Racing in Argentina | Trainer Magazine | European Trainer Article Index

Aug 26

Aug 26 Racing in Argentina

In 2006 the Argentine industry took a great leap forward thanks to American Horse of the Year Invasor who put his native land firmly on the racing map. Bred in the province of Buenos Aires at the Haras Clausan which is now renamed the Haras Santa Inés, Invasor raced in neighhbouring Uruguay at Maroñas racecourse where he won the local Triple Crown. This is where the son of Candy Stripes was spotted and purchased by Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum’s team before graduating to bigger and better things further afield, winning half a dozen Grade 1/Group 1 titles in America and Dubai including the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Dubai World Cup, and in the process becoming an important ambassador for his country. In recent years the well-travelled Mike de Kock has tapped into the affordable potential on offer in Latin America and admits that Argentina and Brazil are his second-largest source of bloodstock after his native South Africa. Success stories include Honour Devil (by Honour and Glory) and Asiatic Boy (Not For Sale) who both completed the Dubai 2000 Guineas/Derby double, and My Indy (Indygo Shiner) who picked up Rounds 1 and 2 of the Al Maktoum Challenge at the Dubai Carnival in 2009. My Indy was bred by one of the most historic studs in Argentina, the Haras La Quebrada. Located in the town of Pilar on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, the stud is tucked away in the corner of an immense playground for wealthy businessmen who have their country houses and polo clubs in these privileged surroundings. La Quebrada has been crowned leading breeder on 17 occasions since its creation in 1945 by the Ceriani family and is rarely out of the top three breeders in Argentina. “I represent the third generation of Cerianis at the helm of the stud,” explains the current owner Hernan Ceriani, “and the third generation of Hernans, as my father and grandfather shared the same first name.” The family also shares a passion and vision for breeding thoroughbreds which have ensured La Quebrada stands the test of time. “Most of the studs which began at the same time as ours no longer exist; but La Quebrada has always had a pioneering spirit which has helped us to remain at the forefront of the breeding industry. The first American sire to be imported to Latin America was Make Tracks, which my grandfather brought here in 1955. Then in 1989 my father purchased Southern Halo in America and he was to become the best stallion in the history of Argentinian breeding. Unfortunately he is no longer alive but his bloodlines are very present in our breeding operation.” The influential Southern Halo is the dam’s sire of My Indy, but also of La Quebrada-bred Miss Match (Indygo Shiner) who recently became the latest international Gr 1 winner from Argentina thanks to a success in the Santa Margarita Invitational Stakes at Santa Anita in March. Barely an hour’s drive further from the capital is the most forward-looking and commercial addition to the country’s breeding industry. The Haras La Mission stallion station was created in 2006 by a group of eight major breeders whose objective is to help Argentina secure and maintain a place in the global bloodstock market by providing access to top sires. “Our aim is to improve the genetics of South American thoroughbreds, through investment in the best stallions in the world,” declares La Mission’s manager Nicolas Ojea Quintana. “We recruit sires according to two criteria: firstly, their commercial viability and capacity of being accepted by the local market, and secondly we seek sires which will bring Argentina a step closer to the international market.” Collaboration with breeding giants Coolmore and Juddmonte has allowed La Mission to welcome modern patriarchs such as Giant’s Causeway and Peintre Celebre and these have been enthusiastically received by locals. As testimony to the popularity of the initiative, 1200 mares were covered by La Mission’s stallions during the last breeding season, and success was demonstrated on the track as La Mission crosses produced the champion two- and three-year-old fillies in 2010. Another ambitious newcomer to the Argentine breeding scene is Haras La Pasión, the recently-launched breeding arm of the powerful Rubio B stable. This father-son duo of Ricardo and Nicolas Benedicto topped the owners’ championship for a fourth consecutive year in 2010 and are now firmly set on a new goal: to dominate the breeders’ standings. The Benedictos have been quick off the mark; after buying the farm in late 2005, the first mares arrived just over a year later and then the second crop of La Pasión-born foals featured Group 1 winner La Impaciente, who has now boosted the broodmare band. Haras La Pasión has had mares covered by US-based Argentine star Candy Ride and through links with Hill ’n’ Dale Farm in Argentine stallion. Bred by the Haras Ojo de Agua, Forli was a Quadruple Crown winner in 1967 in his homeland before being bought by Bull Hancock, who sent him to join the great Charlie Whittingham in America. Billed at the time as the best thoroughbred ever seen in Argentina, Forli duly won his first two races in the USA, including a record-breaking performance at Hollywood Park, before his career was prematurely ended through injury. At Hancock’s Claiborne Stud, Forli produced 60 stakes winners including three-time Horse of the Year Forego, but his legacy has lived on through his daughter, the aptly-named Special. Special is none other than the dam and granddam of the two famous sons of Northern Dancer, her own cross with the patriarch producing Nureyev and her daughter Fairy Bridge’s cross resulting in the birth of the incomparable Sadler’s Wells. Lord At War was another Argentine sire to succeed in the US, for his part in the 1980s and 90s, but his story began in Europe two generations earlier. Indeed Lord of War is a son of French-bred General, who in turn is by the brilliant British miler Brigadier Gerard. Under the care of François Mathet, General managed one Group 3 win and ended up exported to stud in Argentina, where Lord A War was to be the best of his progeny and also the only descendant of his paternal grandsire to make a significant impact in the breeding sheds (with the possible exception of the Aga Khan-bred Vayrann, who is the maternal grandsire of a Prix de Diane winner). Taking after his grandsire on the track, Lord At War was a champion miler in Argentina then a dual American Grade 1 scorer, again for Charlie Whittingham. He retired to stud at Wimborne Farm and transmits his legacy as a talented broodmare sire, most notably of Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes hero War Emblem who unfortunately has not taken to life as a sire in Japan, but also of Grade 1 winner E Dubai who has proved more prolific at stud. As a sire, Lord At War is responsible for Grade 1 scorer Honor In War, standing in Australia, so the Brigadier Gerard heritage is now perpetuated across the globe thanks to his Argentine-born grandson. Argentina has taken a step closer to Europe in 2011 thanks to deals made by the Latin American Racing Channel for the country’s product to be shown live in France and the UK for betting purposes, and their racing is also regularly simulcast in America. There is regular activity as Buenos Aires boasts three racecourses: San Isidro, Palermo, and La Plata, with flat racing taking place on one of these tracks every day of the year. The internationally-renowned San Isidro recently played host to South America’s itinerant Group 1 Gran Premio Latino Americano and is also home to the prestigious Gran Premio Carlos Pellegrini in December, while plans are currently underway to install a grass track at the city-centre course of Palermo which is famed for its French renaissance-style architecture. Racedays are marathon affairs with programmes of up to, and even exceeding, twenty competitions. This means little respite, but plenty of opportunity, for jockeys and trainers and it is interesting to note that two of the country’s leading riders relocated to Argentina for the quality of its racing. Brazilian-born Jorge Ricardo is something of a legendary figure in racing lore following his long-distance battle with American Russell Baze to become the winningmost rider of all time. “The racing industry in Argentina is very strong and I moved here in order to reach the world record, which I did,” says Ricardo. A serious fall and illness allowed Baze to regain the lead but Ricardo is now back in the race backed by a lucrative contract with the record-breaking Rubio B Stable. The 49-year-old rider counts over 11,300 successes. “I never imagined that I would manage to go so far and win so many races,” he reflects, “but racing is in my blood. Time has shown me that effort brings success, so I keep trying and ride with passion and plenty of luck.” One of Ricardo’s biggest rivals in Buenos Aires is Uruguayan Pablo Falero, who also chose Argentina to pursue his career. “Here the activity is very intense with trackwork in the morning and then long afternoons and evenings of racing. But in other sports, for instance in football, the players must train before a match to maintain their fitness... whereas we keep fit on the job! And of course we have the opportunity to win a lot of races.” Falero is not exaggerating; he was crowned champion jockey in 2010 with a remarkable score of 438 wins. Around 2500 horses train daily in the 93- hectare San Isidro training centre adjacent to the racecourse in the Northern suburbs of Buenos Aires, described as “the centre of gravity of racing in Argentina,” by the centre’s director Leandro Bianchi. “Approximately 150 trainers are based here, ranging from powerful stables of two-to-three hundred horses, to smaller handlers with just three or four horses. In total, some one thousand people work at San Isidro including trainers, jockeys, work-riders, lads, veterinarians, farriers etc...” Bianchi is proud of this largest training centre in Latin America, which in addition to the one turf and four sand training tracks plus a giant equine pool available for all to use, also features a laboratory, veterinary clinic, and jockeys’ school. The set-up is similar to the American backstretch although stables are arranged in private courtyards rather than the barns of the US. However one major difference strikes international visitors immediately – the vast majority of horses are ridden bareback! “When I went to ride out in the morning in America before a big race, everyone laughed at me and called me an Indian!” remembers former top jockey Jorge Valdevieso, who now trains a string of around 35 horses at San Isidro. Even half-speed canters take place with legs flailing and the de-rigueur footwear for work- riders appears to be tattered espadrilles. A minimum of protection for the horses’ backs and comfort for their riders is offered by foam pads strapped on with surcingles and breastplates. “I feel much safer riding this way,” confides one work rider while giving his mount a welcome shower behind the training tracks. “There is no saddle or stirrups to unbalance me if the horse moves suddenly and I can always just slide back into position without any difficulty.” Valdivieso sees another advantage in the traditional method, “When we gallop or work the horses, we put a saddle on, so they get to know that a saddle means work and they get excited. Bareback, they remain calm and save their energy.” However fellow San Isidro- based handler Juan Carlos (Carly) Etchechoury would like to see the system change, “It is healthier for the horses to wear a saddle as the weight of the jockey is more balanced on their backs and they are able to use their legs more fully. But in Argentina horses have always been trained like this and it would be very difficult and unpopular to force change upon the stable lads and work riders.” Carly Etchechoury knows plenty about the traditions of racing in Argentina, as he comes from the third generation of a training family and is now one of the country’s leading professionals. His brothers Carlos Daniel (known as Daniel) and Juan Javier (Javier) are also trainers, and between the trio they have collected victories in all of Argentina’s most important races. Their father Juan Carlos Etchechoury was a multiple champion trainer and even ventured to Europe in 1977 with top Argentinian filly Mia who fulfilled her owner’s dream with an honourable seventh place in Alleged’s first Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. Carly Etchechoury dreams of following in his footsteps and quotes the Arc de Triomphe or Breeders’ Cup as the major ambitions for his career. His brother Daniel plays closer to home and hopes to fill the only gap in his domestic résumé with a win in the country’s longest Group 1 event, Palermo’s 2500 metre Gran Premio Nacional. He sums up an overall positive vibe emanating from different quarters of an industry with a future on the global stage: “I love the Argentine turf culture, as it is very open, friendly and full of passion. The industry is constantly moving forward and we have some great professionals; trainers, jockeys and breeders and also racing fans.”

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(European Trainer - issue 35 - Autumn 2011)

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