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New sires at Sumbe
Sumbe has welcomed two new sires to its Normandy-based farm this spring – the Group 1 Prix de Jean Luc Lagardère winners Angel Bleu and Belbek. Jocelyn de Moubray discusses the new signings with the stud manager Tony Fry
NURLAN BIZAKOV AND TONY FRY have become a familiar pair to all of those who spend time at Europe’s bloodstock sales. The two have been working together since meeting in a snow drift in Sussex in 2010 and, over the years since Bizakov’s investment in horses and stud farms, has made them one of the industry’s most significant owner-manager partnerships.
Bizakov clearly enjoys attending sales, as well as watching his runners on the big days, and, more often than not, when he is there Fry is alongside him.
Bizakov, whose bloodstock holdings have been called Sumbe since 2020, is the owner of around 60 broodmares, 60 horses in training in France and England, as well as Hesmonds Stud in Sussex and the French stud farms Montfort and Mezeray.
Montfort is the base of five stallions, three of whom are covering for the first time in 2024 – Mishriff, Angel Bleu and Belbek, as well as Golden Horde, whose first two-yearolds will race this year, and Too Darn Hot’s half-brother De Treville.
In 2010, Fry was managing Gainsborough Stud and applied for the post of manager at Hesmonds Stud, near Lewes in East Sussex which had recently been purchased by Bizakov.
“It was,” Fry remembers, “about a week after the Newmarket December Sale and there was a heavy snow storm. My drive from Newbury, which would normally take two and a half hours, took more than four and when I finally arrived I was sent out to look for Mr Bizakov whose Mercedes was stuck in a snow drift close by.
“I got him out, we talked in the car and when we eventually made it to Hesmonds we just shook hands and agreed to work together.
“I liked him and he took to me and so before discussing terms or plans for the farm we decided to form a partnership.”
Bizakov had purchased six mares at the December Sale and these were the only mares at Hesmonds when Fry took up his position.
The farm had been owned by Peter Goulandris for a long time and its new owner decided to completely refurbish the place. Some 14 miles of fencing were put in, four new barns were built and the place was transformed into a modern stud farm.
“One day we were driving out of Hesmonds,” Fry continues, “and Bizakov turned to me and said, ‘One day I would like to buy a farm in France, too.’
“I was pleased and told him that if he felt that he must be enjoying what we were doing. Some 12 years later an opportunity came up and he decided to buy the Haras de Montfort & Preaux. He also told me one day that he felt in his heart that we would be in this business together for a long time.
I was moved, not even my mother says things like that to me, I think about this on the bad days when I have just got a bollocking!
Bizakov’s first involvement in France was buying shares in stallions such as Siyouni and Le Havre and then he used to board mares at Montfort when he was using these stallions.
“The previous owners came to us and asked if we might be interested in buying the farm. It was a ready-made farm with stallions we liked and one which we knew well,” Fry explains, “and so we decided to take our chance.”
Two years later in 2021, Sumbe also bought the de Moussac family’s Haras du Mezeray, which is only four miles or so from Montfort. Today Sumbe’s offices and Bizakov’s own mares are at Mezeray and the stallions at Montfort.
“At the time there were only 20 mares and Mezeray is about 450 acres, but then I don’t think a breeder can ever have too much land,” Fry adds. “And today Sumbe has 55 mares based at Mezeray.
“We have done some work on the farm but from the beginning the place was impressive and it is obvious that a lot of thought and attention to detail went into its development, everything was clearly done for a reason.”
Nearly all of Sumbe’s mares will be covered by one of its stallions this year with only a handful travelling to England or going to those sires in which it owns a share.
"You can't," Fry reasons, “go out and sell stallions if you don’t believe in them yourself.
“It may backfire on us, but we are going to send our best mares to our own stallions, big ones, small ones, bay ones, grey ones and chestnut ones and we shall see what we get.”
The first of Sumbe’s new sires to be tested will be the Richmond Stakes (G2) and Commonwealth Cup (G1) winner Golden Horde, whose first crop are two-year-olds in 2024.
“We have 16 Golden Horde two-year-olds,” Fry says, “who are or will be in training with André Fabre, Christopher Head, Jerome Reynier and Fabrice Chappet.
