Exceptional results on the track mean this Route des Etalons remained a showcase for French optimism

(...) There was still time to make it down to Sumbe’s Haras de Montfort et Préaux to see Charyn and friends.

It must be a condition of working for Nurlan Bizakov that you constantly ask of yourself: “what can I/we do better?”

The reception for weary trail-finders had moved into the nearly-new covering cathedral (shed doesn’t come close to doing the structure justice), and it soon became apparent why the previous temporary tent had been dispensed with. 

In front of the two right-angled rows of stallion boxes, there is now a set of connecting walkways which form a rhomboid box around which to parade the horses. 

I came quite close to failing ‘O’ level geometry but essentially we’re talking about an oblong with one long straight and one shorter straight, linked by two diagonal sides.  

That means from any vantage point, you get the horses walking right to left and left to right in front of you, as well as walking towards and away from you on a slant.

Buyers and breeders are used to moving around to watch a horse walk and stand from every angle, but journalists and videographers love the world to come to them (in extreme close-up in the case of one rival correspondent).  

From whichever angle, the Sumbe stallions are immaculately turned out and I’d be surprised if a couple of nominations to Angel Bleu or Belbek weren’t sold to more cost-conscious breeders over the weekend solely on looks. 

Here too there are a couple of blue-chip stallions on offer, and Charyn has certainly let down well since I last saw him in January 2025, while if there is a better-looking bay with a Classic pedigree in Normandy than Mishriff, I managed to drive straight past their gate.  Scott Burton / Good Morning Bloodstock 28/02/26