Located in the rolling hills of central Kentucky horse country, Bonne Chance is a boutique Thoroughbred breeding and racing operation. Our 360 acres are nestled between picturesque Old Frankfort Pike and Pisgah Pike in Versailles. Bonne Chance is built on the idea of quality over quantity and the belief that good land and good people are the keys to raising good horses.
Bonne Chance Farm’s story begins in France on January 1st, 2014 (known as “Haras Bonne Chance”), in the charming area of “Pays d’Auge”, 15 miles from Deauville, in the heart of Normandie, affectionately known as the Kingdom of Horses. Then in 2015, Bonne Chance purchased a section of the old Hopewell Farm on historic Pisgah Pike in Versailles, KY, and officially moved its global operations to the horse capital of the world.
Bonne Chance’s boutique broodmare band consists of roughly 20-25 mares who boast diverse pedigrees and domestic as well as international bloodlines.
In keeping in line with our quality over quantity approach, we are constantly striving to build a balanced broodmare band consisting of dirt and turf pedigrees with good genetic and physical diversity from top families. Our current breeding program is a unique blend of pedigrees from Brazil, Argentina, France, Ireland, the UK, and the US.
Each year we are proud to offer select stock at various public auctions. The reality of maintaining boutique breeding and racing numbers ensures that the greater racing and breeding industry is often given the unique opportunity to purchase high quality colts, fillies, broodmares, and racing stock from our program.
We maintain a small racing stable consisting of homebreds, newly acquired breeding stock, and, in partnership with them, those Stud RDI breds who have proven their ability to compete against top racehorses in North America.
Stud RDI is the result of a union of two inseparable friends Gilberto Sayão and Paulo Fernando de Oliveira and their passion for the stories of the thoroughbred and horse competition. In 2008 they had an idea to create the Stud RDI, cosing the name in honor of a famous landscape located in Rio de Janeiro, that in Portuguese is called “Dois Irmãos”. In 2014, when Gilberto expanded his Thoroughbred holdings under his sole ownership, Bonne Chance farm was born. It is only natural that the two entities, Bonne Chance and Stud RDI, partner whenever given the opportunity to do so!
Everything we do at Bonne Chance is focused on sustainability and long term productivity and, just as with the horses, we rely on this approach in our management of the land. We believe that the better we grow the grass, the better we will grow the horses. We utilize two main management practices to achieve this results – cross grazing cattle and allowing fields to grow up to be cut for hay. The cattle aid in weed management and, due to their cloven hooves, aeration of the fields. Meanwhile, allowing the fields to grow up creates strong root bases as well as natural seeding opportunities. The round bales we cut from the fields are used as bluegrass bedding in our stalls and winter hay for the cattle. In utilizing these methods it allows us to use less pesticides and provide consistently high quality grazing pastures for our horses.
Our responsibility to be good stewards of the land and horses does not stop once the horses time at the track is done. Supporting aftercare is a built into our philospophy as breeders. We strive to breed sound, athletic horses are we are proud to stand behind them both on and off the track.
