Two Jockey Club Winners Debut at Arqana

The merits of shortening the Prix du Jockey Club from 2400 to 2100 meters in 2005 continue to be debated in France even today, but one thing remains clear: its 12 renewals since that time appear to be producing the same caliber of successful stallion as its earlier, longer distance. Top young sires Shamardal (USA), Lawman (Fr), Le Havre (Ire) and Lope de Vega (Ire), in fact, have emerged from the shortened race in the first six runnings alone.

Two winners of the Prix du Jockey Club–Reliable Man (GB) and Intello (Ger)–will be represented by their first Northern Hemisphere yearlings at this year's Arqana sale, and their connections hope their French Classic success will be an indication to buyers that they are serious sire prospects as well.

Dual-Hemisphere G1 winner Reliable Man Now a Dual Hemisphere Sire

Sven and Carina Hanson bred Reliable Man–a Group 1 winner in both hemispheres–from their Sadler's Wells mare On Fair Stage (Ire), a daughter of their three-time Oaks winner Fair Salinia (Ire). Campaigned as part of their Pride Racing syndicate (named for their top mare), Reliable Man was unraced at two after developing a cough in October. At three, won his first two before taking the Prix du Jockey Club in just his third start, and emulated his sire with a win in the G2 Prix Niel.

Sent to Australia at five, he beat five-time G1 winner (It's A) Dundeel (NZ) and five other G1 winners in a top renewal of the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. before retiring to stand the Southern Hemisphere season in New Zealand at Westbury Stud for NZ$15,000.

He has been well supported there, breeding up to 150 mares the past three years, while putting up solid numbers in the auction ring.

He was the leading first-season sire at the New Zealand Bloodstock's three-day Select Sale in Karaka in January, with 24 selling for an NZ$74,042 average. His 13 sold at the Premier sale averaged NZ$168,077, with a top price of NZ$340,000. His overall Southern Hemisphere average was strong as well, with 44 yearlings averaging A$103,886.

“People (in the Southern Hemisphere) were very, very happy with their looks,” said Carina Klingberg Hanson, “and his yearlings were very similar-looking. He stamped them. Also, with what he achieved on the track in Australia, everyone was talking about how well he had raced, so it was a very good combination.”

“Just because Fair Salinia won three Oaks, people think it is a staying family,” said Sven Hanson. “There is a lot of speed in the family and Reliable Man just managed 2400 meters. Fair Salinia never bred a good winner over 1600 metres.

“He was beaten by Pierro (Aus) at 1500 metres by one length in his Group 1 prep race for the Queen Elizabeth,” Hanson continued. “Chris Waller said before the race, 'This is a prep race, so I hope he'll just run nicely.' Then after his Queen Elizabeth, he said, 'If I had known that he had this much speed, I would have trained him to win the 1500-metre race.' People say both in Australia and New Zealand, and in Europe, they are much more forward than everyone expects. They look like 2-year-olds. Now we hope that on the racecourse, they show the precocity which everyone believes they have.”

In the Northern Hemisphere, he stands at Germany's Gestut Rottgen for €6,000, where he covered the mares who produced the five on offer this week at Arqana.

The Hansons bred and own hip 94, a half-brother to their G2 Grand Prix de Chantilly winner One Foot in Heaven (Ire) out of their multiple Group 1 winner Pride (Fr) (Peintre Celebre). On a summer holiday right now, One Foot in Heaven, a winner of five of eight starts, could provide this colt with a serious update when he returns to the races this autumn. Pride is currently in foal to Le Havre (Ire) after delivering a Kingman (GB) filly this spring. The Hansons also own hip 282, a colt and the first foal out of their Street Cry (Ire) mare Quenching (Ire). Both sell with the Coulonces Consignment.

