To produce the winner of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe is an ambition that stirs the heart of every breeder across France, great or small, as well as many professionals far beyond these shores. To achieve such a feat more than once admits a stud farm into an elite circle. Juddmonte, Darley and the Aga Khan have all touched the grail on multiple occasions on the first Sunday in October, while a name which may have receded from wider view in recent years is also on that honour roll.
When Trempolino and Pat Eddery carried the De Moussac family’s bumblebee black and gold hoops in 1987, he gave Andre Fabre the first of a record eight wins in the Arc.
Just five years later Fabre sent out Subotica and Thierry Jarnet to claim the great prize and Paul de Moussac’s Haras du Mezeray was once again in the Longchamp winner’s circle, a suitable way to mark the farm’s 30th birthday.
Looking out across the gently rolling expanse of paddocks at Mezeray today, the names of other great champions are at play across the mental archive; British Group 1 winners Apple Tree and Dernier Empereur – himself a son of Trempolino – and the great racemare Luth Enchantee; as well as the youthful exuberance of the then-25-year-old Muhtathir up at the stallion barns on a visit here four years ago.
It took one fortune made in maritime transport and brokerage to found Mezeray in 1962, and it was clear by the time of that previous visit that it might take another to provide this wonderful nursery with a future capable of living up to its storied past.
Nurlan Bizakov had entered the French scene in a serious way when acquiring Haras de Montfort et Preaux – the house Le Havre built – in 2019.
Just two years later he added Haras du Mezeray to a portfolio which also includes Hesmonds Stud in East Sussex, now all united under the umbrella of Sumbe.
What had seemed avant garde in the 1960s and 70s might have looked hopelessly outdated by the time Bizakov and Hesmonds manager Tony Fry came to view the 180-hectare property, which nestles just inside the Orne department of Lower Normandy.
But while it was clear money would need to be spent on maintenance and materials, the blueprint of Paul de Moussac and his longtime. manager Antoine Bozo has stood the test of time.
“We came to look at it and you could see that thought and intelligence which had gone into it almost 60 years previously, when Paul de Moussac and Monsieur Bozo had started it,” says Fry, who is now based here.
“You could see when you walked around it that there was a reason this was put here and that was put there, and why it was built like this. And there was a lovely feel about the farm.”
With a tap of his chest, Fry (below) adds: “Nurlan does a lot of things from in here, it’s not always about here [pointing to his head] or the bank balance. He just got a nice feel about the place, and it had the space we were looking for.”
Henri Bozo, son of the late Antoine and now director of the powerhouse that is Ecurie des Monceaux, says: “The De Moussac family were extremely kind, and Paul and my father were very close.
“They enjoyed incredible success on the racetrack, with two winners of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, many Group 1 winners and a host of Grouprace winners every year sent out by John Cunnington, Andre Fabre, and over jumps with Emmanuel Chevalier du Fau.
“It was a golden age and. they produced great results for a host of owners, while Queen Elizabeth came to visit in 1987, a moment of great joy for the De Moussac family and everyone associated with the farm.”
Bozo adds: “It was a very modern stud farm – you could say avant-garde – and many other professionals have described Paul de Moussac to me as being forward-thinking and very open to new ideas.”
Any breeder with serious aspirations to have future Group winners on their farm will tell you that, in addition to bloodlines, it is land – both in quantity and quality – that is key to giving yourself a chance of success.
Indeed, the language of French agriculture seeps across boundaries to the extent that a breeder of horses will speak of their ‘terre’ in the same reverential tones that the owner of a vineyard obsesses about their ‘terroir’.
“We had Montfort et Preaux. and there were plenty of clients’ horses there, so we looked at some land nearby,” says Fry. “And you can never have enough land. Very soon ten or 20 mares would have filled that, and when you’ve got stallions you always need a certain amount of mares to support them with.
“So it wasn’t enough. It was beautiful land but this was on the market and historically it has done very well, it has bred good horses.”
Bizakov appears to have instincts which tend towards evolving at a sustainable pace, and the purchase of Mezeray was clearly a function of having lived with the Hesmonds plus. Montfort et Preaux formula for two years, while assessing what was missing.
“This was always going to be Nurlan’s private farm, with the stallions and the clients’ boarding mares up the road at Montfort et Preaux,” says Fry.
“As it happens, some boarders are here; Juddmonte have theirs here and a few others, including Prince Faisal.” Mezeray had been not just a great owner-breeder operation but a major consignor on behalf of clients, a forwardlooking centre for breaking and pre-training and, of course, a stallion station as well. Having taken over on the death of his father in 1995, one of Charles-Henri de Moussac’s great supporters had been Hamdan Al Maktoum, while Lady Chryss O’Reilly was also heavily invested in Mezeray’s success.
With Shadwell changing tack in the wake of their founder’s death in March 2021, the stallion side of the business ebbed away; Muhtathir had died in September 2020, Taareef headed to Haras des Granges the following year, while Myboycharlie had been sold to the Jockey Club of Turkey after the 2019 covering
season.
Many of the boarding clients had gone by the time of the sale too, and Sumbe were able to buy a property that could fully accommodate their own
needs and ambitions.
Fry says: “It was the same as when we bought Hesmonds in 2010; historically, it was a great farm that had bred good horses but there hadn’t been investment for 20 years. It’s only when you get the keys to it and start opening doors and looking, you find things.
“This is our third year of replacing 5,000 metres of fencing per year, and we’ve got two or three years left. Then there’s tidying, cleaning, painting, trying to do up the houses for the staff. The main house is now used by Nurlan and his family.”
With the stallion business well established at Montfort et Preaux, where Charyn will one day join Angel Bleu, Belbek, Golden Horde and Mishriff, the broodmare band is housed across the two sites, which sit 10km apart.
“We’re up to 60 mares, spread across both farms so we can utilise the land to best effect,” says Fry.
“You’ve always got one paddock which is a bit further out and you think about the staff walking that far, but we’re fortunate we can move the horses around. That is a big benefit of having land and ‘resting’ land.
“A couple of years ago we had parts that got burnt off in the summer, then it rained and it came back and we had this lovely, lush spring-like flush in September, October.
“You can never have enough land and it can either be too wet and you need to rest a paddock, too dry and you need to move a paddock, or too many horses and you need another paddock, so I think it’s a case of the more the merrier.”
BIZAKOV consciously decided to keep the historic names of the two farms, confident the Sumbe brand did not need artificial gilding by way of erasing the past.
And while the sky blue and gold signage leaves no doubt as to the enterprise which will guide Mezeray’s fortunes in the years to come, the fact there has been investment on renovation rather than
wholesale reconstruction speaks well of both the current. and former custodians.
“Nurlan said when I joined Hesmonds 15 years ago, ‘I’d love to have a farm in France and I’d love to have a farm in Ireland.’ I said if you do, it means you’re enjoying it and if you do, it means you’re having success and you want to. expand it.
“We want to have years like we’re having – with Charyn and Lazzat – on a regular basis, and for it not to be a one-off. To have the right stallions and for them to be successful. And to carry on breeding good horses.”
And maybe to have that third star on the badge to go alongside those won by Trempolino and Subotica. It’s a legacy which can only inspire Bizakov and his team.
Racing Post Bloodstock 2024/09/20