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covered more than him that year, and this crop included the Group 1 horses Commes, Motamarris, Villa Marina, Glycon and others. Le Havre was primarily a sire of middle distance horses, his best colt and filly Leffard and Wonderful Tonight, both out of Montjeu mares, were 1 ½ mile horses and the average winning distance of his progeny is ten furlongs and yet his better horses, and there were many of them, had plenty of speed and he produced three Group 1 winners at a mile. One thing Le Havre was not was a two year old sire and if the best of his progeny were ready to win Poule d’ Essai des Pouliches in May at three, most of them took time to reach their peak. To see how Le Havre transformed the French stallion market you have to look back and realise how moribund it was in 2010 when he stood his first season. That year only three stallions in France covered more than a hundred mares and it was Le Havre with 146 mares who had the biggest book followed by Elusive City, who had started his stud career in Ireland, with 124 and another first season sire Soldier of Fortune who also covered 124. To cover so many mares in his first season, even at a fee of 5,000 euros, was in itself a remarkable achievement as at the time Le Havre was anything but a fashionable sire.
From BBAG to ARQANA Le Havre was always a good looking horse, he was bought by Jean Claude Rouget for 100,000 euros at the 2007 Arqana August sale, which was a huge price for his pedigree, the best his sire Noverre’ s progeny achieved in 2007 and Noverre himself was sold to India the same year. Le Havre was the first foal of his mare Marie Rheinberg, an unraced daughter of the obscure German stallion Surako who had been bought herself for 7,500 euros at the BBAG October sale. Marie Rheinberg was a half-sister to the Group 1 winner and stallion Polar Falcon. Le Havre was of course a bargain, carrying the colours of Gerard Augustin Normand he won his first two starts and two and then at three made a winning reappearance in the Listed Prix Djebel, finished second to Silver Frost in the Poule d’ Essai des Poulains and then came from behind to catch Fuisse and win the Prix du Jockey-Club by 1 ½ lengths under Christophe Lemaire to gain an official rating of 54.5 kilos. Le Havre did not, however, run again. At the time, the 2100 metre Jockey-Club was new and didn’ t have the reputation as a stallion making race it has today, and then Le Havre’ s pedigree did not appeal to the commercial market. Le Havre retired to a new stallion farm, La Cauviniere, and his management team of Sylvain Vidal, joined by Matthieu Alex, were newcomers too. They succeeded in attracting mares to Le
Havre and they supported him with their own mares and those belonging to Augustin Normand. It was this support which proved to be decisive as these mares produced the horses like Avenir Certain, Auvray, Crisolles, La Hoguette which established his reputation. Le Havre continued to be supported in years two and three and his fourth crop with only 58 named foals was the only one with fewer than eighty foals. Le Havre was syndicated after his initial success and for the remainder of his career he received support from leading breeders from all over Europe. Le Havre showed that it was possible for new stallions in France to attract enough mares in their first three seasons at stud to establish an international reputation. He showed it was possible for a stallion who started in France at a low fee to become a sire with an international reputation, a path which was to be followed by Siyouni, Wootton Bassett, Zarak, and others. In the years since Le Havre’ s debut France’ s share of the European stallion market has continued to grow, in terms of revenue generated it has gone from 2 % to close to 15 % of the market. France has become an important part of the European market, and a sector which is open and competitive with no dominant player, and which has allowed French breeders and others to profit from the rise in capital value of syndicated sires. It is fair to say that Le Havre,
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