stallion goken
Fast start
The beginning of this year’s French racing season was notable for the success of Goken with his first two-year-old runners... and the sire is still maintaining the pace at the top of the table
G
UY PARIENTE has achieved a great deal as a breeder and owner since creating his Haras de Colleville on a cattle farm close to Deauville in 2007. His yellow and white colours have become familiar in France and further afield, he is currently leading breeder in France in 2020 and among the top ten owners. The Haras de Colleville is also a very successful commercial farm and has sold high-class horses such as Morando, Skalleti and Kenway as well as several high-priced yearlings, including a Kendargent filly to Juddmonte for 525,000gns at Tattersalls, and one of the top lots in the Arqana August Sale last year when the farm’s Kingman colt made €675,000 bought by Amanda Skiffington. However, what marks Pariente out from many others who have established breeding operations is that he has also made stallions. Making a stallion is a difficult business, even for those who have unlimited resources. All but a handful of stallions are failures and few things are more difficult to predict than stallion success. Who would have imagined that, of the group who retired to stud in 2008 Kendargent would, ten years later, be standing at a higher fee and have a higher profile than say Manduro or Lawman? They were top racehorses with fashionable pedigrees who started their stud careers standing at significant fees at prestigious farms, and yet they have been out-performed by a non-stakes-winning son of Kendor
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Making a stallion is a difficult business, even for those who have unlimited resources. All but a handful of stallions are failures and few things are more difficult to predict than stallion success who began his career standing at €500 at a new farm, with only a handful of breeders prepared to pay for Kendargent’s services during the early years. If Kendargent’s success appears almost uncanny it looks as though some ten years later Pariente has repeated the trick with Kendargent’s son Goken. Goken had more going for him than his sire when he retired to the Haras de la Huderie to stand at €5,000 in 2017, and yet his success to date must have exceeded all reasonable expectations. At the time of writing, at the end July, \
