The Pinhook Files - (Dec 2023)

The French Connection

The magical mystery tour of France for myself and our family has come to an end.
The past 18 months have flown by and we will return on Dec 23rd to settle back down under in readiness for the 2024 yearling sale season.

From a personal perspective it’s been a truly wonderful experience, especially for our children who attended school in France for the 18 months.
We’ve packed a lot in and feel very fortunate for the time we’ve spent here.

From a business perspective it’s also been a fantastic experience, one I hope will reap more rewards over the ensuing years.
Aside from purchasing a number of horses for Australian clients, I’ve been fortunate to develop close relationships with a number of French trainers, breeders and agents, while also observing how other individuals and operations conduct their business and their different ways of doing things.

Observing the trade and flow of horses within and out of France and Europe to other parts of the globe such as Australia, The Arabian Gulf, USA and Hong Kong has also been enlightening and opened my eyes to other possibilities and opportunities.

So with that said, I thought it would be a good time to share some of my general observations of French racing and horses:

Flat Tracks
As opposed to the undulating terrain of many UK/IRE tracks, French courses are generally flatter with similar surfaces to Australian tracks (albeit I would say that they race on proportionally more rain affected going than Aus).

Race Pattern / Tempo of Races
Again, very similar to Australian racing – horses can often be pushed out from the gates to find a position; often a ‘rest’ in the middle stages of a race and a dash home.

Spelling / Feeding
Overall, I’ve found the feeding and spelling of horses whilst in training in France interesting.
Now with first-hand experience based on horses purchased for Australia, my strong feeling is that across the board most French horses will  improve physically and put on weight and in some cases even lay more bone, given an appropriate amount of time. The different feeding, training methods, more sunshine on their backs and the more free-range approach agrees with the majority of these imported French horses.

Levels of Racing:
There are definitely different levels of racing, similar to Australia’s Metro, Provincial, Country system. Once you understand the geography, it certainly helps in dissecting and weighing up the form lines for future prospects
- Metro Tier 1 – Parisian and Normandie tracks such as Longchamp, Saint-Cloud, Chantilly, Deauville, Maison-Lafitte.
- Provincial / Tier 2 – Locations such as Bordeaux, Lyon, Toulouse, Marseilles could be deemed provincial but also have their marquee races and times of the year when the racing is at its strongest
- Country – take your pick (a lot of country tracks – too many to rattle off).

National Hunt (NH)
The NH game is incredibly strong in France and the UK/IRE – it actually blew me away to discover how big, dynamic and robust the NH/Jumping industry is over here. The prices paid for NH prospects (from within NH and the flat racing ranks) is incredible, which ties into the normal commercial element of trading, from foals through to in–foal mares, etc. And to my mind the strength of the NH industry actually creates some interesting opportunities on several fronts.

Stallion Fees
Across the board the stallion fees are generally more ‘affordable’ in France, certainly more so than Australia. Siyouni the leading stallion in France has gone to another level this year and will stand the 2024 season for 200k (up from 150k IN 2023 which IMO was very good value).
His 2023 southern hemisphere fee of 60,000 for anyone who took it on was ridiculously good value.
Another example is Freshman sire Mishriff who was a multiple international Gr 1 winner. He is standing his first season for 17,500. Great value for a horse of his quality and ability.

Administration / Prize money
Like any racing jurisdiction it has its pluses and minuses but IMO the racing here is generally a well-run operation across the board.  
Prize money is the best in Europe, under pinned by wagering through the Aussie equivalent of the TAB - The Pari Mutuel Urbain (PMU) - French state-controlled betting system.
They have very popular French breeding premiums (similar to BOBS, VOBIS) for French-bred horses that can supplement prizemoney levels up to 80% on top of normal stakes earned: https://www.frbc.fr/owners-premiums/
The training costs obviously vary depending on the trainer but fees in the €2500- €3500 per month, per horse seems to be the norm.
They have a Racehorse Transport Subsidy for owners of €3,300 per horse which obviously helps the bottom line in keeping a horse in work.

Opportunities
From an Australian (and HK) perspective there are a good number of opportunities available here in France/Europe that IMO are advantageous to those looking to tap into quality bloodstock and racehorses for Australian / HK conditions.
Several of which IMO stand out like the ‘proverbial’.
Happy to discuss further for anyone interested!