Starlet Siblings Shining For Brant, Zerolo

The life of an international bloodstock agent is often portrayed as a glamorous one featuring high-stakes transactions, attending top class race-meetings, and wining and dining well-heeled clients. However, the opposite is often the case for many agents with constant travelling, disappointing racehorses and a lack of well-heeled clients a more regular scenario.

One agent who must take some responsibility for the former image is Michel Zerolo, whose Oceanic Bloodstock has been the signature for a glittering array of high-end bloodstock purchases in the last decade. While operating at the top end admittedly gives one a better chance of being associated with Group 1 horses, one first has to earn a reputation and develop a track record in order to be awarded a shot at the big time, and Zerolo has certainly earned his stripes. His purchases have been at the forefront again this summer with the half-siblings Sistercharlie (Ire) (Myboycharlie {Ire}) and Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) both winning at the top level in the GI Diana S. at Saratoga and G1 QIPCO Prix du Jockey Club at Chantilly, respectively. Despite such success, Zerolo is far from resting on his laurels and taking time out to speak to the TDN he said, “You are only as good as your last purchase so you have to keep looking for the next star. However, Sistercharlie has been brilliant and continues to be so and I am really looking forward to seeing Sottsass again. His main aim is the Arc but he will have to come through his trial first.”

While five-time Grade I victor and Eclipse Award winner Sistercharlie was purchased privately by Zerolo on behalf of Peter Brant before she finished second in the G1 Prix de Diane in 2017, her younger brother was acquired at the yearling stage at Arqana from the Ecurie des Monceaux draft for €340,000.

“The fact I had just bought Sistercharlie for Peter, we had to go and look at him closely and we just loved the horse. Sottsass is a different type to his sister, while I have to admit that Siyouni is quite close to my heart. I owned his grandfather Polar Falcon–he won a Group 3 in my colours in 1991–before selling him to Cheveley Park Stud. I had also bought the dam of Polar Falcon Marie D'Argonne (Fr) about 35 years ago so I have a long history with the family,” he said.

Florida based Zerolo is now helping Peter Brant develop a similar association with the family of Sottsass as Brant currently owns all four progeny of racing age of the mare Starlet's Sister (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). In addition to the aforementioned high achievers, Brant also has care of the G3 Prix Bertran de Tarragon winner My Sister Nat (Fr) (Acclamation {GB}) and her unraced juvenile half-brother now called Radiant Child (Ire) (Charm Spirit {Ire}), a €400,000 acquisition at Arqana last year. The investment in the family has so far been rewarded in spades and further investment should not be ruled out with Starlet's Sister's fifth produce, a colt by Fastnet Rock (Aus), catalogued in the August Sale at Arqana as lot 21.

Zerolo and Brant have formed a formidable partnership in recent years and current results show what is possible when financial clout meets bloodstock acumen. While the pair have been acquainted for quite a while it is only the last couple of years that Brant took advantage of Zerolo's judgement of horse flesh.

“I knew Peter casually from his prior horse life around 25 years ago and then we reconnected when he decided to return to racing in a serious way. One thing led to another and he kindly gave me a chance to buy some horses for him, the first one being Sistercharlie,” Zerolo explained.

While no doubting her talent, that first acquisition could easily have had a less celebrated outcome as Zerolo added, “When Sistercharlie come to the States from France she developed a serious bout of pneumonia and she did well to recover from that. She had another touch of it this winter and to again come back and win the Diana proves what an amazing horse she is. She is so tough and classy.”

As well as operating Oceanic Bloodstock from Miami (where he calls home) Michel Zerolo has maintained strong links to his native France through Haras des Capucines, the commercial breeding farm he owns along with Eric Puerari and another more recent investor. With 43 yearlings, the farm has more lots catalogued in the Arqana August Sale than any other consignor and between that and inspecting yearlings with his bloodstock agent hat on, Zerolo will be kept busy for the next month at least.

“Absolutely it will be busy. We have the largest draft on offer and I have also been busy inspecting other yearlings in advance of the sale. I went to see all the Monceaux yearlings last week, including the Fastnet Rock out of Starlet's Sister who is a lovely colt.”

But how did Zerolo get to where he is today, with a thriving commercial farm and an enviable list of blue chip clients? “I am a long time in the game at this stage, over 40 years,” he said. “I initially did some stints with a couple of trainers as that was the route I originally wanted to go down. But then I went to Ireland where I worked for the Aga Khan briefly before moving to Sir Douglas Clague's Newberry Stud. Then through Michael Osborne I went to America where I worked for Spenthrift Farm and then I worked briefly for a French-based bloodstock agent, acting as his liaison in America before I eventually branched out on my own. That was in the early 80s.”

Zerolo's first big break when he started out as a solo agent came through the late Bobby Frankel. Recalling how that association came about Zerolo said, “I didn't know Bobby back then but I saw him at the Fasig Tipton sale and he was training some French horses that I knew at the time and we just got chatting and he mentioned if I saw anything I liked to send it his way. A while later I called him about a horse called Al Mamoon who was in training in America at the time and he was the first horse I sold him. He went on to be a multiple graded stakes winner and it opened up a lot of doors for me. Meeting Bobby was certainly a pivotal moment in my career and I bought a lot of racehorses and several yearlings for him in the years that followed.”

Working alongside such a training legend as Bobby Frankel was bound to enable Zerolo to develop relationships with influential owners and a fruitful alliance he forged later in his career was with Martin Schwartz. The pair combined to buy some household names, including Stacelita (Fr) (Monsun {Ger), the six-time Group/Grade I winner who would later become the dam of Frankel's first top level scorer Soul Stirring (Jpn). More recently Zerolo purchased Lily's Candle (Fr) (Style Vendome {Fr}) on behalf of Schwartz at last year's Arc Sale for €390,000. Twenty-four hours later the Freddy Head-trained filly won the G1 Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac at ParisLongchamp and two months later Lily's Candle was sold to Katsumi Yoshida for €1.1-million.

“That was a good touch, yes that was fun,” Zerolo said with a slight chuckle before adding more seriously, “Martin has been a great, trusting client and friend and we have enjoyed some great times together.”

Zerolo has carved out a highly successful, long career in what can sometimes be a fickle industry. Reputation and integrity are things that can take years to build but minutes to lose and in that respect Zerolo has played the long game to a tee.

“You have to be responsible when you are spending someone else's money and I think it is also a relationship business. You can only have so many clients and I admire my colleagues who seem to be able to manage 10 or 12 different clients; I don't think I could do that.”

The phrase 'success is where opportunity meets readiness' also comes to mind when Zerolo speaks about his career, which, despite being well into its fourth decade, is certainly flourishing.