A Shared Passion At Stauffenberg Bloodstock

In 2016, Philipp and Marion Stauffenberg had to use all their powers of persuasion to convince Tattersalls to grant their homebred yearling colt by Sinndar (Ire) out of their prized mare Four Roses (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}) a place in Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale. From the breeders' perspective, here was a well-made and good-looking son of a proven broodmare–a full-brother to a Group 2 winner no less. The sales company's view when trying to whittle down numbers for the section of the October Sale which is always the most over-subscribed was presumably that the colt whose sire's sales-ring pizazz had long since gone and whose dam was then 18 years of age was a relatively unappealing commercial prospect.

Any trainer, agent or potential buyer who has perused the drafts of Stauffenberg Bloodstock over the years will be able to attest to the professionalism of Germany's foremost consignor on the international stage when it comes to presenting youngsters for sale. This knowledge doubtless also informed Tattersalls' final decision to take the colt for Book 2 and they weren't let down when Oliver St Lawrence bid 165,000gns on behalf of Guy Brook for the colt now known as Flintrock (Ger).

Twelve months on and the Stauffenbergs were at it again. Flintrock's full-brother Fabriano (Ger), a bigger, stronger version of his elder sibling, sold for 300,000gns to Roger Varian on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid. A day later, it was announced by the Aga Khan Studs that the dual Derby and Arc winner Sinndar, never quite given the love he deserved by increasingly speed-focused buyers, had been retired. The old boy went out on a high courtesy of Fabriano, his most expensive yearling ever sold, while that colt's full-sister, born eight years earlier, had also been noteworthy as a rare yearling purchase by the Aga Khan. Named Four Sins (Ger), she went on to win the G3 Blue Wind S. and G2 Blandford S., and was remarkable as one of very few bearers of the Aga Khan's red-and-green livery not to have been bred by her owner.

“It was absolutely an outstanding result for all involved. For us as breeders, for the mare, for the old stallion who retired the next day,” reflects Philipp Stauffenberg as he anticipates the birth of a Maxios (GB) foal from Four Roses any day now. The daughter of the Stauffenbergs' foundation mare Fraulein Tobin (J O Tobin) also has a yearling colt by the Gestut Fahrhof resident.

“If you look into the pedigree, it's such a wonderful balancing out and inbreeding of some of the very best Aga Khan bloodlines. The Aga Khan himself bought Four Sins, who had the cross of Darshaan and his female line, and he has also bred a Group 1 winner, Shawanda (Ire), on that cross.”

For Stauffenberg, it was vindication of the resolute principles one might expect of a German breeder, but he is also all too aware of the elements which must be considered to maintain a successful presence at the sales.

He says, “We try to mate them as well as we can and we must balance out our broodmares and look at the commercial side as well to gain some money, but overall the plan is really to breed a racehorse. I always think if the horse itself is nice enough–if you produce a correct, strong, good-walking horse–then you will get paid. Sometimes you get more, sometimes you get less, but overall if the yearling itself is good enough you're okay.”

He continues, “Although we have to sell, overall we haven't really changed that much in our breeding operation. We are dreamers and we want to breed a good horse–that's always the aim. Over the years we have always used stallions which might not look commercial. We have had success on the sales ground and on the racecourse with Nayef, for example.”

The couple, who started assembling their broodmare band back in 1996, bred Nayef's G1 Prix de l'Opera winner Lady Marian (Ger), a €49,000 Baden-Baden yearling who later sold for 1.8 million gns at Tattersalls' December Mares Sale and is now the dam of Godolphin's G1 Irish Derby entry Loxley (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}). The sales highlight of Nayef's yearling crop of 2016 was Zahara (Ger), a wide-margin winner last year at two and another to emanate from Schlossgut Itlingen, the Stauffenbergs' farm at Ascheberg-Herbern, just south of Munster.

For their fellow German breeders Heike Bischoff and Niko Lafrentz of Gestut Gorlsdorf, the Stauffenbergs consigned the most expensive yearling from the first crop of G1 Deutsches Derby winner Sea The Moon (Ger), a 525,000gns colt out of Tickle Me Pink (GB) (Groom Dancer), who, like the Sinndar colt, has gone into training with Roger Varian. The result was doubly important for the Gorlsdorf team as they bred Sea The Moon and stand him at Kirsten Rausing's Lanwades Stud.

The presence of Stauffenberg Bloodstock at sales outside Germany, which Philipp plans to extend beyond Britain to include more business in Ireland and France, has increasingly prompted breeders and pinhookers from Britain and Ireland to employ their services when consigning at the BBAG Yearling Sale in September.

“We have sold well quite often in Baden-Baden for ourselves and for clients so other people are looking into it more,” says Stauffenberg. “It has been something we have increased since 2008 or 2009. We have changed our policy and taken horses from outside but we like to prep them ourselves–I'm not keen on meeting a yearling at the sales as you just don't know enough about them. It has become more international with people asking us to do that in Germany as getting places in the better sales was getting more and more difficult for a lot of breeders.”

The line isn't drawn, however, at breeding and consigning as Philipp Stauffenberg runs a high-end pinhooking syndicate for a number of private investors, and has become known as one of the boldest foal buyers at the sales. Last year, for example, he sold a Galileo (Ire) filly on behalf of his partners for 575,000gns having bought the daughter of Lady Springbank (Ire) (Choisir {Aus}) as a foal for 300,000gns.

