Ex-Monceaux yearling manager Antoine Bellanger open for business at Arqana

This article was first published in December 2019

Former Ecurie des Monceaux yearling manager Antoine Bellanger received a big vote of confidence in the opening session of the Arqana December Breeding-Stock Sale on Saturday as he launches his own business, Arcadia Elevage.

Bellanger left Monceaux after this summer's Arqana August Yearling Sale – when the nursery was the leading vendor by gross receipts for the eighth year in a row, which pays him no small compliment – to run his own operation at a repurposed cattle farm near Pont-l'Eveque, a 20-minute drive from Deauville.

Arcadia Elevage has a soft launch at Arqana on Tuesday when it sells its very first horse, the German Group 1 winner Khan, as a stallion prospect on behalf of owner Darius Racing.

But, before that, the stud's name appeared on the list of purchasers on Saturday when David Redvers, who is familiar with Bellanger's skills having bred and sold yearlings in partnership with Monceaux, bought a Dark Angel colt foal at €135,000 for Bellanger to prep and consign to the yearling sales in 2020.

Up to Sunday's session, Arcadia Elevage had also taken home a son of Air Force Blue out of Listed-placed Happyness for €40,000.

“I saw the Dark Angel colt before the sale and loved him,” says Bellanger of the lot, out of a daughter of Sea The Stars and Prix Psyche winner Vadapolina and presented by the Channel Consignment for the dispersal of the late Marquise de Moratella's stock. “He made more than we thought but I believe he's worth it: he's by a proven, top-class stallion and is very nice, and had a real look of his damsire Sea The Stars about him.

“He has an excellent walk and good bone. He's a May foal, so was not quite as developed as some of the other foals, but that's not important now; we can work on that. He'll be coming back to the farm with a few other foals we'll buy here and we'll do our best. I'm so grateful to David for putting his faith in me.”

Bellanger was born into a family of breeders and worked for jumps breeder Patrick Boiteau, responsible for prolific winners Cyrlight and Karly Flight, after leaving school. He then went on his travels to expand his knowledge and worked at Derrinstown Stud in County Kildare and Lane's End Farm in Kentucky, the studious pupil taking lessons from each leg of his world tour.

“I learned almost all I know from Patrick, but I told myself I had to go abroad while I was young,” he says. “I loved the high standards of horsemanship in Ireland, and the way they bred horses there, and then at Lane's End I saw how a huge farm with so many horses and people could run smoothly with top-class organisation.”

Upon Bellanger's return to France he took up a role with Ecurie des Monceaux, not long after the stud had been bought by Lucien Urano, early in its transformation from a producer of trotters to the leading commercial stud in Normandy.

“Monceaux was very small at the time, maybe only 60 hectares with five or six people working there, and it grew step by step, although the method of breeding good horses was already there,” says Bellanger.

Asked for the secret to Monceaux's success, which has seen the stud turn out a galaxy of stars, including Magic Wand, Sistercharlie and Sottsass, he replies: “I don't think there is any secret, but everything is just done the right way; there is long consideration over mating plans and how pedigrees cross, and the horses are reared very naturally, they do what needs to be done but no more.

“You can do plenty of things to a young horse, but only around half are really important. You have to keep things simple and not get carried away.”

After 11 years at Monceaux, Bellanger had itchy feet. “I said to myself, 'Well, Antoine, you're 33 years old, what are you going to do next?' And what I wanted was to see if I could apply all the lessons I've learned in my previous jobs and go it alone, so I did!”

With his partner Aline Giraud, marketing director at the Aga Khan Studs, he bought the farm at which his Arcadia Elevage venture will be based.

“It's 35 hectares of brand new land, we've built a barn and 30 boxes and we're very happy with it,” he says. “We did it exactly the way we wanted.”

Bellanger will offer boarding, rearing and sales consignment services, with the odd pinhook along the way.

Regarding the lot who will become the very first offering by Arcadia Elevage when he comes under the hammer as lot 829 at Arqana on Tuesday, he says: “Khan is a Group 1 winner, has a great mind, is a good-looking horse and is well bred, being by Santiago, who had a Grade 1 winner in Auteuil last year with Cicalina, and a half-brother to Kamsin, the sire of On The Go.

“He looks to have everything in his favour to become a successful National Hunt sire and I'm very grateful to Darius Racing and Holger Faust for letting me sell him for them.”

And what are Bellanger's ambitions beyond Khan providing a good advertisement for his nascent operation?

“What is most important for me now is just to get off to a proper start,” he replies. “I'm not making grand plans for where I want to be in five years' time; I know where I'd like to be, but it's up to my clients to get me there.

"So it's important to gain and keep the trust of people like David Redvers, and all my efforts will be concentrated on keeping them happy.”

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