by K. T. Donovan

AS THE daughter of legendary French trainer and breeder Alec Head and manager of the family's Haras du Quesnay in Deauville, France, Martine Head has made several forays to Lexington to attend sales at Keeneland and Fasig-Tipton Co. and to see mares she boards in the area.

As scion of the dynasty, Martine Head is currently in Lexington to oversee the January arrival of the family's champion Anabaa, a 14-year-old by Danzig who returns to the Bluegrass region of his birth to stand the 2007 season at Dr. Tony Ryan's Castleton Lyons.

Anabaa is so special to her that she traveled at a time when her family is usually active during the L'Agence Francaise Deauville December mixed sale, and she plans to stay until the stallion has settled into his new surroundings. Anabaa's place in her heart was cemented long before his exploits on the track and in the breeding shed. One of the most successful sons of the late leading sire Danzig, Anabaa scored a spectacularly easy victory in the 1996 Darley July Cup Stakes (Eng-G1) over stakes-winning future sires Danehill Dancer and Pivotal. The win defined a career that might never have been.

Bred by Sheikh Maktoum al Maktoum's Gainsborough Farm, he was sent to Martine's sister, Criquette Head-Maarek, who had trained his dam, Balbonella (Fr), a graded and group winner in the United States and France. While training as a two-year-old, Anabaa showed signs of being a wobbler and euthanizing the colt was briefly considered. The Heads balked at that idea.

"We never want to put a horse down and we find any way possible not to," Martine Head said. "So, my father saved his life. In six months, he was found to have had only a pinched nerve."

Anabaa returned to training in the spring of his three-year-old season, and Sheikh Maktoum told Alec Head to keep him as a gift because he was responsible for his life.

"I have never seen my father so entranced as when this horse was running," Martine Head said. "He has trained champions, but there is an incredible bond with this horse. He saved his life, so he is now attached to him forever."

Anabaa finished his career in 1996 as Europe's champion sprinter, and continued his success at stud in France and Australia. Among his 44 stakes winners through December 4, eight are Group 1 winners. His progeny include classic winners Martillo and Anabaa Blue, currently the leading freshman sire in France. Anabaa has shown his versatility by siring 2003 Australian champion sprinter Yell and '03 Hong Kong champion stayer Anabar.

"Very few stallions are successful in dual hemisphere breeding, in both places," Martine Head said. "You have to be tough. They are in the heat, on different grass; it is not for any horse with weakness. He will improve any type [of mare] you send him. His babies will run on any surface."

This left the Head family facing a dilemma.

"Everyone wanted to buy him, including [Coolmore's] John Magnier, but my father resisted," Martine Head said. "He's family to us. He has outgrown the French market, but my father will never sell him. The only place in Europe to stand a stallion of his caliber would be Coolmore, but they only stand their own."

Magnier was not the only Irishman with his eye on Anabaa. For three years, Ryan discussed with the Heads the possibility of the handsome dark bay or brown standing at Castleton Lyons, but the Heads, whose Haras du Quesnay is a non-commercial operation that races what it breeds, were reluctant to see him go.

"It's been very tough for my father, but it was time to come to America," Martine Head said. "He is the best son of Danzig. He definitely has the potential to be the next Danehill, I completely believe that. He will click well in America."

Haras du Quesnay is noted for its large paddocks and its adherence to traditional principles that follow an aesthetic vision. The Head dynasty has given their farm, once owned by American William K. Vanderbilt, a historical significance in European racing. So when choosing where to stand their prized stallion in America, Martine was drawn to Castleton Lyons, a farm that shares much of the same ethos.

"How many farms in America are there with this history?" she said, recalling the 200 years that the farm has raised horses. "I adore Claiborne, and Lane's End, and Spendthrift. But Dr. Tony Ryan has done an amazing job of choosing stallions, all from different bloodlines, with different physical types, and there are not too many stallions here. And there are great people here, they are all for the horse."

Currently finishing the Southern Hemisphere season at Widden Stud in Australia, Anabaa will be shown at an open house at Castleton Lyons on January 7, when Alec Head will be present.

K. T. Donovan is a Kentucky correspondent of Thoroughbred Times.