Zarak

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...

Sea The Stars (Ire) will stand at his highest-ever fee of €250,000 at Gilltown Stud in 2025 after a season in which his 28 stakes winners included the G1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Sosie (Ire) and promising juvenile The Lion In Winter (Ire), who is currently favourite for next year's 2,000 Guineas. His fellow Aga Khan Studs stallion Siyouni (Fr) headlines the roster at Haras de Bonneval in Normandy where his stud fee for next year will remain unchanged at €200,000.  Zarak (Fr), currently the second-leading sire in Europe...

By Brian Sheerin and Adam Houghton DEAUVILLE, France--John Stewart has made more of a splash in a year trading in bloodstock than most people will in an entire lifetime and the effervescent character behind the ever-expanding Resolute Racing sent more ripples through the industry by snapping up the €1.4 million Wootton Bassett (GB) top lot (lot 105) on day one of the August Yearling Sale at Arqana. Irishman Gavin O'Connor has been representing Resolute Racing at Arqana this week while Stewart tuned in from his base in America. Bred by...

What better accompaniment to a global fashion business, Parisian hotel and fabulous art collection than a Thoroughbred stud farm? Nothing, right? This was apparently the conclusion reached by Thierry Gillier, the founder of the uber-cool Zadig & Voltaire label, whose appropriation of the nom de plume of the celebrated French writer for his fashion brand has now been extended to his own nom de course at Haras Voltaire.  Just last week, Gun Of Brixton (Fr) (Frankel {GB}) became the latest graduate of the Normandy farm to advertise this burgeoning breeding...

We're not quite halfway through the Flat season but Royal Ascot feels like a pivotal point. It's not just the fact that it coincides with the summer solstice (even though summer has really only just arrived in these parts) but it includes the first properly meaningful two-year-old contests along with a set of races for the Classic generation which start to underline the really serious prospects. While the yearling sales may tell one story of the popularity of stallions, one only needs to peruse the stakes race results on a...

Stuart McPhee can blame Emma Balding for the fact that he has now accumulated interests in more than 20 mares worldwide, but the man who prides himself on his bargain buys can now call himself a Classic breeder. Metropolitan (Fr), who also became a first Classic winner for his sire Zarak (Fr) in the G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains, has delivered a dream for his British breeder, who has mares not only in his home country, but increasingly in France and also Australia.  "I've had black-type horses before, but a...

Anyone who knows Pete Bradley even a little bit knows that he's a devoted Francophile. You almost can't travel in France without running into Pete somewhere or another. Arc de Triomphe? `Hey, Pete.' December sale? `Hi again, Pete!' Dinner at a friend's house in rural Normandy? `Seriously, Pete?' So it's only fitting that the most recent American owner to win a French Classic is one who would appreciate it so much. When Metropolitan (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}) exploded up the rail in the final stages of Sunday's G1 Poule d'Essai des...

By Brian Sheerin and Katie Petrunyak Danish buyer Morten Buskop was left thanking his lucky stars on Sunday that his unnamed but long-standing client was more stubborn than him as he came out on top for the €190,000 Zarak (Fr) foal who led the way at the second session of the Arqana breeding stock sale.  There's nothing quite like seeing the sales house back up when a highly regarded horse walks into the ring and it became evident pretty quickly that the Haras de Montaigu-drafted colt had plenty of suitors...

Sea The Stars (Ire) and Siyouni (Fr), the flagship stallions of the Aga Khan Studs in Ireland and France respectively, have each had their fees increased to €200,000 for 2024. Representing a career high for both stallions, Sea The Stars stood at €180,000 in 2023 and covered 180 mares, while Siyouni covered 135 at €150,000. The Aga Khan Studs will have two new stallions next season, with last year's Cartier champion 3-year-old, the G1 Prix du Jockey Club and G1 Eclipse S. winner Vadeni (Fr), joining the roster at Haras...

Erevann (Fr) is to join Vadeni (Fr) as another new recruit to the Aga Khan's Haras de Bonneval in Normandy in 2024. The son of Dubawi (Ire) and Ervedya (Fr), who became the first Classic winner for subsequent French champion sire Siyouni (Fr) when winning the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches in 2015, won on debut at Deauville as a juvenile followed by two more consecutive victories, including the G3 Prix Paul de Moussac. Launched straight into Group 1 company thereafter, he was just a neck behind Inspiral (GB) when third...

The Tattersalls Somerville Sale has meant that a return to Newmarket could be delayed no longer but this column sprang, or perhaps staggered, into life on the final day of Baden-Baden's Grosse Woche. The scribbling started reasonably early on Sunday morning from a desk in the press room that boasts one of the best views in the racing world, looking out across the turf to the wooded mountains of the Black Forest. It was also the desk that was once occupied by British-born but German-based racing correspondent David Connolly-Smith, who...

In the European edition we really shouldn't be overstepping our boundary to encroach on the territory of our American colleagues who did such a fine job in conveying the stories from Belmont Park last week. Racing faces different problems in different jurisdictions and, from an outsider's perspective, it is hard to get fully behind racing in America when a number of its major participants remain overly reliant on medication. But if you read Cynthia Holt's wonderful account of being at Belmont 50 years ago to bear witness to arguably the...