Coulonces' Anna Sundstrom is not only consigning two, but has seen quite a few of the Reliable Man foals and yearlings. “It's very exciting looking at Reliable Man, as he's got an absolutely amazing pedigree, and he won the Jockey Club here in France a little bit in the same way as Le Havre did, with a turn of foot. His offspring, from what I've seen, have very, very strong hindquarters, strong shoulder and they look very forward. I won't be surprised if he's going to be the next one to do it with the way they look. I've seen them with very different dam lines, some later, some long-distance, but they look very much alike, with a good motor behind,” she said.

As for hip 94, “First of all, I'm extremely proud to have this horse and to have a horse out of Pride,” she continued. “She's homebred from (the Hansons), and they bred the stallion. The horse himself is very athletic, with a good mind, good hindquarters on him but he looks to be quite precocious. Very professional, very forward. I've had him since April. He's just oozes class.”

That Hanson should succeed with a mission to the Southern Hemisphere seems just; an early advocate of sending Northern Hemisphere runners to the Southern Hemisphere, he experienced early success with Always Aloof (USA) (Alleged {USA}), his 1997 G3 Prix Gladiateur winner who traveled to Australia to win the G1 Underwood S. at Caulfield, followed by I am Your Man (He's Your Man) and a Group 1 winner the year after Reliable Man.

“(Reliable Man) was suited to the racing because you need to have a good turn of foot in Australia. You cannot go there with a plodder.”

When he was injured pulling up from the Queen Elizabeth in April and retired, it was just in time to make the Southern Hemisphere breeding season.

In Europe, Gestut Rottgen was chosen, said Carina Hanson, “for the simple reason that basically the English and French stud farms did not want staying horses by Dalakhani, as he was not commercial in spite of producing many Group 1 horses.

“We have supplied a few pedigrees and Rottgen has done that as well,” she continued. “We didn't go for volume. We thought it was important to have good mares, and not just any mares. In Germany you know how small the population (of mares) is, but in the second and third season, he had more mares than the first season.” Reliable Man covered 54 mares in his first season in 2014, and 70 in each of the two successive years.

Sven Hanson's family business is the Salinity Group, the largest distributor of salt to the European market, which has been in business since 1830. Having recently sold their farm in France, Haras de Vieux Pont, just to the southwest of Lisieux, after 24 years, the Swedish couple, currently living in Switzerland, are pondering a move which would take them near their stallion in New Zealand, but they will still keep mares and race in Europe.

But first, there they'll watch their sire's yearlings sell at Arqana, and hope that buyers in France recognize what those in New Zealand and Australia did before them.

“I think people look at the stallions that come out of the Jockey Club, like Le Havre and Lawman and Shamardal,” said Carina. “A lot of good stallions have come out of that race. So that's obviously a sign of the times now. There is more and more speed now, and we are hopeful people will see that.”

The Intello Connection

When the 2013 Prix du Jockey Club winner Intello (Ger) (Galileo {Ire}) retired at the end of his 3-year-old season, there was, of course, much interest from farms internationally. But uniquely, his owner-breeders, the brothers Gerard and Alain Wertheimer, decided to retain 100% of the horse, and stand him in not one, but two Northern Hemisphere locations on a two-year rotation in each.

Intello, out of the G1-placed Danehill (USA) mare Impressionante (GB) and so bred on the same cross as Frankel (GB), covered 130 and 120 mares, respectively, in his first two years at Cheveley Park Stud, and has just completed his first season at Haras du Quesnay, just a few kilometres up the road from the Arqana sales grounds, where he covered 128 mares.

Why the unique arrangement?

Pierre-Yves Bureau, manager of Wertheimer et Frère (reached, ironically, as he was in the field visiting Goldikova {Ire} and her foal filly by Intello), said, “First, it was the decision of the Wertheimers to retain 100% of the horse. Of course, when you decide to keep all of the horse by yourself, you need to find some partners who will accept these conditions, because a lot of farms prefer to have a part in the horse. We had a lot of farms who were interested, and the idea was that we wanted to keep him in France and at the same time to give him a lot of opportunity for worldwide breeders as well, so we came up with this idea.

