Golden Horde

By Emma Berry and Brian Sheerin On Tuesday the European Pattern Committee (EPC) announced that 42 races are at risk of being downgraded in 2025, including Britain's G1 Commonwealth Cup. Its status will depend very much on its performance in 2024, which will mark the tenth running of the race introduced to the British calendar in 2015 as a readymade Group 1 in order to "create a more balanced programme and better opportunities for high-class sprinters". The Commonwealth Cup, run at Royal Ascot over six furlongs for three-year-olds only, was...

For most farms it is enough just to be introducing one new stallion to the market in a season. For Nurlan Bizakov's Sumbe, that task is multiplied by three as the Normandy-based operation launches homebred Belbek (Fr) and Angel Bleu (Fr) at the same time as relaunching Mishriff (Ire) after a false start. It is unlikely that anyone has forgotten Mishriff but the stallion business is a fickle game. A misplaced kick to the wall of his stable at Haras de Montfort & Préaux at the beginning of the year...

Nurlan Bizakov's investment in French racing and breeding has been significant since 2019 when he bought Haras de Montfort et Preaux, followed later by the purchase of Haras du Mezeray. Branding his stallion and breeding operation as Sumbe, he added Golden Horde (Ire) to the roster for the 2021 season, and last year announced that Mishriff (Ire) would stand for Sumbe, with De Treville (GB) also on the roster. The line-up for 2024 has been enhanced again with the announcement that Bizakov's homebred Group 1 winner Belbek (GB) (Showcasing {GB})...

A Golden Horde (Ire) colt topped Book 3 of the October Yearling Sale at 35,000gns bringing the two-week selling bonanza to a close on Saturday.  The top lot was sourced by Middleham Park and was described as "a standout" on the day by the operation's Tom Palin.  "We loved him, we thought he was a standout," said Palin of lot 1919. "He walked around there with a bit of presence. He goes to Eve Johnson Houghton, he's our first horse with her and he's a strong, racy, two-year-old sort and...

In the stallion yard at Sumbe's Haras de Montfort, the reputation of the late Le Havre (Ire) casts a long, figurative shadow. He was of course not the only stallion on the roster, but he was the first, back in the days when the farm was launched under its original guise of Haras de la Cauviniere, and he became one of France's most important stallions, given plenty of respect from breeders father afield in Europe and Japan. Le Havre is hard to replace, but in the season after his death,...

Sumbe-under its previous guises as Haras de la Cauviniere and Haras de Montfort et Preaux and still today under the guidance of new owner Nurlan Bizakov-has made a concerted effort to upgrade the level of stallions standing of France. It has done so with success, too; as part of its fruitful relationship with Gerard Augustin-Normand, the Cauviniere principals retained the 2009 G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner Le Havre (Ire) to stand in France, and the son of Noverre rose through the ranks to become one of the most successful...

Nurlan's Bizakov's Sumbe operation has announced its stallion fees for 2022, with flagship sire Le Havre (Ire) remaining at €40,000 and Golden Horde (Ire), who covered his first book of mares this year, being reduced to €8,000 from €10,000. "Le Havre, the sire of 45 stakes winners, had another stellar year in 2021 and we feel very fortunate to stand such a high-class stallion," said Sumbe's Mathieu Alex, who indicated that Bizakov has supported Golden Horde, a Group 1-winning son of Lethal Force (Ire), with 20 of his best mares....

Near the entrance to The Royal Studs at Sandringham is a magnificent bronze commemorating the Prince of Wales's homebred Persimmon (GB) (St Simon {GB}), whose racing record highlights the fact that things were done a little differently back in the 1890s. Very differently, in fact. The Coventry S. winner of 1895 went on to win the Derby and the St Leger and, kept in training, he returned to Royal Ascot to win the Gold Cup, which had been his principal 4-year-old target. Exactly a century later, the horse who was...

Nurlan Bizakov's breeding operation Sumbe has been expanded further with the purchase of Haras du Mézeray from the de Moussac family.  The acquisition of the 440-acre farm in Normandy follows the 2019 purchase of Haras de Montfort & Préaux, which is just 10 kms from Mézeray and is home to the Sumbe stallions Le Havre (Ire), Recorder (GB) and Golden Horde (Ire). The latter, who has just embarked on his first covering season, had his first mare scanned in foal on Thursday. Bizakov founded his breeding empire at Hesmonds Stud...

The Route des Etalons was established in 2010 in an attempt to stimulate a flagging French stallion scene. A little over a decade on, it could be said that it's 'job done'. That doesn't mean that the annual open weekend of Normandy studs has been shelved. Its popularity has grown year on year for breeders and bloodstock pilgrims alike, and it is only a global pandemic that has stopped it run in 2021. It will, however, be staged online across this weekend, with videos of the 108 stallions involved shown...

Nurlan Bizakov will unite his British and French studs, Hesmonds Stud and Montfort et Preaux, under the same name: Sumbe, for his birthplace in Kazakhstan. Bizakov said, "To understand this decision, you have to go back in time. I was born in Kazakhstan in the city of Sumbe. Nestling at the foot of the country's highest mountain, it's a region famed for its agricultural produce and the quality of its horse breeding. I think that these 'country' roots--embedded in an environment where the horse was very present--naturally influenced my decision...

This year's G1 Commonwealth Cup winner Golden Horde (Ire) (Lethal Force {Ire}-Entreat {GB}, by Pivotal {GB}) has been retired from racing after suffering a tendon injury. Stud plans have not yet been decided. "He suffered a tendon issue that proved to be longer term than first realised, so rather than miss a complete season it was with reluctance that it was decided to retire him to stud," said trainer Clive Cox. "He was the best horse owned so far by HH Sheikh Sultan Al Deen bin Mohammed bin Salman Al...