfix, who won the Listed Prix de Bonneval this year, so we decided to keep Spiritfix and try to offer Vicugna.”

Those offerings will be among the up to 40 mares the Wertheimers sell each year to keep their broodmare band at just over 100 mares, including those based in Kentucky and in France, on their 250 hectares in Deauville.

They picked up no additions on a recent foray to Kentucky for the November Sales.

“We tried, but the market was very, very expensive over there for the nice mares,” said Bureau, who added that they had been one of the underbidders on Miss Temple City, who ultimately went to Steve Young, as agent, for $2.5 million. “We have quite a nice broodmare band now so if we try to buy a mare, we want to buy at the top, of course, but the top this year was very expensive, which was a good sign. So I hope we will be able to buy one or two fillies or mares at Arqana or Tattersalls.”

In the meantime, they will retire around 12 of their own fillies this year to join the broodmare band, including the G3 Prix Vanteaux winner, Gold Luck (Fr) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}), a half-sister to Goldikova; Spiritfix; and Group 1 winner Left Hand (GB), and Terrakova (Ire), who placed in the G1 Prix de Diane.

Around six of their mares will be bred to their new stallion, Attendu (Fr), a son of Acclamation (GB) who has taken up residence at Haras du Quesnay.

Trained by Carlos Laffon-Parias for the Wertheimers, Attendu was a Group winner at 2, 3 and 4 years. He landed the G3 Prix La Rochette at Longchamp in 2015 and closed out his juvenile campaign with a third place in the G1 Criterium International at Saint Cloud. Attendu added to his record in 2016, besting Group 1 winners Esoterique (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) and Territories (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) in the G3 Prix du Palais-Royal at Deauville over seven furlongs and he again showed his class earlier this year over a mile, also at Deauville, when he won the G3 Prix Quincey Barriere in August.

Attendu is the first son of Acclamation to stand in France and his dam Gwenseb was a stakes-winning 2-year-old who has also produced the dual Group 2 winner Impassable (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), the stakes winner Foreign Tune (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and Spotify (Fr) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) who finished fourth in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains earlier this year.

“He has a lot of speed, and it's good to get this line in France,” said Bureau, who noted the 26 new stallions in France this year. “There are a lot of stallions retiring to France. I think that's a very good sign. For years, we have been waiting for the good stallions and I think the success of stallions like Siyouni, Kendargent, Le Havre, and Wootton Bassett shows we can have good stallions in France. So it's good to see that a lot of organizations are trying to keep their stallions in France. It's a European market, but France is part of that, so it's good if we can stand some good stallions as well.”