In the town of Belle-Vie-en-Auge, Tony Parker bought the Quétieville stud farm in November 2021, an area of 85 hectares of grassland and land surrounded by moats.
The 39-year-old former basketball player already owned horses ready to race and he was eyeing Sarthe to settle.
With his sidekick, Nicolas Batum, he finally embarked on the Pays d'Auge, land of racehorse breeding, where many "cracks" were born.
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“Today, he is no longer just a horse owner, but also a breeder.
Like a maternity ward, horses are born here, on very good soil.
We want to have precise and fast horses, like Tony Parker in basketball”, philosopher Clément Tropès, deputy president of Tony Parker's stable.
The stud now hosts about twenty horses, some of which are owned year-round by “French, Italian, English” external owners…
Two births at stud
Several broodmares have already taken up residence there.
Including Terrichang, "black type" who will give birth in about ten days.
The objective is to breed “precocious” animals “capable of taking part in their first races from the age of two or three years”.
And to participate in the Deauville sales.
At three months, the first two fillies born at stud continue to frolic in the grassland, near their mothers: "The foals, we can distinguish their qualities as they grow, but that's still early" , comments Olivier Foucher, the manager, who lives and works at the stud farm.
Surrounded by two trainers/grooms, he takes care of the horses.
This son and grandson of breeders and trainers returns to Quétieville after six years of absence: “Working today for Tony Parker changes nothing.
I do my job.
All the stud farms run more or less the same way”.
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You still have to be pedagogical, explains Clément Tropès: "He makes a living profession, complicated, passionate, and also sometimes has to explain the basics of breeding to us".
Belle-Vie-en-Auge is home to around twenty stud farms for only 500 inhabitants.
That of the quadruple NBA champion would be a "history" of the village, formerly much larger in size and created in the 1920s.
"Tony Parker made his career in Texas where the horse is present almost everywhere," adds Clément Tropès.
“His dream of having racehorses has come true.
Now he is making his breeding dream come true”.
The 39-year-old star says he wants to "make the world of running popular and give young people the desire to take an interest in it".
Eventually, the team plans to install between 80 and 100 horses on the Quétieville stud farm while remaining "oriented towards external owners".
