New stud, new sires

Jocelyn de Moubray chats with Mathieu Alex about the newly created Haras de Beaumont and its new stallions – Sealiway, Stunning Spirit and Intello

STALLIONS ARE A PERPETUAL SURPRISE. Year after year, more often than not, the best young sires of each successive generation are not those who were the most expensive or popular when they retired to stud.

Or, to be more precise, sometimes the most popular and expensive do turn out to be good, but every year there are others who significantly outperform the general perception of their chances of success.

For every Frankel there will always be plenty whose stallion career trajectory is more like that of Kodiac, Lope De Vega, Showcasing, Le Havre, Siyouni, Wootton Bassett or Galiway – stallions who started out relatively cheap and were undervalued or ignored by most of those who could have used them through their first years at stud.

New stallions are generally judged on their racing career and, above all, on their most recent performances, their own sire and their physical looks.

Important as these factors undoubtedly are there are other characteristics to take into account, not least how a horse’s attributes are likely to meld with those of the mare population available to him, as well as the people who are in control of that stallion’s career.

Making a stallion is in some ways a process similar to a painter mixing colour to produce the tint, shade and tone required.

At every stage what needs to be added depends upon what is there already, and each addition changes the balance and what will be needed in the future.

It is a procedure learned from experience and is not from an exact equation; it will not succeed every time, however experienced and skilled those making the decisions are.

Sealiway, the dual Group 1-winning son of Galiway who has retired to the newly established Haras de Beaumont to begin his stallion career in 2023 has, on this line of reasoning, a lot going for him.

By Galiway out of a mare by Kendargent, Sealiway will be able to cover many of the mares currently in France and the only breeder who may struggle to find suitable mates for him is Sealiway’s own breeder Guy Pariente, who stands and frequently uses both Galiway and Kendargent.

Sealiway raced for a partnership between the Chehboub family’s Haras de la Gousserie and Pariente, who retained 30 per cent when the colt was sold at the Arqana August Sale in 2019. Both have kept a significant interest in the horse for his second career.

Pariente has been France’s champion breeder in two of the last four seasons and finished in the top three in the other years. The Chehboub family, and in particular Kamel Chehboub and his daughter Pauline, has become a major player in French racing over recent seasons. They family has finished amongst the top ten leading owners in France in each of the last two years and currently has 55 horses in training. The family is planning to send 25 to 3o mares to Sealiway this year.

The Haras de Beaumont has been established on 220 acres in the commune of Vauville close to Deauville on part of what was previously the Head family’s Haras du Quesnay. It will be managed by Mathieu Alex, who together with Sylvain Vidal, played a major role in establishing Le Havre as a leading European sire at what was at the time the Haras de la Cauvinière.

Alex left his position at Sumbe, the stud which has been developed on the previous Cauvinière after owner Nurlan Bizakov purchased the farm and where Mishriff and Golden Horde stand today, at the end of June 2022 and took up this new position two months later.

“I have known Kamel [Chehboub] for ten years,” explains Alex, “and the project of setting up a base to stand Sealiway and other stallions now and in the future is a very attractive one.

Above, Intello, who has transferred from Quesnay to Beaumont and remains on a fee of €8,000, and, right, winter foals at grass at the newly created stud farm

“The Chehboub family wishes to do things correctly and I am excited to be part of the endeavor. When we first spoke about moving their breeding operation to Normandy, I never thought we would end up on part of Quesnay and it is a great privilege to maintain this land on which Alec Head and his family achieved so much.”

In addition to Sealiway, Haras de Beaumont is now also home to the Prix du Jockey-Club winner Intello, who has moved across the road from the old Quesnay stallion complex, as well as Stunning Spirit. He is a son of Invincible Spirit, who has moved for his third season.

There is also the Chehboub family’s existing broodmare band of around 25, as well as the new mares who were purchased at Goffs and Arqana in order to go visit Sealiway this year.

At the autumn’s breeding stock sales, Haras de Beaumont purchased 12 mares and fillies, including the good racemares such as Split Trois, Forces Of Darkness and Flemish Duchess, as well as Key Success, the dam of the fast stakes horses Axdavali and Axdaliva.

“We wanted to buy some good racemares,” adds Alex. “When Sylvain [Vidal] and I bought the first fillies and mares for Le Havre we decided to buy different physical types in order to find out which suited the horse best, and the idea is the same again.”

“A top racehorse such as Sealiway has every chance of becoming a leading sire, too,” Alex expands. “His future depends upon attracting quality mares and then trying to ensure his early foals end up with the right trainers.

“Sealiway’s owners will be supporting him with the aim of putting his progeny into training themselves, to give him every chance of proving himself as a stallion.

“Sealiway was an exceptional racehorse. There are few capable of winning over 6f at two and then going on to run in two Arc de Triomphes and win a Group 1 at Ascot over 1m2f.

“Of course, we can’t be sure he will be a top sire, a great deal depends upon the temperament he passes on to his progeny, that will to win. I always feel that with horses what you can’t see is often more important than what you can.”

Sealiway starts his career at a fee of €12,000, which is in many ways surprisingly low for a horse who won two Group 1s and had an official rating of 123.

“We wanted people to feel good about him,” Alex says, “and to believe that he is standing at a fair price. If he is as good a sire as we believe he will become he will have no trouble commanding a higher fee in the future.”

Alex himself comes from Roanne, a town in the Loire department in central France not too far from Lyon.

“I always adored horses and riding,” he recalls, “but my first contact with racehorses came from doing a season of sales preparation at the Haras de Capucines the year I finished my baccalaureate.”

The experience was strong enough to set him on the path to a future in the bloodstock world and, after completing the Irish National Stud course where he met and became friends with Vidal, he moved for a stint to Coolmore.

He later joined Vidal at La Cauvinière in time to play a central role in launching Le Havre.

Then it was impossible to visit any stud farm in France, however small or far away from the main breeding areas, without hearing about a visit from Alex and Vidal who had come to talk about Le Havre.

“I love breeding – and meeting and talking to breeders. It has always been a pleasure to breed myself and support the stallions I have worked with.”

When asked why so many of Le Havre’s best horses were bred by either Gerard Augustin Normand, Vidal or Alex, the stud man laughs: “It is because between us we sent him many more mares than anybody else!”

Stunning Spirit after his victory in Doha in the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Cup. The son of Invincible Spirit, whose winning Dynaformer dam is a sister to Rainbow View, winner of the Fillies’ Mile (G1) and the Matron Stakes (G1), ended his racing career on a high with success in the Group 3 Prix Quincey