“When I was approached by the syndicate the aim was to look for horses that we could sell at the upper end of Book 2 and in Book 1,” he explains. “To have the full package–the individual and the page–then you have to pay quite a lot of money for these foals. In the past years the group behind me has been rewarded with some excellent results. Last year we had major problems to fulfil the criteria and buy some nice foals because it just was getting so expensive that the value for resale at the upper end has become quite risky.”

He continues, “For quite a few years now we have been asking if we've hit the high point of the market and whether is it going to start going down. I don't know, but my feeling is that polarisation is getting worse and the number of really predictable good results is getting more difficult. The borderline between success and failure is getting thinner and sometimes from my own point of view it's not understandable why a yearling has been a failure and another one is a home run. A certain number of people are focusing on very few horses and there are others which time will show to be very good racehorses that sell for little money because they just are not as sexy or not seen by some of the judges or buyers.”

Nowhere is polarisation more pronounced than in stallion selection and it is an area in which Stauffenberg is reluctant to compromise his beliefs.

He says, “We don't really have speed mares–we have one mare who has won over seven furlongs and has produced faster runners but all the rest are middle-distance horses. One criterion we have is that we only use Group 1 winners, preferably a Classic winner or a high-class winner. We don't breed to Group 3 winners. On that basis, a horse who looks to be well priced this year is Zarak (Fr), who is out of an Arc winner and by one of the best stallions we have [Dubawi]. A disadvantage is that he didn't win a Group 1 at three, though he was second to Almanzor (Fr) in the Prix du Jockey Club. But if Zarak had won a Group 1 at three he would probably be standing for a much higher fee. We are using him and I am looking forward to seeing how he does in the future.”

Stauffenberg highlights another recent recruit to the French stallion ranks as a horse of interest, with the added bonus that he hails from the family of one of the most famous German thoroughbreds of recent decades.

He notes, “Brametot (Fr) was a stakes winner at two and Classic winner over a mile and also over ten furlongs. He's by Rajsaman (Fr), which gives you the chance to use a different bloodline with Linamix, and of course he's out of a sister to Monsun (Ger), so it's an interesting pedigree.”

While the Stauffenbergs' farm acts as a temporary residence for mares from such major outside breeders as Shadwell and the Aga Khan Studs who are visiting German stallions, so do their own mares travel beyond continental Europe to be mated.

He continues, “I think we are all struggling to identify which is the right son of Galileo (Ire) to use. We've used Gleneagles (Ire) and we are using him again. The market didn't seem to be that taken with his foals but the same happened with Frankel and how wrong everybody was.

“I'm just not interested at all in these young, speedy Group 2 or Group 3 horses. If one of them ends up being successful we may use him later on but for me a stallion must have class. I'm also not a fan of horses retiring to stud after one season. Okay, Dark Angel (Ire) has been a success but I'm not keen on that idea.”

On the home front, Stauffenberg rues the loss of so many sons of Monsun, predominantly to the National Hunt division.

“In Germany we have lost the successful male lines–Surumu (Ger), Literat (Ger) and so on, and we have nearly lost the Konigsstuhl (Ger)-Monsun line. Maxios is the only stallion we can rely on from that line at the moment in this country,” he says.

“Nobody wanted to have In The Wings (GB) but he's doing fantastically well if you look at Soldier Hollow (GB) and Adlerflug (Ger), who are producing very good horses, not only for Germany but also internationally, from small numbers of mares covered.”

Adlerflug and Soldier Hollow were second and third behind the veteran Areion (Ger) in the German stallion championship last year. The former, though by an imported stallion, represents one of the most celebrated families in German breeding and one with far-reaching tentacles. Gestut Schlenderhan's homebred stallion shares his great grandam Anatevka (Ger) with Galileo and Sea The Stars (Ire).

Stauffenberg continues, “Adlerflug is not the most commercial horse but he has a really good pedigree and an outstanding record with what he has done from both the number of mares and the quality of mares he covered. For me, besides the Schlenderhan mares, he has covered quite a lot of modest mares and has produced some very good horses. Schlenderhan have such good mares that they produce good horses by all sorts of stallions, but for me a stallion is interesting if he can produce a good horse outside that broodmare band.”

It's not only the dwindling variety in sirelines that is of concern to Stauffenberg, who cites a drop in the number of breeders and broodmares as a worrying situation for Germany.

“The huge success of the very small population we have has led to the situation that nearly all our Classic-winning fillies have been sold, especially to Japanese buyers,” he says. “So if you ask me about the future of German breeding I would say that if we are selling all our best fillies it's easy to imagine that it will become difficult to keep the quality of German breeding at the highest level. Allegretta (Ger) was sold by Schlenderhan and over the years they have always sold the odd mare for good money, but the number of top-class breeding prospects that have been sold abroad in the last few years is enormous and losing that amount will cause long-term problems.”

In the meantime, Philipp and Marion Stauffenberg, with backgrounds in show jumping and dressage, continue to play their part in the success of their country's thoroughbred record. Germany may not have the numbers to rival neighbouring European nations, but its contribution to racing and breeding is admired the world over.

Stauffenberg says, “Marion has a strong opinion and I really enjoy our discussions about foals and matings. It really is a passion–for me it's not about money, I enjoy it. Obviously we need some money to live on but everything else we put back in to the farm or matings, or buying mares. It is a passion we share.”