Ace making a major Impact for Barbara Moser's Haras du Long Champ

Barbara Moser’s Haras du Long Champ has endured more than its share of near-misses in major races.

Ten years ago there was Testa Rossi, Chad Brown’s decorated performer who was second to Chriselliam in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, while five years on and Patascoy was denied by only half a length by Study Of Man in the Prix du Jockey Club.

Only at the end of last month, Light Infantry was on the wrong side of a photo-finish with Anmaat in the Prix d’Ispahan, having lost out in similarly excruciating fashion to Inspiral in last year’s Jacques le Marois.

So victory in the Jockey Club last weekend with Ace Impact was a long time coming for the German-influenced but very much French boutique operation in the heart of Normandy’s breeding country.

The wait was ended in unmistakeable fashion, too, as the son of first-season sire Cracksman stalked the front-running hot favourite Big Rock and tore past him, streaking an impressive three and a half lengths clear.

"It’s so amazing, in five years to have two horses in the Derby is really unbelievable for us," says Moser. "Patascoy finished second, not far away from the winner, so we’ve been very lucky. 

"We’ve had a great year this year. In one week, two Group 1 horses but we’ve been second in Group 1s so often, and now it’s done."

Moser has boarded the very small broodmare band of Ace Impact’s German breeders, Waltraut and Karl Spanner, for the last four years. The Chantilly Classic winner is the fifth foal of Anabaa Blue mare Absolutly Me, a relation of the Irish St Leger winner and well-travelled Ibn Bey who was picked up for just €16,500 as a yearling from Osarus and went on to be stakes placed.

"Ace Impact was born in Ireland because the mare was there for covering, then he came back after pregnancy to us and was raised here," says Moser.

"Absolutly Me is a really beautiful mare with a lot of personality, as Ace Impact was since he was a foal. He was always a 'Mr', a very intelligent horse.

"The owners are breeding very well, it’s a German connection but we didn’t know each other before this. They have four mares now but she’s really the best of them for the moment, they’ve got two young mares with first foals, so we’ll see."

The disappointing aspect for the Spanners, who regularly race horses themselves, is that they decided to offer Ace Impact at auction, and the €75,000 that trainer Jean-Claude Rouget gave for him at the Arqana August Sale in 2021 certainly looks a bargain now.

Light Infantry has developed into a top performer for David Simcock's stableCredit: Mark Cranham

Moser had liked Ace Impact enough to feel he would be worth keeping and is aware that it is a decision that the couple will regret.

"I think so, because it was their dream to breed and own a Group horse, but that’s life," she says.

"She has a two-year-old colt by Gleneagles [Arrow Eagle] in training for them, a colt foal by Waldgeist and she’s pregnant by Almanzor now."

Moser and partner William Thareau established Long Champ in 2004 and now have around 30 mares, two-thirds of whom belong to clients.

"I worked with a trainer in Germany, it wasn’t to do with breeding, but breeding was always my hobby," says Moser. "I was learning on my own during the years and I did a couple of seasons in Australia.

"I knew the owner of the stud and he gave me the chance to start running it. He finished with the horses and I had the possibility to continue it for myself.

"Here you have so much land, in Germany it’s not possible and there’s a good system for owners premiums, etc. Good land, good climate. Why not?"

She adds: "I always wanted to work with horses, I love the life and it’s really amazing to see what you’ve bred on the stud on the racetrack. It’s what you’re getting up every morning for."

The other current success story is through Moser’s own group of mares. Arqana October graduate Light Infantry, who won the Horris Hill Stakes as a two-year-old, is out of her unheralded Kyllachy mare Lights On Me, who she then sold privately. The colt made such progress for David Simcock, also finishing third in the Prix Jean Prat, that Lights On Me changed hands again a year later, to BBA Ireland from Genesis Green, for 330,000gns at Tattersalls.

"We wanted to keep her but you have to think about things and it’s always the same subject of finance," she says. "She was 13 years old and at one moment you have to make a decision. I do fortunately also have a sister of Light Infantry."

Ace Impact is one of Europe's most exciting colts after his Jockey Club winCredit: © APRH / QUENTIN BERTRAND

The Spanner family themselves have another nice prospect in Maylin, a Footstepsinthesand filly who has won her last two in France and runs in Sunday's Italian Oaks in Milan, out of another cleverly acquired broodmare who lives at Long Champ. 

They can also be proud of having bred a colt who looks set for some blockbuster clashes in top middle-distance races this season. Moser cannot wait, either.

"It’s so surprising and unexpected, we’re a little stud and we’re not a traditional stud," she says.

"We created the stud about 20 years ago with little mares and little coverings, and improved year by year a little bit. So it’s really something fantastic, I’ve not got the words for it because it’s so enormous for little guys, as we are."

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