'It's Absolutely Like a Film': Paul Vandeberg on Breeding Torquator Tasso

“I can't say I'm not fine because I'm such a lucky man in the last two years with my hobby of breeding horses. It's not a normal position to be in.”

So says Paul Vandeberg, breeder not only of the reigning Arc hero Torquator Tasso (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}) but also of Tünnes (Ger) (Guiliani {Ire}), who as a 2-year-old last season won the G3 Herzog von Ratibor-Rennen. The colts are half-brothers and, remarkably, their dam Tijuana (Ger) (Toylsome {GB}) is the only mare owned by the Dutch breeder.

It is no case of beginner's luck for Vandeberg, however. For many years before thoroughbred breeding cast its spell over him he had been breeding Dutch warmbloods. And once he turned his hand to racehorses, it wasn't just the breeding that enthralled Vandeberg as he also trained for a time at Duindigt racecourse in The Hague, with a third-place finisher in the Dutch Derby the closest he came to major-race success.

He crept one position closer to Classic glory when Torquator Tasso finished second to In Swoop (Ire) (Adlerflug {Ger}) in the German Derby of 2020, and it wasn't long before the colt Vandeberg had sold for €24,000 at the BBAG Yearling Sale was a Group 1 winner in his own right. Torquator Tasso won the Grosser Preis von Berlin later that season, but it is of course what he achieved the following year that has brought him to the wider attention of the racing public.

Having beaten the 2021 German Derby winner Sisfahan (Fr) (Isfahan {Ger}) in the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden, Torquator Tasso left his home nation for the first time for his famous 80-1 victory in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. His breeder, not daring to believe he could win, did not go with him.

“I had a good feeling about him, and I thought maybe he could have finished fifth,” Vandeberg admits. “But winning? That was a surprise.”

Based in The Netherlands at Hilleshagen, just kilometres from the German border, Vandeberg was active for decades in the Dutch thoroughbred breeding association but gradually based his breeding interests at Bergheim, not far from Cologne, as his home country's pool of broodmares dwindled. 

“In the beginning, for the first 25 years, I bred only Dutch horses, and then when I became involved with Dutch racing, at that time we had a lot of good owners,” he says. “Some of them went to England to have their horses trained. Then after 20, 25 years, the sport in Holland started going backwards. When I sat on the breeders' committee we had about 250 broodmares. Now at the moment in Holland, there are maybe five, six [thoroughbred] broodmares.”

Vandeberg continues, “Then I bought a filly in Germany. I went to stallions in Germany, and for a long time now I have kept mares at a stud in Germany.”

That stud is Gestüt Erftmühle, just two kilometres down the road from the legendary Gestüt Schlenderhan, which plays a significant role in the Torquator Tasso story as the breeder of his dam.

“When I lost my last mare, I asked around in Germany about buying a filly,” Vandeberg recalls. “Then sometimes at the track I saw Gebhard Apelt, the manager of Schlenderhan, and I asked him. 

“I got Tijuana with one condition: that Schlenderhan could have the first filly out of the mare. So when Tellez was born, I gave her back, and they are her breeders on paper.”

Tellez (Ger) is a full-sister to Tünnes, both of them being by the Erftmühle resident and Schlenderhan-bred Group 1 winner Guiliani, whose pedigree combines two of Schlenderhan's most noted stallions in his sire Tertullian–who is closely related to Urban Sea–and his damsire Monsun (Ger). 

Tijuana managed just one placed finish from an underwhelming racing career but there was plenty to encourage a small breeder to take her on. For starters she is a half-sister to the Group 2-winning filly Tusked Wings (Ger), who is by Torquator Tasso's German Derby-winning sire Adlerflug. Her granddam is Turbaine, the Trempolino half-sister to Urban Sea who features as the dam of Tertullian. In sending Tijuana thrice to Guiliani and four times to the late Adlerflug for her first seven matings, Vandeberg was thus inbreeding to Germany's most influential family.

Using a suffix local to him for those horses he has named, Vandeberg currently has Torquator Tasso's 2-year-old sister Tiara Hilleshage (Ger) in training with Marcel Weiss alongside her illustrious elder brother. He also wants to keep hold of the yearling full-brother named Tiamo Hilleshage (Ger). Tellez, now four, races for Schlenderhan, while the mare's first foal, Tibo Hilleshage (Ger), also by Guiliani, broke his leg while in training and never raced.

The 11-year-old mare, who has a Guiliani foal at foot, was covered this season by Gestüt Fahrhof's newcomer Alson (Ger), a son of Areion (Ger) who was also bred by Schlenderhan.

This year's BBAG Yearling Sale takes place on Friday and Vandeberg admits to an internal tussle over whether or not to capitalise on the success of the Arc winner in offering his brother for sale.

He says, “I could have taken him to Arqana in Deauville. I could bring him to Baden-Baden. I spoke with a lot of people, and if I used my brains I would have decided sell him, but if I use my heart, I say, 'I don't want to sell him'.”

While offers will doubtless continue to be made for members of Tijuana's family, Vandeberg can in the meantime continue to enjoy the exploits of her offspring, especially, imminently, the return of the 'big two'.

The 'Grosse Woche', Baden-Baden's most prestigious week of racing, gets underway this weekend. Tünnes, the one-time German Derby favourite, is set to make his long-awaited comeback after a setback ruled him out of the first half of his Classic season. The Peter Schiergen-trained colt is set to run in the BBAG sales race at the track on Wednesday, while Torquator Tasso, with Frankie Dettori booked to ride for the first time, will attempt to defend his crown in next Sunday's Grosser Preis von Baden.

“Torquator Tasso has many fans at the moment because he was Horse of the Year in Germany in 2020 and '21. I hope he has a chance for the third year to be Horse of the Year,” says the justifiably proud breeder.

“It is fantastic what has happened with this horse and what has happened for me in that time because we have been breeding horses for more than 50 years, and then suddenly we have not just a Group 1 winner but one of the best horses of the world. It's absolutely like a film.”