Everest Racing A Unique Investment

Ghislain Bozo, a significant top-level player on the French bloodstock scene for the better part of two decades, understands the importance of bringing new players into the racing and breeding game. That's why he has spearheaded Everest Racing, a racing club that targets Parisian-based businessmen and high-rolling investors and aims to give them a positive entry into the sport by racing a select group of high-class fillies.

The structure of Everest Racing is rather unique in that its investors will be able to draw confidence from its links to four important European stud farms, as well as an association with ODDO-BHF, a leading French- and German-based private investment bank. The stud farms are Ecurie des Monceaux, operated by Bozo's brother Henri; Tweenhills Stud in Britain, Ballylinch Stud in Ireland and leading German stud farm Gestut Brummerhof. The fillies will be owned 50% by the stud farms and 50% by Everest Racing, comprised of ODDO-BHF's clients. The relationship will be mutually beneficial: ODDO-BHF's investors will have access to the expertise of Bozo and the other partners, while racing will have the opportunity to build new bridges with influential persons formerly outside the walls of the game. Everest Racing will put up €1-million, with 20 shares available, and the quartet of stud farms will also put up €1-million between them.

“What we want to do is attract new people into the game; people who don't know about horses, necessarily,” Bozo explained while taking a break from shopping for mares at Keeneland last week. “We have set up this racing club in order to get people to invest in horses, but it's not an investment; it's a leisure experience. We want them to follow the horses, enjoy racing, see the training and breeding. We want to give them a flavour of the full experience of racing.”

The aim in the first year of Everest Racing is to build a stable of “five or six” fillies. Three of those were purchased at Arqana August by Bozo's Meridian International: a full-sister to last year's G3 Prestige S. winner Antonia de Vega (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) for €310,000 (lot 34); a Kingman (GB) filly out of the listed-winning More Than Sotka (Fr) (Dutch Art {GB}) for €240,000 (lot 131); and a daughter of Kodiac (GB) out of Wadjet (Ire) (Shamardal), a great-granddaughter of Miesque, for €120,000 (lot 208). A Zoffany filly out of Wooing (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), a full-sister to champion Rip Van Winkle (Ire), was added at Tattersalls October Book 2 for 120,000gns (lot 728). Bozo said the budget-€2-million, which includes all costs through the end of the fillies' 3-year-old seasons–will likely allow for one more filly to be bought at the breeze-ups next year. The fillies will go through the sales ring at public auction at the end of their 3-year-old seasons to dissolve the partnerships.

Bozo has an MBA and pursued business ventures globally before settling back into the bloodstock world for which he was bred, as the son of the famed French stud manager Antoine Bozo, in the early 2000s.

Bozo explained how having ODDO-BHF on board has added extra layers of integrity to Everest Racing.

“We've had to go through a lot of due diligence,” he said. “It has to be presented to a committee of the bank as a new product of the bank; it's very time consuming. They're giving a lot of guarantee when it comes to conflict of interest, transparency of what we're buying, etc. It is our principle that everything has to be very transparent, so we've set up a strategic committee that is taking stock of everything we're doing. It's very regulated.

“For the bank, it's a way to network and get new clients from the racing world, and to allow their clients to discover the racing world. It's a win-win situation for them as well. And their clients are in Paris, so for them to go to ParisLongchamp is quite easy.”

For its initial venture, the Everest Racing fillies will be trained in France by Jean-Claude Rouget, Pascal Bary and Francis Graffard. Bozo said it's very possible that the stable could expand beyond France in the future.

“At a later stage we could absolutely have a horse in training in England, Germany or Ireland,” he said. “Why not? We're very open to that.”

He re-iterated that the main objective is a positive experience.

“What is important for us is that the people have a good experience,” Bozo said. “Ecurie des Monceaux has a very nice suite at ParisLongchamp and we'll probably be going to Royal Ascot in very nice conditions as well. They'll discover the stud farms; we'll do two or three trips a year to really bring the group together and give them a good experience. We want to take them to Ascot, to the sales, and maybe do something a bit special like the Palio in Siena, Italy.

“I think it's a good way for people to come in and learn the business, but we don't sell it as an investment; we really sell it as an experience. We're very clear on that part. What we hope is that some of these people will go out on their own and race some horses themselves and maybe start breeding. We need to attract new people into the industry, otherwise it just goes around and around. We need a good betting system and a good industry but we really need the owners, so that's what we're trying to do.”