ENGLISH TEXTS my horse, I had chosen my trainer, Alessandro Botti,” Thomas explains.“ I had followed the career of Presage Nocturne, who climbed the ranks all the way to Group 1 level. With Alessandro, I feel supported and confident. He respects the horses and never rushes them, building for the long term. In my eyes, that is the foundation of any success.”
A Growing Passion As a young owner, Thomas also offers his perspective on the industry and its potential for development:“ In football, investors analyse the physical and technical data of every player. In racing, this culture of education is missing. It would be wonderful to offer sessions for new owners, learning how to read a race, understand performances, manage a stable. It would help everyone grow while strengthening the bond between all the stakeholders.” At this time of the French football cup, Thomas also imagines a Regional Championship system.“ The best horses from each region would compete until a major national final in Paris. Just imagine: the three best from the North, South, East and West all together! It would be a fantastic way to engage the public, to create regional supporters, like in football. Semi-finals, finals … it would bring passion and connection.”
The Soul of Favolo As this article goes to press, Favolo is at the Deauville racecourse, ready to run in his first race of 2026. He won the second race of his career with great courage, prevailing by a neck over 3,400 metres on Deauville’ s all-weather track and continuing his very good current form.“ He has been through difficult moments, slow to mature, but I have always believed in him. He is a big City Light, who won me over at first sight. A strong temperament. And do you want to know the truth? If I were a horse, I would be him. We have the same character. Racing is made of human stories as much as sporting results.”
BREEDING
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3 YEARS OLD, THE AGE OF JUDGMENT
BY JOCELYN DE MOUBRAY
At the end of the day a stallion’ s standing is decided by how successful its three year old are. Races restricted to three year olds make up 34 % of flat races in France and 44 % of all Group and Listed races, including the Classic races and many of the most prestigious. For a stallion the success of its first crop of three year olds is important, but in many ways it is the second crop which will reveal the true quality of any stallion.
More or less any stallion can produce a good horse, what marks those who are above average, or better still, is consistent returns better than the mean. After a horse has had five or six crops to race its standing is more or less obvious, in the early stages of its career it is hard to see, or to be sure whether its success or lack of it is just good or ill fortune and what is due to a consistent correlation between the stallion and success on the racecourse. Sample size is important as from a small sample a stroke of luck can change everything, and it is often when a horse has had two crops to race that the sample size is large enough to be able to make an accurate judgement. There are six principal French stallion’ s whose second crop are three this year, Etreham’ s Hello Youmzain and Persian King, Boquetot’ s Wooded, Romanised now at Castillon, Sumbe’ s Golden Horde and the Haras de la Gastine’ s Chachnak. All six have produced high class horses and could yet become established stallions, but equally they will all have to achieve more this year if they are to make a lasting mark. A year ago Hello Youmzain looked to be one of best sires of this generation, his fee was put up to € 40,000 at which he received a similar level of support to his first seasons covering 116 mares and a share was sold with Arqana online for € 250,000. Things didn’ t quite work out as expected, there were plenty of winners, 46 three year old winners 55 % of his runners, but only 4.8 % were black type performers, and
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