Siyouni: from Syndication to Stardom Cont
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FRIDAY, 27 AUGUST 2021 SIYOUNI: FROM PEARLS GALORE RULES IN THE FAIRY BRIDGE SYNDICATION TO STARDOM Continuing her upward trajectory on Thursday, Haras de Saint Pair=s Pearls Galore (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) defied a three- pound penalty for her July 11 G3 Brownstown S. success in style in Tipperary=s G3 Coolmore Stud No Nay Never Fairy Bridge S. Always travelling strongly racing behind the pace, the 5-2 second favourite was angled off the fence by Billy Lee straightening for home and after delivering her potent turn of acceleration recorded a comprehensive 1 3/4-length defeat of Roca Roma (Ire) (Australia {GB}). AShe was in great form when she won the Brownstown and I said we=d go straight for the Matron,@ trainer Paddy Twomey said. AShe was in great form at home and I felt it would be unwise to bypass this one on our doorstep. I thought if she could do what she did there then we could have a crack at a Group 1. I France=s leading sire Siyouni | The Aga Khan Studs felt it might be a bit fanciful if we hadn=t done something like that. She=s earned her shot wherever it might be.@ Cont. p4 By Emma Berry IN TDN AMERICA TODAY Just as the illustrious Pivotal (GB) was retiring from stud duties at the age of 28, Siyouni (Fr), who can certainly now be regarded THE SPECIAL BOND UNITING TWO TRAVERS COLTS as his most significant sire son, was reaching the peak of his Chris McGrath investigates the pedigree of GI Runhappy Traver S. entrants Dynamic One (Union Rags) and Miles D (Curlin). Click or powers with his first French championship. He finished last tap here to go straight to TDN America. season by adding a Prix de l=Arc de Triomphe winner to his burgeoning CV, and this year Siyouni is currently responsible for the joint-top-rated horse in the world in the dual French Classic and Eclipse S. winner St Mark=s Basilica (Fr). At the age of 14, Siyouni is riding the crest of a wave. For at least the last four seasons he has been the most expensive stallion in France by a wide margin, his 2021 fee rising to an all-time high of i140,000. And his popularity at the sales is undiminishedBB15 of his yearlings passed through the recent Arqana August Sale for an average price in excess of i300,000. Bahrain=s KHK Racing bought the most expensive of these at i1.5 million and Coolmore, doubtless emboldened by their previous success with the stallion, gave i650,000 for a filly from Ecurie des Monceaux, birthplace of their young Arc-winning stallion Sottsass (Fr). How much of a permanent mark Siyouni will make on the breed remains to be seen, but already he is the sire of not just an Arc winner but five individual Classic winners with 17 Group 1 victories to their credit, as well as the GI E P Taylor S. heroine Etoile (Fr). Cont. p2 TDN EUROPE • PAGE 2 OF 13 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • 27 AUGUST 2021 Siyouni: From Syndication to Stardom Cont. from p1 AEvery beginner was winning,@ says Rimaud. "So we felt pretty Things, however, could have been so different, with the good about it. And then we produced our first Group 1 winner horse=s story reduced perhaps to a footnote in Thoroughbred by him, and then you don't have anything else to do. I mean, it history as the winner of the 2009 G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. all happens. The rest is, as some people say, it's history. But I am AIt's not to our credit, but Siyouni wasn't very far from getting not sure the history is finished: it=s ongoing. He has produced castrated and sent to Hong Kong,@ says Georges Rimaud, probably around 150 foals every year.@ manager of the Aga Khan Studs in France. AHe was certainly a There is no hiding the pleasure that Siyouni=s success has very good racehorse, and at two in particular, but then at three, brought the operation as Rimaud recounts his career to date. It he unfortunately did not manage to win a race. He placed in is of course not the first time the Aga Khan Studs has retired a several races, and was second in the Prix Jean Prat. But we were homebred to stand at one of its farmsBBfar from itBBbut left wondering what we were going to do with him. Was it perhaps the somewhat unexpected nature of the steep upward enough to stand him? Was he the type that people would be rise, from a relatively lowly stud fee, echoing that of his own looking for?