Haras de la Huderie

Where to start on the first morning of the Route des Etalons? It was a decision which would have been easy to rush into, what with so many enticing options to choose from, all of them immaculately presented, ready and waiting to welcome the first guests of the day. 'Pace yourself,' I reminded myself. 'There's always tomorrow for anything you don't get to today.' Anyway, that's enough about the breakfast buffet at the hotel. Suitably fueled with a pile of crepes, cakes and pastries that would have made my dentist...

River Tiber (Ire) becomes the latest son of Wootton Bassett (GB) to join the stallion ranks and will stand in France at Haras de la Huderie in the Pays d'Auge having been bought by a collection of French breeders. His fee in his first year at stud will be €5,500. The group consists of Sebastien Desmontils, David Salabi, Guillaume and Camille Vitse, and Jean-Pierre and Guillaume Garcon, all of whom have had successful associations with the offspring of Wootton Bassett in the past in some shape or form.  "River Tiber's...

Birchwood (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), who won the G2 Superlative S. at two in 2015 and went on to listed success at three in the Godolphin blue, sired his first winner at Marseille Pont De Vivaux on Friday when Oulalah (Fr) took a 950 metre claiming race for trainer Jerome Reynier. The colt, in fact, led home an exacta for Birchwood, with the filly Madame Babette (Fr) filling second. Birchwood has stood his first four seasons at Haras de la Huderie for €5,000.

Melting frost drips uniformly from the thatch at Haras de la Huderie. The January sun is a penetrating golden disc above the historic timbers of Haras du Quesnay. A broodmare rolls in one of Haras de Colleville's open green spaces. Normandy's tree-lined lanes bask in the generous light. Haras de Bonneval's undulating pastures grace the eye, picture perfect. It is La Route des Etalons once again in all its glory, blessed by a rare weekend-long respite from winter's most ruinous elements. The centrepiece of it, the stallion himself, struts his...