When Tony Parker was inducted into the National Basketball Association’s Hall of Fame earlier this year, he opened his speech by thanking several of the great players he competed against for pushing him to be his best. It is obvious, given his 18-year NBA career and four championships won with the San Antonio Spurs, that Parker thrives on competition.

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Since his retirement from the NBA in 2019, Parker has competed in the World Series of Poker. In 2014, he became president of ASVEL, a professional basketball team in France. His business investments include a ski resort, wine and champagne labels, commercial real estate, and a yacht-chartering company. And just three years ago he helped form Infinity Nine Horses, a racing stable based in France that has already won the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French One Thousand Guineas) with Mangoustine; and currently campaigns multiple group stakes winner Ramatuelle, the premier 2-year-old filly racing in France.

“Dream big,” Parker said during his Hall of Fame induction speech. “If people don’t laugh at you, you’re not dreaming big enough.” Parker is getting the last laugh.

Parker’s father, Tony Sr., grew up in Chicago. He didn’t make it to the NBA, but was good enough to play professional basketball in Europe. The younger Parker was born in Belgium and grew up in France, but regularly visited his paternal family in Chicago. While there, he was inspired to hoop while watching Michael Jordan ply his trade for the hometown Bulls. Parker is a dual citizen of France and the United States.

He was drafted by the Spurs out of a French professional league and spent all but his final season with San Antonio. Living in the Southwest furthered an early fascination Parker had developed with equines.

“I have always loved horses,” he stated. “When I was a kid, I often played horse video games with my brothers. While in San Antonio, I acquired a ranch, but I couldn’t ride because it was forbidden by my player contract. Although I didn’t have time to attend the races while I was playing, I was watching the big days like the Breeders’ Cup and the Kentucky Derby.

Parker with the champion Spurs. (WikiMedia Commons)

“Following my career, my dream was to create a horse racing team. But first, I needed time to do my homework to learn about and discover this amazing world.”

At a time when horse racing is desperately attempting to market itself to attract a wider audience, Parker has lent his fame to the sport while pursuing his passion for it. In 2021, Parker bought into a Red Dubawi filly named Best Win, who had placed in the 2020 Prix Vulcain. That transaction caught the eye of Clement Tropres, who owned a small stake in a few racehorses but also worked in marketing for European basketball.

“I knew who Tony Parker was, but he didn’t know me,” Tropres noted with a laugh. “I sent him an email to see if he would be interested in building a project that would help bring attention to French racing.”

That germ of an idea quickly mushroomed into becoming Infinity Nine Horses. Much of the French Thoroughbred industry jumped in to help, including France Galop, which is the governing body of the sport; and ZEturf, a French bookmaker that is a major sponsor of Infinity Nine Horses. A prominent adviser is Henri Bozo, manager of Haras des Monceaux, a major breeding farm in the country. Bozo helps select bloodstock for the organization.

Parker took the lead as the major stakeholder, with Tropres maintaining a minority piece while serving as deputy president. When Parker took to Instagram to ask followers to suggest names for the project, the winning entry was Infinity Nine Horses, using Parker’s uniform number from the Spurs combined with limitless possibilities.

Along with a small stable, Parker and friends have made a big push to publicize French horse racing, with Parker, 41, becoming an ambassador for the sport. Infinity Nine Horses has created a television show called “The Big Bet,” a glossy series of 30-minute programs with high-production value that follows Parker, his partners, his trainers, and his jockeys at the races.

“The Big Bet,” which can be viewed on Equidia or YouTube, takes the audience behind the scenes as Parker attends races, visiting with fans in the grandstand and speaking with trainers and jockeys after the races to get input. Twelve episodes have been filmed and have been sponsored by ZEturf. Even for those who don’t understand French, the show is engaging.

So, this would be a nice story, right? Celebrity athlete gets involved in racing and helps publicize its excitement to the general public. Except, it goes a bit further than that. Parker and his crew also possess an element that can’t be bought or learned; that can’t be earned through expert analyzation. They have good luck.

