Marin Belloir, whose Haras de la Baie has bred both a contender in this month’s Cheltenham Gold Cup and May’s Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris, was the subject of this week’s Weatherbys bloodstock segment.
The name Jango Baie will be popping up in Cheltenham preview events across Britain and Ireland this week.
Nicky Henderson’s seven-year-old, who won the Arkle last year, is set to take on the Festival’s showpiece Gold Cup next Friday.
Like many a Festival fancy, the gelding was bred in France. In his case, by André-Jean and Marin Belloir of Haras de la Baie on the Normandy-Brittany border.
Marin Belloir, son of André-Jean, who has also produced top quality showjumpers, was the Nick Luck Daily’s Weatherbys bloodstock segment guest this week and said things were “very exciting”, given that not only had the stud produced a contender for the Cheltenham Gold Cup, but also, through Hermès Baie, a contender for this year’s Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris.
“We’ll be at Cheltenham in a few days to support Jango Baie,” shared Belloir, “and our fingers are crossed for Hermès Baie too.”
Such stallions as Martinborough, Kamsin, Crillon (sire of Hermès Baie) and Tiger Bloom (sire of Jango Baie) have been standing at Haras de la Baie, which is currently home to a two-strong stallion roster thanks to Sommerabend and Fly With Me.
“Tenessee, Jango Baie’s mare, is owned by my vet, who’s a friend of mine,” said Belloir of Jango Baie’s beginnings. “He was lovely when he was a baby. He was a big, strong boy, like Hermès Baie. Physically, they were perfect horses.”
Belloir said he thought Jango Baie was sold and left the stud when he was about six months old.
“Hermès Baie has been running over hurdles for years,” he continued, “and has won two Grade 1s, one of them aged four. He was probably the best four-year-old over hurdles in France four or five years ago, and now the owners and trainer, the Papots and François Nicolle, would like to test him over fences.”
Belloir explained that he ran for the first time over fences last week, winning easily, but admitted it’s a “big challenge” to take on fences for the first time at nine, and still more of a challenge to take on the Grand Steeple-Chase de Paris the same year.
Belloir also told Luck that he and his father prefer to sell in France not only because it’s easier for them to view horses, but also because their homeland offers them the benefit of breeders prizes and premiums.
“It was a little bit disappointing last year when Jango Baie won the Arkle,” Belloir explained, “as there wasn’t much made about the breeders. In France when horses win, the media usually talk about the jockey, the trainer and the breeder. In England, it’s my feeling that they talk only about the owner, trainer and jockey. Sometimes they forget the breeder.”
Asked about the history of Haras de la Baie, Belloir confirmed that he’s the third generation to take it on, and that his grandfather was a showjumping rider and breeder.
“Twenty years ago,” he explained, “we switched our focus to [thoroughbred] jumps horses because the showjumping breeding was getting difficult financially and so on.”
Asked whether the switch from sporthorses to racehorses was easy, “not really” was Belloir’s blunt response.
“For me it’s natural,” he clarified. “I was born into racehorses, but for my father it was hard. It’s the same job – every day we get up to breed good horses – but you have to change all your contacts. A good breeder is one who’s still alive and keeps their head above water.”
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