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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Lightning couldn't strike twice, could it? In a sense it already has. Gerard Augustin-Normand, who made his entrance to the world of Thoroughbred racing with Prix du Jockey Club winner Le Havre, recently celebrated victory in the Grand Prix de Paris with Le Havre's son Leffard. The colt had been born a month before the untimely demise of his sire at the age of just 16. That victory brought not just Leffard's posthumous tribute to Le Havre as his first Group 1-winning colt, but also the resurgence of the man responsible for the racing careers of both father and son, Jean-Claude Rouget, whose life has been upended in recent years by a cancer diagnosis. Rouget, the first of whose five trainers' championships came in 2009, the year in which Le Havre gave him his first victory in the Prix du Jockey Club, was absent from French racecourses during the 2024 season. His triumphant return to the Group 1 stage with Leffard was wrought with emotion. Now, this special horse is being campaigned for the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, a race which his trainer has won twice with Sottsass and Ace Impact. “It's a dream. But we have to dream,” says Augustin-Normand over coffee in the Place Morny during Deauville's August extravaganza of racing and sales. Leffard is stabled just up the road and will remain in training in Normandy despite the fact that Rouget, during a restructuring of his operation, has recently given up the significant satellite stable which part of his string occupied full-time in Deauville. Now, the trainer is primarily back in his heartland of Pau in south-west France, where he had gradually built up one of the most powerful stables in the land. Normandy, however, is very much Augustin-Normand's territory, as his own name and those of his horses imply. “Well, it's incredible really. He was my first horse and I called him Le Havre, and I am from Le Havre,” says the owner-breeder. Le Havre and Christophe Lemaire after the Prix du Jockey Club | Scoop Dyga Following in his wake have been others named on that theme, such as Group winners Incarville, Leaupartie, Monteille, Freville, and Neufbosc, but few will have been so meaningful as Leffard, who, as a member of Le Havre's final crop, has not only added an important extra top-level winner to his ledger but also presents the opportunity of a future for the sire-line. Prophetically perhaps, the filly named Avenir Certain was the horse who first dropped a massive hint as to the future prowess of Le Havre when winning both the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches and Prix de Diane for Rouget, Augustin-Normand and the latter's great ally Antonio Caro, in whose colours she ran. Two years later, La Cressonniere pulled off the same Classic double for the same trainer/owner combination. The one difference was that the latter was bred by Augustin-Normand's Franklin Finance, while Avenir Certain was bred by Elisabeth Vidal, the former wife of Sylvain Vidal, who, with Mathieu Alex, managed Le Havre's stallion career, initially at Haras de la Cauviniere, Elisabeth's family farm. This, then, was looking like a serious young sire at a time when France was crying out for new blood in its stallion ranks. Augustin-Normand recalls, “We sold half of Le Havre to very good breeders who had the resources to sustain him, and that was I think a good decision. And Le Havre produced two winners of the Prix de Diane and Poule d'Essai des Pouliches. It was an extraordinary time. “We had the pleasure of having his produce. We had bought a lot of mares at the beginning with Sylvain and then with Mathieu because Le Havre was a wonderful horse and I loved him, so we had to give him every opportunity to produce good foals. “And Leffard, from the last year of Le Havre, is really special, because people always say that Le Havre produces good fillies.” Leffard wins the Grand Prix de Paris | Scoop Dyga Indeed, at the highest level, Le Havre's fillies outweigh the males five to two. Only last weekend, the five-year-old mare Quisisana became Le Havre's seventh Group 1 winner in the Prix Jean Romanet. He is starting to make a name for himself as a broodmare sire, and features in that spot in the pedigree of Group 2 winner Survie, who was runner-up to Quisisana on Sunday and is an Augustin-Normand homebred raced in partnership with the China Horse Club. The King George and Coronation Cup winner Pyledriver is also out of a mare by Le Havre. The gelded Suedois is the sire's only other male Group 1 winner, but Group 2 winners Auvray, Ramadan, Glycon, Roman Candle and Port Guillaume have added some balance. Three years after his death, Le Havre lies in third place in the French sires' table, behind Wootton Bassett and Lope De Vega. “Today, I think Le Havre is still in a good place,” says his owner. “It's very strange to think about that because now there are a lot of good, young stallions in France. But 15 years ago there weren't many. “But with Siyouni, Le Havre, there was a renaissance. I don't know how many breeders come to France for French stallions but 15 years ago more went to England or Ireland. Now more breeders come to France to go to stallions