City Light

With the stallion fee announcements coming in thick and fast this week, it is worth reflecting on the busiest stallions in France for the 2024 covering season, following our recent round-up of the figures for Britain and Ireland. Firstly, our thanks must go to our esteemed colleague Adrien Cugnasse of Jour de Galop for sharing the figures he painstakingly put together this summer. They show that Haras de Colleville's Galiway (GB) was the busiest boy in the country by some margin with a book of 248 mares - the largest...

The G1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Onesto (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) has been retired to Haras d'Etreham, where he will be introduced at a fee of €12,500. From the Juddmonte family which includes Hasili (GB) and her stallion sons Dansili (GB), Cacique (GB) and Champs Elysees (GB), Onesto was named a TDN Rising Star at two and was also placed in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe and Irish Champion S. He is in the process of being syndicated. Next season, the Etreham sires Persian King (Ire) and Hello Youmzain...

Most normal people spend some of August at the beach. Bloodstock folk do too, though the spade work involves no bucket, just plenty of prowling around the Arqana sales ground looking at yearlings. There may be the odd oyster here and there at the hospitality suites of various consignors but, make no mistake, this is gruelling work. It's curtain up this Friday for the European yearling sales season, and we all know what that means: Christmas is right around the corner. For breeders and stallion masters, results on the track...

Is it just me or should France be known as the bloodstock land of opportunity? This is the country that saw Wootton Bassett (GB) and Walk In The Park (Ire) pull themselves up by the bootstraps after entering the stud book at relatively modest sums. There are few serious racing nations that provide as much of a chance for a stallion to flourish than France does. Take Kauto Star (Fr), the greatest staying chaser of the modern era, as an example. He hailed from the largely unheralded Village Star (Fr)...

Almanzor (Fr), who was recently represented by his first Group 1 winner in Australia, will stand at the reduced fee of €25,000 for 2023. Among his potential top-class 3-year-olds for next season are the Aga Khan's unbeaten Rajapour (Fr), winner of the Listed Prix Isonomy at Deauville last month, and Ecurie Billon's Around Midnight (Fr), who was beaten a short-head for second in the G3 Prix des Reservoirs. Also commanding a fee of €25,000 for next season is the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains winner Persian King (Ire), who has...

In the summer of 2020, Haras d'Etreham sold its flagship stallion, Wootton Bassett (GB), to Coolmore Stud. The son of Iffraaj (GB) is the kind of fairytale stallion story that any breeder dreams of; having stood for as low as €4,000 at Etreham in his third and fourth seasons, he stands for a career high €150,000 this year. Since Wootton Bassett's sale, Etreham has reinvested in young sires Persian King (GB) and Hello Youmzain (Fr), both multiple Group 1 winners, and they stand on a young roster alongside Wootton Bassett's...

Almanzor (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), the sire of a pair of stakes horses from his eight winners to date, will stand the 2022 breeding season for a fee of €30,000, officials at Haras d'Etreham announced Saturday. The best son of the in-demand Wootton Bassett, Almanzor is already the sire of winners in Ireland, England, the USA and France, where his three first-crop winners include the filly Queen Trezy (Fr), a three-length maiden winner at Lyon-Parilly Sept. 8 and a latest runner-up in the G3 Prix des Reservoirs at Deauville who...

As Siyouni (Fr) embarks on his 10th season at the Aga Khan's Haras de Bonneval, his fee has increased in line with his profile. From a relatively lowly €7,000 starting price to being France's most expensive stallion at €100,000, it is a rise closely mirroring that of his own very successful sire Pivotal (GB). As of this year, Siyouni now has two sons at stud—Le Brivido (Fr) at Overbury Stud in Britain and City Light (Fr) at Haras d'Etreham in his native France. They will doubtless be joined in the...