Page 91 - Speedhorse March 2019

a well-known ranch called Haras Shalako, which is next to the property where Haras Portofino is located today. The auction was when I started to develop an interest in Quarter Horses.”
Leite ended up buying his first horse before he bought a farm and was immersed in the world of Quarter Horse racing. Leite’s interests quickly settled on breeding his own horses to race, and Haras Portofino was born.
“It has been over 20 years since I started the long journey that hasn’t stopped,” Leite said.
To be a proper breeding farm, Haras Portofino needed a stallion, and Leite found one in Apollo VM (Jet Toro-For Tears Only, Dash For Cash). He purchased Apollo VM after the young stallion had retired from a stellar racing career in which he was undefeated in 13 starts, including some of Brazil’s biggest races. While Apollo VM wasn’t yet proven as a sire, Leite had faith in the horse.
“Haras Portofino and Apollo VM was the perfect combination – a great horse that needed a farm and a farm that needed a great horse,” Leite said. “The two helped build one of the leading brands in the Brazilian horse industry. Apollo VM ended up influencing all of our creation, in fact the entire Brazilian horse industry, but Haras Portofino was the great beneficiary of history.”
Excellence
CSU’s second value is excellence: “It is the quest for excellence that leads to constant improvement of individuals and companies.” Over the past two decades, Leite has constantly and consistently sought to improve the horses at Haras Portofino, not only through breeding, but also through the acquisition of the best breeding stock he could buy.
With Apollo VM, Leite soon experienced the best Quarter Horse racing Brazil had to offer. His first successful racehorse was Daytona Apollo MRL, a daughter of Apollo VM out of the Ichibon mare Earth Tones.
In Brazil, Daytona Apollo MRL won
two races and was second three times in six starts, including winning the largest race in
the country, the Megarace. After earning R $200,000 in Brazil, she traveled to the U.S., where she competed as a solid allowance horse from 2004 to 2006 before returning to join the broodmare band at Haras Portofino.
“Apollo VM influenced a lot in the entire creation and history of Haras Portofino,” Leite said. “His daughters are the most important legacy of his genetics and heritage. He was
a great producer of females. To this day, his daughters are the main breeding females of Haras Portofino and Brazil.”
Indeed, Daytona Apollo MRL has already produced the Corona For Me daughter Corona Daytona MRL, who won the 2018 Sorocaba Futurity GP in track record time and was second in the Brazilian Futurity GP.
“Apollo VM was my first stallion and the most important,” Leite said. “He is the greatest horse
in the history of Brazil. He is a success not only in the races, but also as an extraordinary Champion, an extraordinary stallion; and his genetics and legacy are present in other disciplines, such as barrel racing and vaquejada (steer wrestling). He is the brand of Haras Portofino.”
Lasting Relationships
The third of CSU’s four values states: “Building and strengthening lasting relationships with its main stakeholders is the basis for CSU’s growth and success.” As Haras Portofino grew into one of the leading breeders in Brazil, Leite developed the connections
that would eventually see him through the devastating loss of Apollo VM in 2012.
“With the passing of Apollo VM, the Haras Portofino stopped breeding horses for five or six years,” Leite said. “A few years ago we came back and rebuilt, and we needed to search for a stallion that would succeed Apollo VM.”
“After many studies, the options we had and the market, the decision devolved upon Teller Cartel. Teller Cartel, in our vision, meets all conditions.”
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