Haras de Beaumont investment ensures impressive Prix du Jockey Club winner Ace Impact will stand in France

This year's unbeaten Prix du Jockey Club hero Ace Impact will stand as a stallion in France at the end of his racing career, after Haras de Beaumont reached a deal to purchase a 50 per cent interest from owner Serge Stempniak. 

That means the son of Cracksman will retire to Haras de Beaumont, just outside Deauville, where he will join the Chehboub family's Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and Champion Stakes winner Sealiway, Intello and Stunning Spirit on the roster. 

Stempniak stressed his determination that Ace Impact - who broke Sottsass' Prix du Jockey Club record time when stopping the clock at 2min 02.63sec at Chantilly this month - should remain in France when he goes to stud, having resisted "numerous offers from abroad."

Stempniak and trainer Jean-Claude Rouget have set the Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe as the main autumn target for Ace Impact, who was bred by Waltraut Spanner and is out of the Listed-placed Anabaa Blue mare Absolutly Me. Rouget bought Ace Impact at the 2021 Arqana August Yearling Sale, where he was consigned by Elise Drouet's Domaine de l'Etang. 

In announcing the deal, Stempniak said: "I was extremely concerned that Ace Impact remained in France when it came to his stallion career. And it was equally important to me that I found a French partner. You should know that I've had an enormous number of offers from abroad,

"That would have been a shame because I think the horse has a wonderful breeding future ahead of him in France. I am very happy to be partnering with the Chehboub family and we struck up a great relationship in a short space of time."

Haras de Beaumont's new stallion yard and covering shed have just come through their first breeding season, after Gousserie - which is owned by Kamel Chehboub and run, along with the family's racing operation, in conjunction with his daughter Pauline - under the day-to-day management of Mathieu Alex.

"They are people with great human values," added Stempniak. "We have reached an arrangement whereby Ace Impact will alternate between carrying my colours and theirs, with my only stipulation being that he will run in my silks for the Arc."

Europe's handicappers awarded Ace Impact an official rating of 123 for his three-and-a-half-length defeat of Big Rock in the Jockey Club, 1lb superior to Derby winner Auguste Rodin. Racing Post Ratings also give the Chantilly winner a similar margin of superiority at 125 against 124.

Ace Impact's new co-owner, Pauline Chehboub, said: "He is the best Classic winner of his generation in Europe and his rating also places him among the top five racehorses in the world. 

"Ace Impact will present an exceptional opportunity to French breeding. We feel completely the same as Serge Stempniak on this point; to have let Ace Impact stand abroad would have represented an enormous loss.

"Driven on by Mathieu Alex, who is a cornerstone of the success of Haras de Beaumont, we have been lucky enough to enjoy a very good first breeding season."

Among Gousserie Racing's broodmare purchases has been Showay,  and it is an activity which the operation will continue to pursue.

"We have bought some quality mares at Arqana and Goffs and will support Ace Impact in the same way, in partnership with Serge Stempniak," said Chehboub.

Alex has already helped forge one major stallion station success in Normandy, having guided the career of the late Le Havre along with Sylvain Vidal. 

Ace Impact will stand at Haras de Beaumont at the end of his racing careerCredit: © APRH / QUENTIN BERTRAND

"The stallion business is extremely competitive so securing a high-class horse like Ace Impact is fantastic news for Haras de Beaumont, and for France," said Alex. "Unbeaten, Ace Impact is the fastest Prix du Jockey Club winner and his rating of 123 places him as the best three-year-old in the world today. 

"He’s got a great mind and his turn of foot is exceptional. In the care of one of the best European trainers in Jean-Claude Rouget, his future is exciting!"

Rouget has mapped out two potential routes through the late summer, both of which start with the Prix Guillaume d'Ornano at Deauville on August 15 and lead to the Arc on October 1. 

His choice of stepping stone will be either the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes on September 9 or else the Prix Niel at Longchamp 24 hours later. 

Rouget told Paris-Turf: "It is too early to say but, while the Irish Champion Stakes is a race that could significantly add to the profile of a colt's future career as a stallion, I am far from being against the horse getting to try out at Longchamp ahead of the big day." 

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