Jacobs: a man on an industry mission

CHANGE IS IN THE AIR over Germany, not just politically as citizens vote for a new Chancellor after 16 years of Angela Merkel’s leadership, but in the oxygen breathed by its thoroughbred racing and breeding industry.

One of its most venerable institutions Gestüt Fährhof is going through a process of renewal overseen by Andreas Jacobs, the third generation at the helm of the operation which was founded by his grandfather Walther in 1960.

While most of us have found ourselves grappling with questions of an existential nature at one time or another, particularly over the past 18 months, the changing winds in Germany which gust around racing, together with the ramifications of the rupture between Britain and the EU, have ensured that Jacobs and others within the sport believe it is imperative to act now to attempt to secure a future for the thoroughbred in one of the globe’s most noted equine nations.

One of the most visible expressions of that belief is the recent announcement that Fährhof will stand Alson from next year in a partnership with the colt’s owners and breeders the honoured Gestüt Schlenderhan, Germany’s oldest thoroughbred stud farm.

“We are standing him in full partnership with Schlenderhan,” states Jacobs. “Our families know each other very well, our trust is complete, and we are working together on this as we will work together on other projects in the future. This is a very strong symbol of the partnership of two great studs in Germany.

“Alson is a very good-looking horse and he was a very good two-year-old. He represents the best of German breeding and also the necessity of investing in stallions in Germany.”

That best of German breeding includes Alson’s broodmare sire Galileo, a product of Schlenderhan’s most majestic family through his grand-dam

Allegretta, and the sire of his second dam Monsun, who raced for Baron von Ullmann and retired to stud at Schlenderhan from where he became outstandingly successful.

Alson is a half-brother to the Group 2 MehlMulhens-Rennen winner Ancient Spirit and himself won the Group 1 Criterium International and Baden-Baden’s Group 3 Zukunftsrennen at two, when he was also second to Victor Ludorum in the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère by just three-parts of a length.

He was third to that same horse in the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains, beaten less than 2l, by then having become a stablemate to Victor Ludorum in the yard of André Fabre for whom he won the Listed Prix Matchem.

The speed in his pedigree, which allowed him to excel at 7f and a mile, comes from his sire Areion, who was a triple Group winner at 6f and a son of Moyglare Stud’s Big Shuffle. He was second to Soviet Star in the Group 1 July Cup and third to Salse in the Prix de la Forêt (G1).

“I believe Areion is a completely underestimated and undervalued horse and so Alson is an interesting combination of Areion, Galileo and Monsun,” Jacobs says.

This venture returns a horse to the Fährhof stallion yard, which gained its first resident in 1968 and was home to the brilliant Lomitas.

BUT THE CATALYST for the partnership is a profound desire to preserve and improve the future of the German breeding industry, which has been hit badly by the effects of Brexit.

The transport of around 80 per cent of the nation’s thoroughbred broodmare band to stallion farms in the UK and Ireland every year is no longer viable and moves are afoot to increase the quality and quantity of stallions in the country.

“I really hope that more exciting stallions will be retired to stud in Germany over the coming years because if not then German breeding will disappear because people will not be able to finance it.

“The financial disadvantage now of sending a German mare to England or Ireland is huge. We have huge transport costs and now we have all the paperwork costs and the VAT costs, and last, but not least, we have a disadvantage because the tests, like swab tests and so on, carried out in Germany are not recognised by English and Irish studs so we usually lose one cycle when we send mares over.

“It is a massive disadvantage and is a no-go in the long run for German breeders.

“I think people will come together and buy horses, we have no choice, we have to,” is Jacobs’ stark assessment.

“Alson is a good blend and he will be a successful horse, obviously we will have to find other stallions and that will be the key to keeping German breeding alive, something I really worry about.”

Racing in Germany is attuned to the later maturing type, with all of the country’s Group 1 contests at least 1m2f in duration. There are no Group 1 or Group 2 races for juveniles and only four Group 3 races for them, but the social licence under which the industry operates is becoming stricter as those winds of change start to swirl around society.

Already rules have been changed in relation to the whip, an issue that is not unique to Germany, but what is different is the attitude to training and racing young horses.

Regulations have been introduced which prevent two-year-olds racing until July and they must undergo tests to ensure that they are physically able to compete. With the ever-increasing emphasis on speed in other parts of the racing world, these developments in Germany seem to ensure that the traditional strengths of German horses will be protected, but could also lead Germany on a different road to other racing nations, such as Ireland and the UK.

“I advocate for a bit of speed but there is no need to completely change the ‘brand’, and the brand includes the late-maturing, tough stayer so I am very much a fan of this, for Germany as a breeding nation, to leverage that asset.

“We really need to revitalise German breeding with new stallions so we keep the numbers of mares and foals stable. It is a challenge and it is something I can only encourage the world to support because losing a nation is not a good option for racing globally,” recognises Jacobs.

In response to the shifting tectonic plates Jacobs has also examined the Fährhof broodmare band with a forensic eye, positioning the farm to adapt to the changing world by offering a potent blend from the storied German families with stallions of global impact. It takes into account the realities of the German situation with the desire to maintain an international outlook and reputation for offering the best product.

