'We're the extraterrestrials' – the south-west French farm taking on Normandy's finest at Deauville

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On this occasion, Scott Burton speaks to Haras de Saint Vincent's Thierry Dalla Longa about taking on the consigning giants at Arqana – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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When Normandy is described as the capital of thoroughbred breeding on the Flat in France, that leaves out an awful lot of the rest of the country.

But a quick glance at the top end of the market at the 2025 Arqana August Yearling Sale will convince you that, if nothing else, Deauville is the right place to be selling the cream of France’s crop.

A total of 25 lots made €500,000 or more, of which 21 were raised or consigned by Normandy farms.

The sales colossus that is Ecurie Monceaux accounted for a large slice of the action with 11 of those demi-millionaires, while Tweenhills Stud, Jamie Railton and Camas Park put three in the column for the UK and Ireland.

You might argue that makes Haras de Saint Vincent something of a regional giant-killer, after Godolphin went to €700,000 for a Sea The Stars colt out of the unraced No Nay Never mare Singforthemoment.

In 2011 Thierry Dalla Longa and partner Ludivine Charles set up shop near Pau in the far south west, an area rich in horse know-how thanks to trainers such as Jean-Claude Rouget, Francois Rohaut and Dalla Longa’s old boss, Jacques Ortet.

It is also home to many small and medium-sized breeders, as well as a vast array of racecourses.

The old adage is that a good horse can come from anywhere but just consider the sheer distance between Saint Vincent and the other likely stops on the prospection route for Anthony Stroud, Paul Shanahan or Alex Elliott (Deauville to Pontacq is more than eight hours and 530 miles by road).

So did everything come together once the Saint Vincent draft reached Arqana? Or had the talent scouts been beating a path to Dalla Longa’s door long before?

“Nobody comes to see us at home, everything is down to the viewings in the final few days,” says Toulouse native Dalla Longa.

“We’re the only French farm selling at this elite sale who come from outside Normandy, and for a few years now we’ve been the ‘extraterrestrials’.

“It’s true the buyers don’t come to see our horses but we’re up here for over a week so there is still plenty of chance for people to do their own inspections, and if they like the horses they will come back and do repeated viewings, so I don’t think it changes anything.

“At an elite sale there are somewhere between 300 and 400 horses and with three or four days of inspections, people have plenty of time to get round and see everything.

“And given that all the agents go round all the Norman studs before the sale, they have fewer horses they haven’t seen at all and perhaps they spend more time initially on them.”

The key buyers must have really liked what they saw in the Sea The Stars colt, given where he ended up on the bidding board.

“When he went through the ring there was obviously a lot of pressure,” says Dalla Longa.

“These are horses you’ve foaled, raised and before that you drew up the matings. It’s two or three years’ work having bought the mare until you sell her yearling.

“So yes, it’s pressure, but he was a sumptuous yearling, with no flaws and really well put together for the mare’s first progeny.

“He pleased a lot of people, which is why he made that money, a lot of people wanted him.”

Up until now, Godolphin can’t have had too many regrets about opening their shoulders to get the colt. Now named Quest For Stars, he made it three from three for Charlie Appleby with another impressive success at Salisbury on Wednesday, adding to his maiden win at Doncaster and a Sandown novice victory three weeks later, when he defied a 7lb penalty. The previous two winners of that Sandown race were Oxagon and Bay City Roller.

“Obviously you’re very happy when it happens, and more so with the success he’s had so far on the track,” Dalla Longa says.

“It’s quite surprising to have a Sea The Stars win twice over 1,400 metres by this stage of the year. It's certainly noteworthy and I hope he continues in the same way.”

Saint Vincent acquired Singforthemoment from Monceaux for €125,000 at Arqana in December 2022, since then they and their syndicate partners have treated her to the best suitors.

That means a yearling colt by Wootton Bassett (lot 169) and a degree of nervous excitement for Dalla Longa and Charles.

“For me the first colt was and remains a true Sea The Stars, while this year’s model doesn’t look at all like his brother, he is really marked by Wootton Bassett,” says Dalla Longa.

“Behind them she has a Sea The Stars filly and you would know instantly who her sire is.

Wootton Bassett: sire of Haras de Saint Vincent's offeringCredit: Coolmore

“She’s a mare who lets the stallion leave his mark, and that’s something I love about her.”

Dalla Longa adds: “The Wootton is a gorgeous-looking colt, quite different to his brother but then it’s a very different cross

“There’s a big financial investment in going to these stallions.

“I bought the mare for myself and afterwards I brought in some friends and some investors in her.

“But I always kept control of my choices [of stallion] and I take full responsibility.

“When you buy a mare who was a Listed winner at two,who is well bred and whose family continues to thrive thanks to Big Mojo, you want to go to the chefs de race.”

Dalla Longa has spent his entire working life in the south west, and spent seven years as assistant to the Pau-based champion jumps trainer Jacques Ortet.

For him and Charles to be in this position was not necessarily in the plan, though the location of Haras de Saint-Vincent has, Dalla Longa believes, played a big part in their success.

“I’m basically a competitor and I wanted to become a trainer,” he says.

“That was my dream and what I thought I would do. We bought Saint Vincent with the idea of taking a few racehorses who were having a spell out of training but it took off very quickly.

“When Jean-Claude Rouget and Francois Rohaut started sending me their horses who were resting, I had to make a choice.

“The choice was Ludivine and the stud, and to set it on a more professional footing, to begin breeding and sales preparation. We’ve grown since then but it wasn’t Plan A.”

To be so far away from the major breeding farms in France is not without its challenges, but like most horse breeders - and much like France’s winegrowers - the terroir and the climate are everything.

