Frankel colt bids to extend the fairytale for Haras de Saint-Julien

The ten members of Frankel's third crop catalogued at Arqana this weekend are bound to attract plenty of interest, albeit their dams were sent to him after his first foals had actually received a somewhat hesitant reception at the sales. For the consignor of at least one, however, even a world champion will represent a secondary element on the page.

Antoinette Tamagni-Bodmer's affection for This Time is such that she has designed the logo of her lavish new venture, Haras de Saint-Julien, from a painting of the mare with this, her first foal.

Saint-Julien fulfills a lifelong dream for Swiss-born Tamagni-Bodmer, who has bred horses for more than 20 years at partner Patrick Chedeville's Haras du Petit Tellier near Argentan in Normandy. After purchasing an 82-hectare parcel of Calvados land in 2015, she opened the doors of her new private stud this year.

Commitment

But Tamagni-Bodmer stresses that Saint-Julien will not alter her commitment with Chedeville at Petit Tellier: they continue standing her stallion purchase Elvstroem together, for instance. This Time's first son, moreover, is consigned to the August Yearling Sale down the road in Deauville through Petit Tellier, as Lot 86.

"One of our clients, who boarded her dam Scalotta with us, didn’t want to breed from her any more," Tamagni-Bodmer explains. "The mare was 12 at the time, and I suggested that we send her to Zafeen, who was standing his first year at Petit Tellier. When This Time was born, I asked the client whether they would like to sell her as a foal or as a yearling. They took the first option, so I bought them out."

The foal cost just €3,500 at Arqana's breeding stock sale in December 2011 - and proceeded to become Tamagni-Bodmer's first homebred Group winner in the Prix d'Arenburg at Chantilly in 2013. On her next start she finished second in the Group 2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte for Henri-Alex Pantall, who trains her French string.

But she also has a foothold in Germany, as the well-known pale pink silks of her Cocheese Bloodstock were most recently carried to Group success by Moonee Valley, trained there by Mario Hofer, in the Prix des Reservoirs in 2014. The new stud's homebreds, incidentally, will carry a revived family livery in blue.

Exciting

"This is a really exciting project, and I have been waiting a long time for it to happen," says Tamagni-Bodmer. "Haras de Saint-Julien is a private stud I have built myself to use for my own broodmares. The aim is to continue to breed to race, as well as consigning some yearlings under Petit Tellier. The main objective is to keep developing some nice female families, so it is mostly the colts that are likely to be sold unless I have many [fillies] in the same pedigree."

The historic Petit Tellier stud: Tamagni-Bodmer will continue her association there despite opening a new venture at Saint-Julien

Tamagni-Bodmer has around 35 broodmares. While that is rather more than she would ideally want, at just 1,500gns she could not resist recently buying Meon Valley Stud's Kinetix, in foal to Hunter's Light, at the Tattersalls July Sale. "I love her sire [Linamix] and she's from the great Aga Khan family of Kalanisi," she explains.

Tamagni-Bodmer, who recently turned 60, came late to the racing game after spending much of her early life as a dressage rider. She first experienced a bloodstock sale at François Mathet's dispersal in 1983, where she bought a horse to race in Switzerland with her late husband. This ultimately led to her becoming a permit holder for a couple of years, but she made her first big impact as a breeder through a filly sold as a yearling. Premiere Creation, a daughter of Green Tune, was Grade 1-placed in California and is the second dam of this year's Prix de Diane runner-up Sistercharlie.

Popular

Tamagni-Bodmer sent 15 broodmares to Elvstroem this season, continuing her support for the multiple Group 1-winning Australian import. "His first foals are even better than I expected," she says. "He has been popular and I hope that translates into success at the racecourse."

Chedeville's family has a history of breeding thoroughbreds dating back to the 1850s, and stallions to have served Petit Tellier include Sea-Bird, on his return from the United States; and Prince Rose, who was killed by artillery fire in 1944 but bequeathed the great Princequillo.

Chedeville finds the modern stallion market a challenging one, however. "Today, we have a lot of major powerhouses that offer a large range of stallions," he says. "It is now almost impossible to buy stallion prospects, and it can also be difficult to attract mares. It is true that the French breeding industry has had somewhat of a revival. But I feel breeders would still prefer to send their mares to a cheap stallion abroad rather than use those available in their own country because of commercial reasons."

Undaunted, however, Tamagni-Bodmer hopes to make her own contribution to the Normandy revival through Saint-Julien.

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