He added, “We wanted to try something new, and to explain the deal to everyone at the beginning. We were not moving the horse later because he had no support in year three. We are very happy with what we tried because the horse covered more than 100 mares a year in each of the first three years.”

Bureau also said that along with the numbers, the right people had shown up. “We had a lot of support from all of the major international breeders like Darley, Coolmore, Shadwell, the Aga Khan studs, Juddmonte, Gestut Fahrhof, and of course, the French breeders: the Niarchos family, the Wildensteins, Cadran, Etreham, La Louviere, Monceaux, Montaigu; we can't name all of them.”

And why not? Undefeated in two starts at two, Intello won four of seven at three, including the Prix du Jockey Club, the one-mile G3 Prix Messidor and the G3 Prix du Prince d'Orange. He was never worse than third, concluding his career behind Treve (Fr) and Orfevre (Jpn) in an Arc for the ages, and retiring sound in 2013.

After two years at Cheveley, breeders pleased with their first foals chose to follow Intello over to France, and his book was made up of about one-third English, Irish and German mares. “That's the best advertisement,” said Bureau. “They like the foals they have. He's stamping them with a lot of class and quality. They are nice-looking horses, and we have noticed they keep improving with time. We will see how they go to the sales, of course, but getting 19 in the book at Arqana is nice. Of course it's pedigree, but in this book you need to have a well-conformed horse.”

Vincent Rimaud, stud manager at Le Quesnay, said that by July, people were already coming by the farm to see the Arqana August yearlings. “One thing that is for sure in all of them, they are all very well-balanced and all very good walkers. That's a very pleasant sign for us.”

“It's not that easy to get people from England, Ireland and Germany to come and use the French stallions, especially when they are not proven,” Rimaud continued, “so we were very pleased to see people coming from these countries to visit Intello, to send their mares, and the reason they came was they were very pleased with the first yearlings they had at home and brought some siblings of these mares that had given them some nice foals. He covered 128 mares; it's a very good number for a third year anywhere. For a third year of a horse that moved from England to France, it's even better.”

Standouts in the group of 19 figure to be Hip 93, offered by Ecurie des Monceaux, a daughter of Platonic (GB), whose 2014 filly by Frankel sold for €1.15 million to Charles Gordon-Watson at this sale last year. Platonic's listed-winning daughter Prudenzia (Ire) produced the G1 Darley Irish Oaks winner Chicquita (Montjeu), whose 2014 Dubawi filly topped last year's August sale with a €2.6 million bid from John Ferguson. Both were sold by Monceaux.

Hip 8, offered by Haras de Montaigu, will be the first of the Intellos to go through the ring and is the third foal out of G3 winner Don't Hurry Me (Ire), and a half-sister to a winner. Hip 100, sold by Haras de la Perelle, is a half-brother to Mille et Mille (GB) (Muhtathir {GB}), the G1 Prix du Cadran winner.

Le Quesnay will offer four Intellos, two colts and two fillies. “Hip 71 (out of Mytographie {Fr}) is a very nice, powerful colt that I like a lot with a nice page,” said Rimaud. “He's a colt, a chestnut, with a very deep chest and walks very well. And hip 106 is the first foal from his dam. She was a winner and Listed-placed from a very nice family. The dam is by Anabaa, and this filly has an incredible walk. She is a very well-balanced, nice type of filly and I'd be disappointed if she doesn't attract people and make something.” She hails from the family of Glowing Tribute, Sea Hero, Hero's Honor, etc.

“We hope he's going to be popular,” said Bureau. “He not only won the Jockey Club, but he showed at the same time he had speed to finish in the Marois close to Moonlight Cloud and was third in the Arc to Treve and Orfevre. The fact that he was able to compete in Group 1s at a mile and a mile-and-a-half, and win one at a mile and a quarter, was a big help as well to show that he's an easy horse to use.”