Haras du Cadran – the cradle of G1 winners Qemah, The Grey Gatsby, Puchkine, Marianafoot – started off in a caravan, a caravan plonked in the middle of 16 hectares of Normandy pasture.
It was created four decades ago by Pierre Talvard, with a bank loan intended for a handful of cattle which he never bought. Even in those early days, he bred Group horses there. But Talvard needed four more years before he could move into a proper house.
It was the 1980s and Talvard understood times were changing in the then very conservative French breeding world. He was one of the first to place adverts in the press for boarding mares. Looking back at old photos, the man looks almost exactly the same: slim, with that unmistakeable moustache; only the size (and probably the quality) of his cigar seems to have changed.
If James Brown was ‘the hardest working man in show business’, Talvard has earned that accolade in the French bloodstock industry.
As his best friend Carlos Lerner says: “Pierre works too much. He doesn’t know how to take time for himself.”
There is an exception to this never-ending work addiction – a trip to Texas for rounding up cattle wit his old pal, five-time French Champion jockey Cash Asmussen on the family ranch.
“Every time Cash comes back to France we have a few drinks, probably too many. I admire the horsemanship of the Asmussens. They live and breathe the horse. Cash, now 62, rides every single day at his track.”
Talvard, a few years older, refuses to change his lifestyle. 40 hectares has become 400: he could easily retire. “But why would I do that? What would I do with myself?”
Your accountant is rarely the person you fall in love with. But Talvard did. “A good accountant is essential, because then you can get a good banker. And with a good banker, you can make investments. When I finally found a good accountant, I married her!”
Family intervened in his latest attempt to win a French G1. Daylight, the G3 Prix de Cabourg winner bred at Cadran, ran third in the Prix Morny, one place behind G2 Coventry winner Rashabar who was bred by Talvard’s son Emmanuel.
“Thankfully he’s quit his job and now works with me at the Haras du Cadran.”
Daylight has since finished a very good runner-up in the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes, behind Coolmore’s Lake Victoria, beating Juddmonte’s G1 winner Babouche and the Aga Khan’s Blue Point filly Rayevka. “In the paddock, I was wondering: how is it possible I am here in such a fine company?” It was a long way from a caravan in a French field.
Daylight is by Kildangan Stud stallion Earthlight. “I think this horse was great value when he started covering. You rarely see a French-trained two-year-old unbeaten in five starts including a G1 on both sides of the Channel. He had a very strong pedigree and that’s really what the dam needed as she had good form but quite a weak page.” Talvard bought Daylight’s dam for only €20,000, even though she was a juvenile Listed winner and placed in a Classic prep race at three.
“It makes up for the failures I bought for 40 times more! If you look at the mating with Earthlight, there is not a common ancestor in five generations. I avoid inbreeding as much as I can and one of the great things about Darley stallions is that they provide pedigree diversity.”
