Arrival of Threat and Van Beethoven coincides with French juvenile reappraisal

French breeders have been encouraged for several years to think of injecting some speed and precocity into their stock with the debuts of several stallions that promised to fulfil those criteria.

Despite attracting some generous premiums for owners and breeders, the programme in France has never placed huge emphasis on juvenile performance, something which led France Galop to launch a review of the competitiveness of the nation's two-year-olds in the face of British and Irish competition.

The early fruits of that study include a revamping of the two-year-old programme, with more opportunities earlier in the calendar - which is good news for connections who are launching Threat and Van Beethoven on the French stallion scene this year.

Threat will stand at Haras du Mont Goubert in his first year at stud for a fee of €6,000Credit: Racing Post/Scott Burton

With the traditional January pilgrimage around Normandy stallion stations that is the Route des Etalons not possible due to the coronavirus pandemic, both horses were available to view on the periphery of this week's Arqana February sale.

Threat will stand at the Haras du Mont Goubert in partnership with Haras d'Etreham, while Coolmore are also involved in bringing the son of Footstepsinthesand to France, and former racing owners Cheveley Park have kept a breeding right to their Gimcrack and Champagne Stakes winner.

"France Galop are in the process of reforming the two-year-old programme and this horse has exactly the right profile to produce horses in that vein," said Mont Goubert's Claude Guegan.

"I hope that will be something that becomes more attractive to French breeders. [Despite Brexit] we have several British breeders who are planning to send mares to him, though obviously mostly it will be French-based breeders who support him."

Claude Guegan of Haras du Mont Goubert, where Threat will begin his stallion career in 2021Credit: Racing Post/Scott Burton

Threat was a 100,000gns purchase as a foal and hails from a fine Niarchos family, counting Group 2 winner Shiva - a half-sister to Oaks heroine Light Shift - as his second dam.

Mont Goubert is a fairly unique enterprise in that it operates as a stallion station for both thoroughbred and trotting horses, while Guegan says the main shareholders will give Threat plenty of support from among their own broodmare bands.

Van Beethoven, meanwhile, becomes the third son of Scat Daddy to stand in France and is offered at €6,000 by Haras de Grandcamp.

In a typically busy two-year-old season for Aidan O'Brien, the highlight was victory in the Group 2 Railway Stakes at the Curragh - a win backed up by solid efforts in the Marble Hill, the Windsor Castle and the Champagne Stakes at Doncaster on his eighth start of the campaign - while his best try at three was when runner-up in the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes over a mile at Arlington Park.

Van Beethoven will make his debut at Haras de Grandcamp in 2021 at a fee of €6,000Credit: Racing Post/Scott Burton

"He comes here right in the middle of France Galop’s new policy for two-year-olds and corresponds perfectly to that desire," said Samuel Blanchard, who manages Van Beethoven in partnership with Grandcamp.

"There are only a few sons of Scat Daddy and he is a different physical model to the others. I love the fact that he won at Group level early on at two, and he has a string of very solid performances, running in four different countries without fading.

"He arrived in France only just before Christmas after being bought in the US last November and had to do his quarantine, so a lot of people have already planned their matings without him.

Samuel Blanchard, who manages Van Beethoven's stallion career in partnership with Haras de GrandcampCredit: Racing Post/Scott Burton

"On top of that we didn’t have the Route des Etalons this year so we have everything to gain by showing him here, since he is a beautiful-looking horse."

He added: "We are doing all we can to raise his profile, including placing plenty of adds and offering a free nomination to him with a broodmare that went through the ring here this week. I think he will really come into his own in year two."

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