Young Guns With Valentin Adam

After its popularity last year, Young Guns returns with all new questions and young professionals. Today we speak with Valentin Adam, who works on the bloodstock team at Arqana

TDN: Tell us about your career to date.

VA: I have always been around horses. My grandparents had a farm with National Hunt mares, which my father took over. At the age of 13, I started riding racehorses in a training centre close to the farm in the west of France, and later had various experiences in England as an exercise rider for Gary Moore, Tom George and Roger Varian. In 2016, I came back to France with the firm intention to work in the industry and I had the chance to meet Eric Hoyeau. I did a first internship at Arqana as a project manager for the 2016 edition of the Arc sale at Chantilly. This started my collaboration with the auction sales agency and I was then sent to the U.S. for work experience. This is how I did a couple of months at Santa Anita as a work rider and pupil assistant for Leonard Powell, before heading to Kentucky where Tony Lacy welcomed me at Four Star Sales. I also had various experiences in sales prep at Three Chimneys, and at Hagyard Equine Hospital. I ended my trip at Saratoga where I met Christophe Clement, who gave me few rides in the morning and I was able to follow Mike Ryan in the afternoons for the selected sale inspections. I then came back to France to finish my degree in business development and worked as a trainee with Arqana before being employed.

TDN: If you could be one person in the industry for a day, who would it be and why?

VA: It would probably be a jockey, like Ryan Moore, on a day he rides a few Group 1s on the best horses in the world, or Ruby Walsh during the Cheltenham festival. Being a rider myself, I always watch the jockeys with a lot of admiration and envy.

TDN: What is the best piece of advice you've ever received?

VA: When I first got on a Thoroughbred, someone told me that to learn with horses, you just have to observe the animals; they'll tell you what to do. Since then I use it as a leitmotiv: you can learn from everyone, either on what to do or what not to do, so open your eyes.

TDN: What is the best aspect of your current job?

VA: As part of the bloodstock team, we are selecting the future horses that will go through the ring, and it is very interesting to be able to go and look for the best around our network of clients. I am relatively new in this exercise but if we look at the results of Arqana's graduates in recent years, I feel that I'm in the right spot to learn. I like the fact that we are working side by side with the breeders in order to bring to the market good horses for our buyers and for the competition; it's a win-win situation. The job is very diverse. I do a lot of tracking, attending meetings, organising tours of inspections, supervising the logistics of pop-up sales like the Arc or the Auteuil sales. Public auction is very theatrical and you feel the energy–I like it.

TDN: If you weren't working in the horse racing industry what would you be doing?

VA: I would probably be a cook in a restaurant somewhere around the world. I could barely see myself working outside the horse racing industry at the moment but I keep my mind open.

TDN: If you had 24 hours to get someone interested in the horse racing industry, how would you do it?

VA: First I would wake them up early to see the horses in the morning. Then I would take them to the races and introduce them to some friends to let them explain what they do in the industry. I would take time to explain and answer the questions and would propose to stay after the last for a few drinks. Usually when they stay until the last step, they are happy to come back. It has to be fun. This is what the Association Aux Courses les Jeunes does in France, which I was a member of in 2018. We did a lot of immersion days and brought a lot of young novices to the races.

TDN: What was your biggest achievement in 2018?

VA: It was a busy year. First I finished school, which can be considered an achievement, and I had a lot of interesting projects to work on at Arqana.

TDN: Who was your horse of 2018, and why?

VA: It has to be Enable. Winning the Arc twice in a row is obviously something special, but even more so, she went on to win the Breeders' Cup Turf at the end of an intense fight with Magical, and between the two best jockeys in the world. A beautiful race to watch.