Ten days ago, the Arqana sales company announced the launch of SirePower+, a tailor-made financing program that offers breeders the opportunity to have 50% of the cover fee for their stallion financed by the Deauville auction house in 2025 until the offspring at an Arqana auction is sold.
The aim of the program is to encourage breeders with good mares to go the extra mile to breed with the best French and international stallions and thus produce more commercially desirable foals. Both French and foreign breeders are invited to participate.
The products are sold at Arqana's weanling and yearling sales.
As December sales draw ever closer, we sat down with Arqana President Olivier Delloye to talk about the novel program.
SF: Essentially, your goal is to become a bank for breeders. Can you tell me how this idea came about?
FROM: The idea came to us naturally after speaking to a few breeders, particularly Eric Puerari from Haras des Capucines. We all recognize that sire strength is a critical success factor in any selected sale and we have been thinking about how we can assist breeders escalate the depth of top profiles in our yearling sales based on that fact that Deauville attracts the top buyers every year. We're pretty sure these folks in their own home would be cheerful to buy a little more if they could find a few more of the desirable yearlings they're looking for.
SF: I feel like sales companies may have done this quietly in the past, extending credit and only demanding payment when the horse was actually resold. Are you the first to officially do it this way?
FROM: That's a good question. I don't know enough about what distribution companies have done with such initiatives in recent years, but yes, it is quite unusual to market it as a financial product. The goal is to make it clear to breeders that there is something out there for them, and if they think they have a really good mare, they can go a step further and find a stud sire to produce one of those really very desirable yearlings. And we can assist.
SF: Just to be clear, this applies to international sires, correct? You could breed with Dubawi, for example.
FROM: It is open to the best stallions and if we talk about Europe, of course there are some in France, but of course there are a larger number in Great Britain and Ireland. It is open to both French and non-French breeders, but we prefer to focus on people breeding in France, at least for the first year. You can live in the UK, Ireland or the USA, but if you have some nice mares in France and you really want to offer them the best stallion and perhaps a better stallion that you originally had in mind, then this is the one Location SirePower+ comes into play.
SF: How was it received by the stallion owners?
FROM: So far it has been very positively received by both stallion owners and breeders. We've already received some nice applications – applications that really, really match what we had in mind when we brought this product to market. This is good news and we have also had a positive response which has sparked a good discussion among growers in France about how to improve the quality of what is produced in France. I think listening to breeders can only assist us launch more initiatives together in the near future to achieve the same goal.
“At Arqana we ask ourselves what a distribution company can do to strengthen the entire French industry.” –Arqana President Olivier Delloye
SF: Do you envision this program producing primarily yearlings, or could it also be weanlings or pregnant mares?
FROM: It could be weanlings, but I would say that it is aimed primarily at yearling production, as France is still a real market for yearlings and not weanlings. However, if someone plans to breed top weanlings to sell here in Arqana in December, I would definitely support that plan too.
SF: What would have to happen, let's say, in the year after next for you to say, “Wow, that was a massive success and we're going to build on it?” What would you like to see?
FROM: I would like to see the number of yearlings escalate because we know that they are or will be the stallions most sought after by the buyers that we attract a lot here in Deauville.
SF: Is it becoming increasingly competitive for distributors to attract the very best yearlings, necessitating initiatives like SirePower+ to remain competitive? Will we see this type of advertising more and more often?
FROM: What we really, really need to improve here in France is the depth we can offer at the top end of the catalogue. We need more Classic broodmares who go to the best stallions. We need to attract more of these good stallions and keep them in France. The stallion ranks have improved in recent years, but we still have some progress to make. Everything is connected, so you can't claim to have the best stallions in France if you don't have broodmares and vice versa, so we have to work on both sides. That's why at Arqana we ask ourselves what a distribution company can do to strengthen the entire French industry.
SF: Can you imagine people buying mares at this sale and thinking, “I’m going to take advantage of this offer?”
FROM: Yes, very much so. The very last major show of the year in Deauville is this breeding stock sale, which has made great strides in recent years and boasts a mighty catalogue. On a very thrilling Saturday we present Sparkling Plenty, a classic winning filly, top quality mares, the mothers of Unquestionable, Tamfana and Metropolitan to name the recent Group 1 winners and a whole host of very popular thrilling racing prospects like Spanish Eyes, Grand Stars and many others. We also have some weanlings from the most thrilling sires such as Frankel, Sea The Stars, Lope De Vega, Siyouni and many others. It's a mighty catalog and I think we'll have a good audience from all over the world, including a lot of Japanese, so we're hoping for successful sales.
I do believe that what we have created is a good incentive to buy a stunning broodmare here and keep her in France, and if you can finance half of the nomination fee until the yearling is sold, that can be the case Just assist people be a little braver Buy some nice mares and leave them in France.
