WHILE waiting at Goffs to speak to Nicolas Bertran de Balanda, I saw the figures rising on the various screens and wandered into the ring to see the French agent, phone to ear, outbidding Coolmore’s Gerry Aherne at €160,000 for a Walk In The Park colt foal.
It became a new record price for a National Hunt foal sold at Goffs, much to the delight of breeder Louis Vambeck and consignor Ballyreddin and Busherstown, though I’m not sure the buyer is comfortable with the attention it brings.
“You’re happy when you get the horse, but I’m not very comfortable with these very expensive horses,” he tells me. “I mean, I’m very happy when they win on the track, I’m happy for the client, because it is the clients who are paying for these horses. So, the credit is to them, really.”
With that line of thinking, credit for buying the top lot goes to up-and-coming owner Sofiane Benaroussi, as it does for the No Risk At All colt foal bought by Balanda for €110,000 at last month’s Tattersalls Ireland November NH Sale - where he was the joint highest-priced foal of the sale.
Both have strong French pedigrees and one is by a French sire, while the other stallion previously stood in France. So, is that what he focuses on at the Irish sales?
“Not really,” he says. “I’m always trying to find the best racehorses. It happens more with the good pedigrees, but the physical is very, very important for racehorses. I’ve always worked like that, whether for foals, yearlings or stores.”
At the other end of the spectrum, the agent bought a half-sister to Hewick on Monday for €23,000. It reads like good value, so I ask if French buyers have different priorities to the English and Irish?
“Probably, I think from what I see, they’re pretty much looking for size and big, scopey horses, which I will probably forgive more. I think if it’s a good walker and correct enough, they can be different shapes and sizes. I don’t want something too small, of course, but we’re probably a little bit more open-minded on the physical.”
Import export
The foals mentioned above will race in France, so it’s somewhat ironic that Balanda can also be credited with bringing some of the top French talent to Ireland. His stallion deals include the Cashman family’s exciting recruit Jeu St Eloi, but it is for purchasing horses in training that the agent has enjoyed the most success.
Just last week, multiple blacktype winner Heart Wood was beaten just a neck in the Grade 1 Drinmore Novice Chase, having been bought by Balanda with Alex Elliott for Robcour. The agents also worked together to purchase Robcour’s four-time Grade 1 winner Teahupoo, Grade 3-winning chaser Zakareva and Kala Conti, a Grade 2 winner last season.
Balanda, Elliott and Sebastien Desmontils combined to purchase top-class chaser A Plus Tard, while dual Grade 1 winner Quilixios was bought by Balanda with Tom Malone. Triumph Hurdle hero Farclas and Troytown Chase victor Coko Beach were solo purchases by Balanda.
Balanda has also developed a strong and successful relationship with Gary Moore, for whom he purchased Grade 1 winners Editeur De Gite, Goshen, Le Patron and Porticello. “We got on well, Gary is very straightforward and pragmatic,” Balanda says.
“He’s black or white and, if it’s not good, he tells you it’s not good. Over the years, we’ve got to know each other, so I trust him, and I think he trusts me.”
With Balanda having previously acknowledged the weight of expectation that comes with buying expensive horses, it’s unsurprising that trust means so much to him. “It’s very important. I like to work with people I have trust in and who trust me. Otherwise, it’s very short-term, there’s too much pressure, and you don’t work well.
“Whether it’s a cheap or very expensive horse, I will do my best for the client, and really try to buy a good racehorse.”
Balanda’s backstory
Perhaps he is also influenced by his previous career as a trainer, of which dual Grade 1-winning hurdler Gemix is the highlight of six years and over 300 winners. Balanda also bought and trained Sire Du Berlais to win a four-year-old hurdle at Compiegne, after which he was sold to J.P. McManus and Gordon Elliott, for whom he won the Liverpool Hurdle twice and the Stayers’ Hurdle.
His experience as a trainer certainly helps him analyse the potential of horses, as he explains: “Understanding the form, the tracks in France, and also knowing the trainers and connections. There are tracks which are much more, or much less, selective - you can have a horse winning by 12 lengths on a very easy track, but I know it’s doesn’t make the same sense as even third or fourth at a track like Auteuil or Compiegne. They’re very good tracks.”
Balanda grew up with a good understanding of this world, his father Jehan training such Grade 1 winners as Gravières, Le Sauvignon and Lycaon De Vauzelle. Jehan’s occupation was a deviation on tradition, as his brother, father and grandfather were all top show jumpers.
Having thoroughly experienced the National Hunt scene, Nicolas spent time as pupil assistant to Christophe Clement and Luca Cumani, but it is Pascal Bary that Balanda believes he learnt the most from.
When asked to single out his main takeaway from three years as assistant trainer, he says: “It’s not very easy to explain, but it was probably learning to observe, because in the end, it’s a job of observation.
“Observing horses, and riders, and action, and soundness, and the condition of the horse. He was very, very good with any horse - precocious, not precocious, sprinter, stayer. He was a fantastic trainer and a very good boss.”
Looking forward
Balanda’s love of, and experience in, flat racing has stood to him as a bloodstock agent, his purchases including Belmont Oaks heroine Magic Attitude, Maker’s Mark winner Chez Pierre and Grade 2 scorer Parnac.