@ celebrated sire in England, makes it all the more satisfying. It turns out that Siyouni was indeed the type that breeders AWe're thrilled with it,@ he says. AThis is the horse who was were happy to take a chance on, though his appeal was born and raised on our farm. We bred the mare. Everything was broadened, and the risk shared, by the Aga Khan Studs taking homemade. He was born at Saint-Crespin and he was broken in the decision to syndicate himBBa move not made by the at our breaking farm. From there, he was sent to Alain de Royer operation since Darshaan (GB) Dupre, who found him quite retired to stud in 1985. A good precocious. You know, this is not omen, if one were needed. THE AGA KHAN STUDS HAD NOT a trademark for us, to have AWe syndicated him to bring in precocious horses.@ a bit of money for one thing, and SYNDICATED HORSES FOR A LONG Rimaud continues, AYou don't then also I always feel that if you TIME, SO THIS WAS ALMOST A NEW expect to go from sort of low get more participants around grade to elite. That was the way something, whether it's a horse THING. PEOPLE WERE VERY PLEASED it went, starting at i7,000. I or something else, you dilute the TO COME IN AND DO SOMETHING don't want to insult anyone who risk a little bit. If you are used him in the early years, but successful you are going to WITH US. at i7,000, he improved the probably dilute the revenue as Georges Rimaud quality of the foals of those well, but I thought it was worth mares considerably. As we say in the shot with that horse. So we French, he's an ameliorateur agreedBBall our team and His [enhancer], and he really does HighnessBBagreed to syndicate that.@ him at a small price of i28,000, and he would stand at i7,000 The motto of the Aga Khan Studs has long been >success for the standard syndication.@ breeds success= and in this instance it has been doubly true for The gamble worked, at least in the initial sense of encouraging the breeders who not only sent their mares but also took a breeders to use the stallion. AHe very quickly covered 150 mares share in the young stallion at the outset. Rimaud is quick to or more,@ Rimaud recalls. AHe was always quite busy. We ended acknowledge those who have helped to establish Siyouni at up with quite a few foals that looked very nice. And you know Haras de Bonneval. when you have good foals out there because people come back. He says, AThe thing was that the Aga Khan Studs had not We had the same demand the following year, and the following syndicated horses for a long time, so this was almost a new year.@ thing. People adhered to that syndication, and were very After that, it was up to Siyouni himself, or indeed his runners. pleased to come in and do something with us. With 14 first-crop winners in 2014, he was France=s leading AThey've invested, they believed in the horse, they put their first-season sire and leading sire of 2-year-olds. That group mares in. And some of them had to leave because of the included the G3 Prix de Cabourg winner Ervedya (Fr), who would pressure of selling their shares at higher prices and then not reward the Aga Khan and Siyouni=s former trainer Alain de Royer necessarily being able to go back to the horse, which is also a Dupre by becoming her sire=s first Classic winner in the following frustrating situation where you have people that have helped year=s Poule d=Essai des Pouliches before travelling to Ascot to Siyouni make it with lower stud fees.@ win the G1 Coronation S. Cont. p3 TDN EUROPE • PAGE 3 OF 13 • THETDN.COM FRIDAY • 27 AUGUST 2021 Siyouni: From Syndication to Stardom Cont. In May it was announced that Siyouni, who is out of the Danehill mare Sichilla (Ire), whose offspring also include Group/Grade 1 winner Siyouma (Ire) (Medicean {GB}), would be available to cover to Southern Hemisphere time at a fee of i100,000. He has had scant representation in Australia thus far, Senior Vice President Gary King but among his six runners there are four black-type performers, Twitter: @garykingTDN including the listed-winning juvenile See You In Spring (Aus). Her [email protected] Darley-bred dam Spring Colours (GB) (Shamardal), who is out of + 1.732.320.0975 a half-sister to the champion miler Goldikova (Ire), was exported to Australia in 2017. International Editor AWe were tempted to shuttle him several times,@ Rimaud says. Kelsey Riley "When he was just about to make it and we felt that maybe it Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN was the time to take that opportunity, we had some offers in [email protected] Western Australia and different places, from Anthony Mithen.