“We liked him when we first saw him, and last year he covered some of our best mares who had been due to go to Mishriff.
“I am quietly confident Golden Horde will surprise some people this year and we shall be sending ten to 15 mares to hm again this year."
Prince Faisal\s champion Mishriff was, of course, due to beginning covering in 2023, but was unable to do so after breaking a pedal bone in his hind foot when kicking the wall of a padded box.
“Mishriff is fully recovered,” Fry is happy to say, “and looking better than ever. He was a champion and was both consistent and tough through a long career.
“Money was not the main issue when we were negotiating with the Prince and his manager Ted Voute; their concern was to find the right partner to give the horse every chance. Prince Faisal is sending him six or seven mares, which is more or less half his broodmare band.”
A multiple Group 1 winner with an official rating of 127, Mishriff also has a very unusual pedigree as he has no Northern Dancer, Sadler’s Wells or Galileo in his first five generations and no inbreeding at all in his first four. On paper this makes him a suitable partner for a high proportion of active mares.
The other pair of new sires at Sumbe is the Group 1-winning two-year-olds Angel Bleu
Angel Bleu was bred in France at the Haras de Monceaux and was trained by Ralph Beckett to win three major Group races at two – the Richmond Stakes, the Prix Jean Luc Lagardère (G1) and the Criterium International (G1) and, after a curtailed three-year-old season, came back to win the
“He is a horse we have always liked and we came close to buying into him when he was two,” Fry explains.
We consider Angel Bleu to be a very interesting stallion prospect.
Belbek was also champion two-year-old in France winning the Prix du Bois (G3) and the Lagardère in Bizakov’s own colours
“If it is possible in this business to say this without sounding soppy,” Fry says, “Belbek is the horse who tugs at our heartstrings – he was the first Group 1 winner bred by Sumbe and was a champion at two.
“Even though he is with the best trainer in the world things just didn’t go to plan at three, but he retired off an excellent Group win beating two of the best milers in France The Revenant and Tribalist.”
Belbek’s dam Bee Queen was bought from Juddmonte for only 50,000gns in 2017. She finished fourth on her only two starts in Ireland for trainer Dermot Weld and comes from one of the best Juddmonte families as her second dam is the champion Banks Hill.
“Bee Queen is currently in-foal to Wootton Bassett,” Fry adds. “She will probably go to one of our sires this year although as she is a daughter of Makfi she can’t go to Mishriff.
“You probably wouldn’t chose to launch three new sires the same year, but in this business you have to take the opportunities when they come up,” Fry sums up Sumbe’s position.
“They are all priced to attract long term support and we are not trying to recoup our investments immediately. We have sold a limited number of very reasonably priced breeding rights in Mishriff, Angel Bleu and Belbek to secure the right partners to sustain their careers.
In ten years’ time I hope the boss and our horses are still happy and healthy, and that we will have one or two established top sires here at Sumbe.
Sumbe will have 60 horses in training once all the two-year-olds are allocated with 20 in Britain with Roger Varian and Charlie Johnston, and the remainder in France mainly with Jean Claude Rouget, Christopher Head, Jerome Reynier and Fabre.
Head will have nine of these and Fry is one of many to have been impressed by Head achievements.
“This guy is coming at things from a different angle,” he explains. “I hope and think that he is going to be superstar and when you believe in a person or a stallion you just have to follow them.
“Overall, we have about 45 home-breds in training, while we also bought eight yearlings last year in Arqana and Tattersalls headed by the 1.1 million guineas Lope De Vega full-brother to the Champagne Stakes winner Iberian from Ballylinch Stud.
“On the whole we are breeding to race and hoping to produce future stallions and broodmares for Sumbe although, of course, there may come a time when it makes sense to sell yearlings to promote our sires.
“The boss enjoys his small winners and he loves having runners in the big races on the big days and being around the sales. This business is lucky to have someone like Mr Bizakov, who has the passion for the game, and the bank balance to make a real investment.”
Bizakov’s first involvement with horses was in endurance races in his native Kazakhstan.
He bought his first thoroughbred at Tattersalls in 2006 and has carefully but steadily built his thoroughbred holdings ever since.
“His original business was phosphates and fertilizers,” Fry adds. “I think these days horses are probably his main business!”
