DEAUVILLE, France – As Arqana made the news, on October 11, Grand Glory (GB) (Olympic Glory {Ire}) – Group 1 winner raced in partnership with Albert Frassetto, John d’Amato and Mike Pietrangelo—will be offered for sale at their upcoming December Breeding Stock sale, there’s something curious about the story.
Read warnings from TDN, Benoit Jeffroy and the team at Haras de Castillon immediately realized: the story doesn’t list a shipper.
“Amelie [Lemercier] sent me a text, and she said, ‘Did you see? She was going to Arqana,” Jeffroy recalls, sitting in the restaurant above the Arqana sales ring a day after the mare sold for €2.5 million, the second-highest price in the sale. “We read the story, and we had the same thoughts at the same time.”
Jeffroy continued, “I picked up the phone and called Marco Bozzi [who had originally bought her as a yearling]. We know Marco, because we’ve been with the longing for the past four or five years. So I called him and I said ‘who’s delivering the scum?’ and he said, ‘nobody. Coach [Gianluca Bietolini], probably?’ I said, ‘Well, listen, maybe we can help you. There’s a bit of work to be done to promote filth. ‘ He said he was going to talk to the owners, and they turned around and said ‘okay, okay.’ So we worked together and the result was 2.5 million euros. ”
If that sounds too easy, it’s actually the result of Jeffroy’s whole life of hard work. The Finistere native of Brittany, western France grew up on a cattle farm. His father was a cattle rancher and breeding dealer, but they also always had a few thoroughbred mares to breed.
“They bred on a smaller level, but they were pretty successful at that level, and they won Group 1 with Never On Sunday (Fr),” he said. “I grew up on a farm around cattle and horses and then one day it excites me when I was 11 or 12 years old, and I really got into the genealogy. I really love it. Trying to do genealogy for my parents and grandfather, I said, ‘this is interesting.’
Jeffroy attended an agricultural school and specialized in their equine program. But he wants to go out into the world, learn English and go to work.
When he was 18, he took a job at Cambridge Stud in New Zealand, speaking no English. He quickly learned the language and enrolled in Darley’s (now Godolphin) Flying Start course and was shocked when he was chosen without ever attending college. He finds that a fresh start is exactly what a two-year international management course has given him.
“It was my university,” he said. “If you’ve done Flying Start, and you’ve traveled a bit, you wouldn’t be able to imagine how many people you know. And if you have all of that, it’s incredible. It was a big help at the start. ”
His first job off the show was for Darley, where he spent five years setting up a program of work on nominations from the French market, among other things. But in 2009, his father asked him if he and his brother would take over the farm in Brittany.
“My brother was a farmer, and so we said, ‘Okay, we can do it, but we’ll do it our way.’ There were nine mares there at the time. We sold six of them.”
Over the next twelve years, they grew their farm in Brittany, SCEA des Prairies, to 300 hectares, where they rented about 90 mares for themselves and for clients.
Jeffroy caught the attention of Qatari Sheikh Joaan, who recruited him to set up Haras de Bouqetot in Normandy for the Qatar Racing operation. Jeffroy continued to run the farm in Brittany with his brother Thomas, as well as Bouquetot, and realized that it would be beneficial to have his own farm in Normandy.
“So I bought the Castillon and I thought, ‘it’s just going to be a little surgery,’ he said. “And you know how it goes; You know people, and they ask if you can lead their horses. And we can grow, so we have grown. We grew from 30 hectares to 160 in six years. We’re staying in Livarot, about a 40-minute drive from here, and it’s in a great location. We have access to every kind of facility we need.”
Jeffroy continues to keep all those balls in the air – dividing his time among three farms. “I work full time for Sheikh Joaan in Bouquetot,” he said. “So is Amelie. And it’s not a question of numbers, it’s a matter of who is working with you and has a good team, and whether it’s Bouquetot or Castillon or Brittany, we have a great team. work every day work,” he said, referring to Audrey Leyval, Sebastian Desmontils, Antoine Gronfier and Lemercier, among others. “I go around the farms, and I do weekly or monthly strategy meetings, what we want to do for the season. I observe each pony weekly and annually, but I let the managers do their job. I can’t be everywhere, and we have a good team.”
The farm in Brittany continues to produce top runners, including the delightful 2-year-old Zelda (Fr) (Zelzal {Fr}), whom they race in partnership with French-American basketball star Tony Parker. Jeffroy knew that Parker was looking to buy some nice fillings, and that his manager, Clement Tropres, was from Finistere, Jeffroy’s hometown. After the first four-hour lunch meeting, Tropres asked him if he had any young people that fit the bill.
“I said, ‘yes, I really like a desirable thing. I kept her. She is the younger sister of [their homebred] Chez Pierre (Fr) (Mehmas {Ire}), who was undefeated at the time. She couldn’t go to the store because she had two abscesses behind her, so we kept her, but I asked Jean-Claude Rouget if she was worth what I thought. . Jean-Claude said, “She’s really nice,” so we made a deal and Tony got in. And we were lucky. “
Perhaps never have they been as lucky as Saturday at Arqana. “It was very exciting,” said Jeffroy. “This is our first really large mare that we have to deposit and I thought we thought it would be a good idea to try to push for better manuscripts in December at Arqana. .”
Castillon is part of a new wave of young shippers emerging in France, and they’re keen to watch as Sumbe tops sales this week with their first shipment.
“We think there is an opportunity in France to do better,” he said. “We see what is happening in the US and in France, the potential is huge. What Sumbe has done is amazing. We’re thinking a lot of the same things at once, and it’s going pretty well. We are just getting started in Castillon. It’s quite new. We are trying to do better as shippers during the December sale.”
For Castillon, who has already begun to make a name for himself in a more local market, having signed on to sell the V2 Yearling, it was a huge opportunity to enter the international spotlight.
“I think a lot of people will probably recognize Castillon by now,” says Jeffroy. “‘Oh, yeah, those are the guys who sold Grand Glory.” That’s been a big help and it’s a good advertisement for us. And I’m glad it’s been going so well for the relationships. contact, wonderful, wonderful people We know Marco, but the owners don’t know who we are We are a young, new shipper But they trusted us, and I think we did a great job, so I hope they are happy. Happy team, happy customers.”
And what is the end goal? The lovely 36-year-old struggled with answers. “To win the Arc? With a hybrid from Brittany? I do not know. I’m not one for everything. I just go with the flow. I just keep working. I’ve always worked, ever since I was a kid. And at the end of the day, you have to thank everyone who works so hard for you every day, because Castillon isn’t just about me. There are many people behind it.
“I just take it year by year, we try to improve, having happy customers, that’s probably the most important thing. No great goals, really. Should I want a bigger farm? I do not know. I just go as it goes, and see. ”