In 2021, runners for Infinity Nine Horses won 11 times in 24 races. It doesn’t take a math genius to figure out that’s a nearly 50% strike rate.

“Our goal is to find good horses with owners and trainers who want to be associated with Tony,” said Tropres. “We partner up on all of our horses and seek out connections that are motivated to work with us.”

In 2021, Zelda, a 2-year-old filly by Zelzal, sprinted to victory in her first two races and then won the Prix Saraca at about seven furlongs at Chantilly. Her races that year are documented on an episode of “The Big Bet.” She eventually was sent to the U.S. at the end of her 3-year-old campaign in 2022, but ran unplaced at Aqueduct in what would be her final start.

At the 2020 Arqana yearling auction, English bloodstock agent David Redvers purchased a Dark Angel filly for the equivalent of $54,346. The filly had been co-bred, and was consigned to the sale, by Monceaux. Early in 2021, with the filly in training, Infinity Nine Horses was invited to come in for a 25% share of her.

As a 2-year-old in 2021, Mangoustine tipped her hand, earning her maiden win at first asking at about a mile at Deauville. Stepping up into stakes company in her next start, she prevailed in the Criterium de Lyon, and moved next to group stakes company, winning the Prix Miesque at Chantilly at about seven furlongs to cap an undefeated campaign.

Returned to competition in 2022, Mangoustine, now trained by Mikel Delzangles, placed third in the Group 3 Prix de la Grotte at Longchamp, which set her up for a run in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches at about a mile. Carrying the black and white silks of Infinity Nine Horses, Mangoustine tracked Cachet from fifth position before unleashing an eye-catching rally down the outside. Approaching the finish line, she jutted forward to deny Cachet a double (Cachet had won the Group 1 One Thousand Guineas two weeks earlier) by a head, providing thrills all around and nearly $300,000 in purse earnings.

“Winning a Group 1 just one year after the creation of Infinity Nine Horses was totally unexpected,” Parker stated. “It was like a dream, like winning an NBA ring when Mangoustine prevailed that day.”

Added Tropres, “Mangoustine was a real dream. She was training well at the beginning as a 2-year-old and we were able to buy into her. She was simply good. She had speed, but she could relax early in her races. Look at the Guineas; she was so relaxed at the beginning, which allowed her to come on and get the win.”

Mangoustine is now back at her birthplace at Monceaux, where she is in foal to Frankel.

Ramatuelle wins 2023 Prix Du Bois Longines. (BloodHorse/Mathea Kelley)

But the thrills for Infinity Nine Horses have continued right along through 2023, thanks to Ramatuelle. Bred in Kentucky by Yeguada Centurion, Ramatuelle is by 2018 U.S. Triple Crown winner Justify, out of the multiple group stakes winner Raven’s Lady, a daughter of Raven’s Pass. There is black-type all over the bottom half of the pedigree, as Ramatuelle hails from the immediate family of Group 1 winner Best of the Bests.

Ramatuelle brought a winning bid of the equivalent of $102,596 at the 2022 Arqana Deauville August Yearling Sale from a partnership that included Monceaux and Hollymount Stud & Partners. Arthur Hoyeau is listed as agent of the purchase. The filly was sent to trainer Christopher Head’s training center, where she proved to be forward early.

“Arthur Hoyeau bought her with Ecurie des Monceaux and proposed her to us last winter,” said Tropres. “I was already impressed by the way Christopher goes about his work. He confirmed to us that she was a good prospect, and we already knew that Arthur is a very good judge of horses. The pedigree was there. The breeder gets good results. The trainer liked her. And it was an association with amazing people, so a lot of factors told us to go forward with her.”

