Le Havre continues to reward pioneering support from breeders

Some shrewd operators have benefitted over the years from catching stallions on the up. It should be common sense to target those horses who are on the cusp of benefitting from better books but of course, this is a world where a stallion’s popularity is often dictated by the commercial market and the rush to first season sires remains a prevailing theme.

To catch an improving yet proven stallion requires an element of patience and in some instances, the nerve to go against fashion. Nor does it always work out. One of the most memorable cases – for the wrong reasons – is Fasliyev. Breeders entrusted him with a total of 302 mares in the aftermath of his sole season at €75,000, many of them in the hope that the elite book would help revitalise a career that had begun with eight first-crop stakes winners.

They did not and by the time it became clear that Fasliyev was not ‘a snip’ at €15,000, he was far from sight in Japan. Thankfully, anyone who took a chance on Montfort et Preaux’s Le Havre this season has reason to be more enthused following an early season start that has featured seven black-type runners.