Watch Out, Goliath

Drive 80 minutes due south of Deauville to the department of Orne to visit one of the perennial leading consignors at the Deauville sales, and you won't find a magnificent 18^th century chateau, or be blown away by the gardens. What you'll find is not a showplace, say its owners, but a working farm, with an extremely talented and dedicated staff and a work ethic that has seen them hold their own–and better–against larger, formidable adversaries.

If Michel Zerolo and Eric Puerari–business partners going on 20 years now–liken themselves to a modern-day David and Goliath, the comparison is a fitting one. It's also safe to say that David might, once again, be winning the fight.

“We started Capucines with no capital, and it's only through hard work and ingenuity that we have succeeded,” said Zerolo. “It has allowed us to buy better mares, breed to better stallions, increase our quality and decrease the quantity with an eye which very much revolves around the horse. But we probably have a tenth or twentieth of the budget of some of the larger farms.”

All that hard work must be paying off: Puerari and Zerolo will lead 30 yearlings into the ring during the main part of the sale in a consignment that includes one of the coveted first Frankel foals, three of the first Northern Hemisphere crop by Redoute's Choice (Aus), and a smattering of yearlings by top commercial sires like Galileo (Ire), Sea the Stars (Ire), Dark Angel (Ire), Pivotal (GB) and full and half sisters to Grade 1 and Breeders' Cup winners, and Classic French champions for a cadre of international clients.

The pair got together in Capucines in 1998, and currently operate around 200 hectares (450 acres) near the French National Stud in the town of La Cochere. Both fluent English speakers, Zerolo lives most of the year in Miami, while Puerari stays primarily in France to run the farm. “It's a good partnership,” said Zerolo. “We complement each other. He sings and I dance. Eric runs the place. We have a manager, but he supervises the daily operation of the farm. I'm more of the marketer; I bring customers, I bring horses, but he's the man in charge. You can't have two chiefs.”

Zerolo's American connections have paid off through the years, with major American clients such as Martin Schwartz, Barry Irwin's Team Valor, Airdrie's Brereton Jones, trainer Chad Brown, and Rick Porter all doing business with the pair, and boarding and breeding mares in France with Capucines.

“I have had horses there for many years,” said Irwin. “They can not only raise a horse to run, but they can raise one to sell. We've sold weanlings that were raised in France and sold them in Newmarket, and did very well. We are running Triple Threat (Fr) in the Arlington Million who was born and raised at Capucines. They are as sharp as it comes.”

Irwin said that he particularly appreciated not only their honesty, but their incredible feel for the marketplace.

“When you're bringing a horse to a sale, you want to know if you're live, where to put a reserve on it. When you're selling, you need to have somebody sharp like that. They'll tell you exactly where you're going to be. The French are opinionated and definitive and when they tell you something, they mean it.”

Their highest-profile day in America came in 2012 when two fillies they had bred, raised and sold won Breeders' Cup events in the same day at Santa Anita; Flotilla (Fr) taking the Juvenile Fillies Turf, and Zagora (Fr) bringing home the Filly and Mare Turf. (Click here for the TDN's 2012 feature on the feat.)

Brereton Jones said that he had done business with them for years. “It goes way back to when I started and I met them at Keeneland,” said Jones. “I don't recall what it was that attracted them to me or me to them, but we hit it off very well. I have bought and sold several horses with them.”

One of the most successful was Istan, who started his career in France before racing in America at four and five, winning a pair of graded stakes while turning in a Ragozin zero. “Michel shared the information he had on the horse with me, and Michel is not going to tell you anything other than the straight truth. That's why I enjoy doing business with him,” said Jones.

Istan currently stands at Airdrie for a $7,500 fee and several produced graded stakes horses from his first very limited books. “Now the public is responding,” said Jones, “and that's a horse I bought from Michel. “He's one of the good guys. They're not all good guys. They're very bright. They're very honest. And they're a heck of a lot to fun to be with.”

They're also genuinely good citizens, and have taken time to give back to the community.

For the past two years, Zerolo and Puerari have been instrumental in the fight to keep a waste dump, built in nearby Nonant Le Pin in some of the most beautiful top breeding grounds in France, from opening for business. While the plant was open for two days in 2013, the community objection to it has kept it shuttered ever since.

“Recently, the news has been good,” said Puerari, “and with the incredible support we have received from all around he world to finance our fight, we now have some evidence from the famous university Pierre and Marie Curie that this site doesn't offer any guarantees against pollution. We have also won the right to third-party opposition; the right of the people to question administrative rule. The site has never reopened, and it looks very promising right now. We hope the case will be settled.”

This week, though, all eyes will be on their consignment.

“As a rule, it's a good group of yearlings,” said Zerolo, who points out that the 2014 consignment is off to a hot start. Their 2014 consignment topper, Gherdaiya (GB) (Shamardal), who they bred and sold, is two-for-two at Deauville for trainer Andrea Fabre, and was designated a Jour de Galop Rising Star. “She's quite good, and looks a Classic prospect, and is entered in all Group 1s,” said Zerolo.

Their 2015 crop will include a smattering of the sale's hottest commodities: one of the first Frankels, and three of the first Northern Hemisphere crop of Redoute's Choice.

Puerari was asked how he felt the public would react to those sires, and what he thought of what he had seen of them so far.

“Frankel has thrown all sorts of horses: some bays and some chestnuts some big-sized horses that I've seen. We have a foal at the farm out of a good mare called Funny Girl, an attractive medium-sized foal. I'm not sure he stamps his progeny from what I've seen; I've just seen a few, but they have good looks.”

Redoute's Choice probably stamps his foals more; equally, we have had only had a small sample, but I think it's a good mix with the mares we've had between the Australian strength and precocity and the European class. They have strength, and class, and are very attractive, the Redoute's Choices.”

Among their stickouts this year figure to be hip number 7, the Galileo half-sister to Zagora; hip 124, a Redoute's Choice filly out of Peinture Rose from the family of Peintre Celebre; hip 147, a Redoute's Choice colt out of Sandy Girl, the graddam of MG1SW Stacelita; and the Frankel filly, hip 159, out of Stacelita's dam, Soignee (Ger).

They may not have the biggest budget, and they may not run a showplace. But a little honesty, intelligence and hard work go a long way in this industry. Watch out, Goliath.