Although not a big filly, Ramatuelle is big where it counts, on heart. This April, she debuted with a 4 1⁄2-length victory going about five furlongs at Chantilly. Following a head defeat in allowance company, she rose to the task in the June Prix du Bois Longines Fonds Europeen de l’Elevage , winning the Group 3 race by five lengths at about six furlongs. A month later, in the Group 2 Prix Robert Papin, Ramatuelle again put daylight between her and her pursuers, beating His Majesty home by four lengths.

In her first Group 1 effort, facing males in the Prix Morny Aug. 20 at Deauville, Ramatuelle made the lead over heavy going following intense rainstorms, before getting caught late by Vandeek, likely due to the soggy ground. She is a neck and a head away from being undefeated in her five starts.

Owned by a group that includes Infinity Nine Horses, Ecurie des Monceaux, Hollymount Stud, Chun Wai Kwok, Hoyeau, Tropres, and others, Ramatuelle has banked the equivalent of $248,680 in her five starts. She currently is enjoying a break while being prepared for a 3-year-old campaign in 2024. Both Tropres and Parker commented on the filly’s great disposition and mentality.

“Her greatest asset is her calmness,” said Parker. “She is confident and seems to know her job.”

Added Tropres, “Nothing can disturb her. I don’t know how she can appear so sleepy before a race, and then get out on the track and run times like 1:08 and 1:09. It’s unbelievable. We have what we consider to be the best 2-year-old filly in Europe.”

But wait, as they say in the late-night commercials, there is more. In 2021, Parker, along with fellow French NBA basketball player Nicolas Batum, purchased Domaine de Quetieville, a breeding farm near Normandy, to further Parker’s involvement in multiple facets of the industry. The farm, encompassing 300 acres and with 50 stalls, is lined with stunning foliage and boasts a two-story stone estate at its center. It has produced group winners, such as Wootton, American Devil, and Max Dynamite, all bred by and raised on the farm. Infinity Nine Horses, which has started a small broodmare band, is open to either racing or selling its stock coming off the farm.

“We would like to breed and raise good 2-year-old prospects, not only for ourselves, but for French and international customers,” Parker noted. “Our first yearlings sold last summer, and they are going to race in France in 2024. From a breeding point of view, I can’t wait to see them run. We already have some U.S. customers, and it will be a pleasure to board more U.S. mares.

“Breeding takes time, but I’m a young, retired player, so I have the time.”

Tropres listed some of the farm’s clients, including French breeders Claudio Marzocco and Stephane Billon, and international operations such as Team Valor International and Gestut Hof Ittlingen. In addition, the Aga Khan’s farm is sending mares there.

Given the track record of the land and the winning touch thus far shown by Infinity Nine Horses, success in the breeding realm would not be a surprise.

“I would say the key to our success thus far is that we are doing our homework every day,” said Tropres. “We are listening to everybody without restriction while following our guidelines for who we want to be associated with. We are concentrating on fillies. And also, Tony is a lucky guy in his business ventures, and good luck is a very important factor in the horse industry in order to win. We have gotten off to a fast start, and now we are trying to keep up with it.”

Perhaps down the road, American racing fans will be able to witness Infinity Nine Horses campaigners firsthand. After sending Zelda to the U.S., Parker said that he wanted to try again with a runner on these shores and expressed hope for a better outcome.

Asked to compare horse ownership with competing on the hardwood of basketball courts around the world, Parker, who played for France in two different Olympic games, said, “It is a completely different feeling being an owner during a race than it is playing basketball. When you are a player, you can chase a title each year. You have the Olympic Games every four years. But with young horses, you are trying to win one specific race, and when the race is over, you know that you will not have another opportunity there for your horse. It can be very frustrating.

“When we finished second in the Morny with Ramatuelle, you can’t go back to the race again with that filly. Then, you have to start over in order to achieve your goal.

“But I like the DNA of the horse racing world. It’s the only sport that brings completely different people together in a single place: breeder, owner, trainer, jockey, fans, agents, and the horse. It’s very exciting, and the feelings I get during the last furlongs of a race are unique and crazy, like I’ve never felt before.

“Besides, I enjoy this industry because you are learning every day.”