Saint Vincent was a major breeding farm for Anglo Arabian horses after the war, though Dalla Longa was somewhat unaware of what a gem he was taking on.

“I had real good fortune to buy a farm with exceptional terrain, something I didn’t really appreciate at the time,” he says.

“We’re at an altitude of 600 metres, at the foot of the Pyrenees, and so we have a very fresh climate and an exceptional soil profile of ‘black earth’.

“Historically the village of Saint Vincent was a centre for growing carrots, and the soil is neither sandy nor chalky; it’s not too deep but it’s very cushioned for the horses.

“We have an even better climate than Normandy because we don’t get 6,000-7,000mm of rain a year.

“It’s a very atypical climate and terrain, but I didn’t plan it that way at all!”

The Saint Vincent quartet in this year’s catalogue divides neatly between two established star stallions and two exciting freshmen whose stock will be eagerly followed through the ring at Deauville and beyond.

Marianafoot: Group 1 winner is a brother to AnastepCredit: Scoop Dyga/France Galop

Along with the Wootton Bassett, the farm will sell a filly by Mehmas out of the unraced Anastep (242), a sister to Jean-Claude Seroul’s Prix Maurice de Gheest hero Marianafoot and a half to two more black-type performers.

“Anastep is the sister to Marianafoot, who everyone knows as a Group 1 winner and had a great career on track,” he says.

“She was sold to me by Pierre Talvard on behalf of Jean-Claude Seroul at the breeding stock sale having had a minor holdup between two and three which prevented her from running.

“I adored Marianafoot and I adore her. The Mehmas has always been very nice for a first foal and is a good-looking filly. She’s typical of the sire and I’m very pleased with her.”

Two more young broodmares under the Saint Vincent banner will be represented by their second progeny to go through the Deauville ring, though with the greatest respect to both, it is the identity of their sires which might be the chief reason for prospective buyers to take an interest when they come to inspect the stock at Yard A.  

The Champion two-year-old in 2022, Coolmore’s Little Big Bear has six yearlings in the Arqana catalogue and a colt by the son of No Nay Never will lead off the farm’s draft, though Dalla Longa and his team must wait until the final lot of Sunday’s second session before getting under way.

Dam Serenity (160) reached a rating of 80 for William Haggas over 6-7f and the colt’s Saxon Warrior half-sister is in training with Carlos and Yann Lerner.

Dalla Longa says: “He’s the last lot on Sunday, and my God he looks like his father! He has great strength and presence, and I think people looking for a pure speedy two-year-old, they will like what they see. He’s a carbon copy of his sire.

“I like him a lot and I hope he’ll turn out to be a real racehorse, he has everything you’d want in that sense.

“His [year-older] sister by Saxon Warrior is called Athena Forever and she’s in training with Carlos and Yann Lerner. The reports are good and she was due to debut in May but she had a tiny blip about three weeks before and had to stop for six weeks.

“The lines of the horses she was working with are pretty good and so I’m still optimistic, and it might turn out to be no bad thing, because she has done a lot of growing.

“I like her a lot and we kept hold of her because I have faith in the mare and I didn’t want a blot on her copybook. We’ll give her every opportunity to add to the family’s reputation.”

While plenty of interested parties in County Tipperary will wish for big things for Little Big Bear, that is nothing compared to the hopes and dreams invested in Ace Impact, Haras de Beaumont’s unbeaten Jockey Club and Arc hero, whose first crop offering at Arqana runs to 13, conceived at an opening fee of €40,000.

For Dalla Longa and Charles the story of dam Acquabella (233) is just as important.

Ace Impact: "Beaumont is trying to do positive things on the stallion front in France"Credit: Edward Whitaker

Dalla Longa explains: “We bought Acquabella’s dam, Anthracite, from Monceaux after Henri [Bozo] very kindly offered me the chance, and she's from the beautiful family of Alpine Rose, a bloodline that I love.

“Acquabella was Anthracite’s first progeny and went into training with Jean-Claude Rouget.”

She was second at Chantilly at two and then third at Longchamp on her comeback.

After that she had a little setback and I bought her back.

Dalla Longa says: “Iffraaj is a top broodmare sire and this is her second yearling, following a Churchill [Passarella] who was bought by Ecurie des Charmes last year and will go into training.

“This guy is from the first crop of Ace Impact and it’s just a family I adore. It’s probably a less precocious family than those of the other three but I was determined to keep hold of that Alpine Rose line.”

On the subject of the 2023 European champion, whose first yearlings will go under the hammer this week, Dalla Longa is full of praise for the elements who kept Ace Impact in France.

“We wanted to support the Haras de Beaumont and since he was trained by Jean-Claude and Acquabella was too, I find it quite a nice story,” he says.

“Beaumont is trying to do positive things on the stallion front in France and it’s important to try and support such efforts when you consider the French studs are up against the industrial might of the Irish and British stallion operations.

“We have to send quality mares to the French-based stallions if we want our system to last.” 

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Roger Varian will take the wraps off expensive purchase Rock Montreal in today’s British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes (2.38) at Yarmouth.

The son of Blue Point was bred by James Hanly, Anthony Stroud & Skymarc Farm and sold to Godolphin for 1,000,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale last year.

Rock Montreal is out of the Listed-placed Acclamation mare Boston Rocker, making him a three-quarter brother to Zabeel Mile winner San Donato, while his half-siblings include stakes-placed mare Rock On Thunder and Diablo Rojo.

Further afield, this is the same family as brilliant Group 1-winning mare One Master and top-flight-scoring juvenile Rivet.