The Sofiane Benaroussi-trained Zarakem may add to his tally soon, too. Bought by Balanda with Haras d’Etreham as a dual listed winner for €500,000, the Jerome Reynier-trained bay returned this season to win the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt and finished three-parts of a length behind Auguste Rodin in the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes.
On the son of Zarak, the agent says: “Zarakem has been great, he’s actually going to race in Australia this season with Ciaron Maher. He’s brought us on a great adventure - he won a group race in Longchamp, and ran amazingly well at Ascot. He will come back as a stallion in France next season.”
On his prospects Down Under, Balanda continues: “He’s very exciting. I think it can do very well over there, as he will like the pace, he goes on every ground, and he’s shown some strong form. He ran very well in the Arc, very, very well.”
2025 should be an exciting year for Bounnarossi, with a full-brother to Desert Crown to race as a three-year-old. Bought by Balanda as a yearling for 425,000gns, he is in training with Francis-Henri Graffard and has been appropriately named Classic Dream. Balanda’s client also has an exciting bunch of National Hunt youngsters to look forward to, including Vaheana, a full-sister to Teahupoo in training with Donatien Sourdeau De Beauregard.
Balanda has already enjoyed a terrific start to the 2024/2025 National Hunt season, with Mamisuz De Houelle and Olympic Story now considered the best three-year-old fillies in France, after completing a 1-2 for the agent in the Grade 2 Prix Magalen Bryant at Auteuil. The following day, Balanda's Arqana buy La Delirante won a listed race, while the agent is also racing manager for the owners of Gran Diose, who gained his second Grade 1 win in the Prix la Haye Jousselin on the card.
On other National Hunt prospects to keep an eye out for, the agent says: “Brian [Acheson] has bought Kurasso Blue, a Masked Marvel horse who won impressively for Yannick Fouin in the autumn. He won one of the good debutant races in Auteuil and he’s now with Gordon [Elliott]. That deal was done with Alex [Elliott].
“A juvenile I was involved with that sold to Willie, that I really liked a lot, was Fou De Toi. I hope he’s very good, I liked him a lot.”
Another exciting prospect for Mullins is Salvatore Mundi, who won a Tipperary maiden hurdle by all of 62 lengths and is currently 5/2 for the Grade 1 Future Champions Hurdle at Leopardstown’s Christmas Festival.
“I bought him as a store in France,” the agent explains. “He was very good looking, by No Risk At All, from a good family of Jean Pierre Dubois. He ran very well first time out in Auteuil, and then was bought by Harold [Kirk]. He looks exciting.”
French lessons
With all of these promising young horses selling to Ireland and the UK, should the French industry be concerned? Balanda doesn’t think so: “I think we’re okay, because we have the quality, we have very good breeders and a very good race programme. We have to make sure we have new owners coming in and running the game.
“I think it’s very important to get someone like Sofiane, who is great, and he will be an end user. I mean, he will sell sometimes, but we need people to keep them, race them, and then, after they have raced, they can be sold.
“Of the very wealthy people in France, much less own racehorses than in England and Ireland, where it’s much more popular. Let’s put it that way.”
As French-bred horses increasingly dominate the upper echelons of National Hunt racing, the powers-that-be in Britain and Ireland have tried to mirror what they deem to be the key to France’s success. There seems to be a general consensus that racing as three-year-olds is an important factor, which has led to Tattersalls Ireland introducing two-year-olds to next year’s Derby Sale, while Horse Racing Ireland last week unveiled a new initiative of ‘Academy Hurdles’ for three-year-olds.
Who better to explain the success of French horses, than Balanda? “I don’t think it’s only one thing,” he begins. “First of all, with the blacktype races, they’re mostly in Auteuil and Compiegne, which are difficult, very selective tracks. We don’t have listed races everywhere, so the blacktype means a lot. Even the condition races in Auteuil are difficult. So, when a filly wins in Auteuil, it’s a sign of quality.
“Then I think it’s probably to do with the fashion for certain stallions, which is very prominent here, sometimes even with unproven stallions. Yes, they can be good, but they can be average, or they can be very bad.
“When they cover 250 mares, and they’re absolutely unproven, and you don’t realise for one, two, or three years… The French are probably more focused on making racehorses than sales horses.”
Balanda’s point has been right under Irish breeders’ eyes, as all of the ‘fashionable’ stallions brought from France to Ireland proved themselves with small books of mares. The first seven crops by Walk In The Park, who breeders and buyers now clamour for, ranged between nine and 34 foals. Similarly, in their first four crops, Blue Bresil’s numbers ranged from 25 to 45 foals, and Diamond Boy peaked at 37 foals.
As for the third key point, Balanda continues: “They start to work early, which I think is very important. Even if they don’t race very early, they work early. I mean, you won’t see a champion athlete starting at 22 - he needs to start at 12, or eight.
“The French system for jumps horses is to break them the same time as the flat horses. Then they go back in the field, and come back to work, and go back in the field. I think it’s very good for the bones, for their mentality, for the development of everything.”