That is reflected in the septet of yearlings Fährhof sends to Tattersalls this year, the first since the sale of the former Jacobs family-owned Newsells Park Stud to Graham Smith-Bernal earlier this year.

Jacobs explains: “If you look at the small group that we are sending you notice that most of them are colts. We still keep half of our fillies to carry on the breeding and we sell all of our colts.

“I actually implemented the same in South Africa [where Jacobs owns Maine Chance Farm] and we carried on the tradition in Newsells Park for 20 years, every horse follows the first letter of the mare, which I think is nice to build families.”

Those traditions, allied to the heritage associated with the farm, is something few other consignors in Park Paddocks can offer to potential purchasers. It is something Jacobs believes is an enormous advantage. The staff not only know the yearlings since birth, but they also knew their mothers and grandmothers. In some families the bloodlines go back six generations.

“If you have an owner-breeder who also sells commercially you have the huge advantage of knowing that the breeder did a pre-selection through his own breeding programme, before you buy the horse, before the horse is offered to you at the sales – this is a significant element,” he argues.

One of the most exciting yearlings that Fährhof is taking to Newmarket is a perfect example of what Jacobs and his team has set out to achieve. Lot 157 is one of five yearlings from the first crop of the unbeaten Triple Crown hero Justify and he hails from Fährhof’s renowned “L” family with the brilliant Lomitas as a half-brother to his second dam, and the champions La Colorada and La Dorada as his third and fourth dams respectively.

Described by Jacobs as a “tough horse and identical to his sire”, he is out of the Group 3 Schwarzgold Rennen winner La Saldana by Fastnet Rock.

The first Fährhof yearling through the ring is only a third generation Fährhof bred, but Lomitas still figures largely in her pedigree as the sire of her second dam. Lot 55 is a daughter of Kingman and the only filly amongst the Fährhof draft in Book 1.

“We bought this filly’s second dam Hasay, she is a Lomitas mare and naturally I am a great fan of Lomitas, and we were lucky because Hargeisa [dam of Lot 55] became a Group winner in Italy and Group placed in France as a two-year-old.

“Interestingly, the mare is relatively small but this filly is an amazingly scopey Kingman, she is the boss in the paddock and she is a very impressive Kingman filly,” describes Jacobs.

LOMITAS, also features in the breeding of Lot 221, one of just four yearlings by the much-missed Shamardal catalogued for Book 1, and he had an incidental role in bringing her family to Germany.

As a young horse Lomitas had a fear of the starting stalls and so great had it become that he refused to enter the stalls when favourite for the 1991 Group 2 Mehl-Mulhens Rennen. Jacobs’ grandfather tasked Monty Roberts with curing Lomitas’ phobia – so successful was Roberts’s intervention that Lomitas went on to win three Group 1 races.

Walther Jacobs then asked Roberts to buy him some yearlings in Kentucky and one of those was the Devil’s Bag filly out of Grade 1 Yellow Ribbon Stakes winner Queen To Conquer, bred by Barronstown Stud. Named Quebrada, she became Germany’s champion two-year-old and three-year-old filly with her victories including the German 1,000 Guineas.

As a broodmare she also excelled, producing three stakes winners and two stakes-placed performers and is the second dam of five stakes winners headed by the Group 1 Premio Presidente delle Repubblica winner Querari.

She is also the second dam of Lot 221, who is out of Quebrada’s unraced Lomitas daughter Quariana.

Lot 221 also has a connection to another Fährhof-bred Group 1 winner as Jacobs explains.

“This colt is probably the smartest, most racy colt. We had the first Group 1 winner by Shamardal out of a Lomitas mare, he was called Zazou. That is why, when Darley kindly opened Shamardal’s book to 20 outside mares that year, we went back, she was accepted and so this is the product and he is a very smart-looking colt.”

Fährhof’s final offering at Book 1 is the only yearling in the catalogue by Darley’s Group 1 Champions Stakes and Lockinge Stakes winner Farhh.

“The S family is not our family,” says Jacobs of Lot 250’s lineage. “We bought the second dam from a neighbouring farm, and it is a very tough family. There is the Oaks winner Serienholde, who was sold to Japan, on the page and she has already produced a Group 1 winner with her first foal. It is a very good family. We did the mating because Farhh over Galileo is proven and this looks like the next Derby winner. He is a really nice horse, but a more Classic horse.”

The development of the Fährhof yearlings is being fully documented on the farm’s Twitter and Instagram accounts, an idea born of Jacobs’ and his family’s passion for horses, working with them, and riding them and his desire to showcase the human and equine talent that Germany has to offer.

“As a family we love horses and we come from the angle of working with the horse; we really love to work with horses so the idea of not just showing posed pictures and classic stuff suits me very well.

“Germany is one of the strongest horse nations in the world, particularly when it comes to breeding warmbloods, but that is forgotten about sometimes and I wanted to bring this across, that we are super good horse people with great infrastructure and great staff.

“I wanted to show that so people recognise that, to honour the team, honour the horses and show that we are professionals.”

It is this behind-the-scenes element, the desire to share that love and talent with a wider audience, that will set the social media accounts apart.

It is also that same passion that is aiming to breathe new life into Germany’s thoroughbred industry, giving it the shot of oxygen required to face into its challenges with strength and conviction and withstand whatever may be carried on the wind.