like Siyouni or Zarak.” Le Havre did indeed play a significant role in a resurgent stallion scene in the country from 2010, the year in which Kendargent also retired to Haras de Colleville, initially at his extraordinarily low fee of €1,000. A year later, Siyouni took up his place at Haras de Bonneval, and a year after that along came Wootton Bassett to Haras d'Etreham. Le Havre also “changed the game” for Augustin-Normand, who had migrated from trotters to Thoroughbreds, and then from being an owner to an owner-breeder. “I was not a breeder at the beginning, so for me it was absolutely new. Patience is not my first quality, but with Mathieu and Sylvain, we made such a good business. Now I try to be more selective, because we don't sell [young stock] but we still have a lot of mares – 28, I think, and some in partnership. But at one time we had up to 50.” Augustin-Normand puts all of his homebreds into training and has traditionally patronised a wide range of trainers across France. Either on his own or in partnership, especially with Antonio Caro, his co-owner of Leffard, he has raced 15 Group 1 winners, but he also takes pleasure in the small winners, particularly if that happens to be for one of his smaller trainers. If he buys into a horse in training, it is not his policy to push for that horse to be moved to a different stable. “Each of those trainers give me something, and together we live through the frustrations and the joys of horses,” he says. “I've been incredibly lucky, and if you have luck it is important to say thank you to the people who have helped you.” It is a refreshing strategy from such a major owner, especially one who is plainly so attached to his horses and makes a point of ensuring that they find a good home beyond their racing careers. That has included covering expensive veterinary costs simply to retire a horse from racing to become a riding horse. Despite his own success, he does however have concerns for the future of racing in France. “I am not so optimistic,” he says. “We don't have the right people driving racing. Maybe the big [owners and trainers] will survive. I think that will be true for a while. We need to get young people engaged in racing, to go racing and enjoy it. But in France, you can't even see the races if you are not signed up to Equidia. It's not on national [television] channels. “We have an industry that is a mixture of nature, finance, social interaction, and that's quite unique. I think that's a very important selling point.” He has been sold on it himself for a good while now, and to that unique mixture above we can add the passion that comes not just with the horses but also the people around them. “With Leffard, it has been very emotional with Jean-Claude Rouget. I am very happy to be with Jean-Claude today. He's a very courageous man,” Augustin-Normand says. “Yesterday evening, I had the pleasure to see [Japan-based] Christophe Lemaire, who rode Le Havre. He's a wonderful guy. We have also have a good partnership with Cristian [Demuro]. That's really important for me.” It was Demuro who guided Leffard to his driving victory in the Grand Prix de Paris over the Aidan O'Brien-trained Trinity College. We are likely next to see them in action in the Prix Niel on Arc trials day at Longchamp on September 7. “He will stay here in Deauville until then,” says Augustin-Normand. “The climate is good here. If I was a horse, I would be happy to stay here. “Jean-Claude said he's one of the easiest horses he's had to train. He's got a beautiful temperament.” The colt also has a desirable pedigree, as highlighted by Augustin-Normand's racing manager John Hammond, who knows a thing or two about the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe himself. Hammond trained Leffard's damsire Montjeu, the Arc winer of 1999, eight years after he had made his name with his first winner of France's banner race, Suave Dancer. Leffard, who was bred by Pierre Talvard's Haras du Cadran in partnership with Ecurie Melanie, is out of the unraced Let's Misbehave, a three-parts-sister to High Chaparral and Dante Stakes winner Black Bear Island. The immediate family also includes the 2020 Prix de Diane winner Fancy Blue (Deep Impact), who is a daughter of another of the dam's siblings, Chenchikova. Will the lure of a stallion career preclude Leffard racing on as a four-year-old? “It depends on how he runs in the autumn,” Hammond says. “He has a proper pedigree on the dam's side, and she has also produced a Listed winner [Sippinsoda]. And he's a lovely-looking horse with a great action. He didn't run at two, so he's relatively lightly raced. We'll see what what Jean-Claude wants to do at the end of the year. “The Prix Niel has been brought forward a week this year, so there are four weeks between that and the Arc. Jean-Claude said that if it had been three weeks he wouldn't have wanted to run in the Prix Niel. He's very good like that, strategically.” Augustin-Normand, who rarely goes racing but watches the sport closely, adds simply, “The Arc is the dream.” Perhaps he will be tempted to venture to Longchamp on October 5. Leffard, after all, has given him the right to dream of that special race. And if chapter two means the continuation of Le Havre's bloodline in the stallion ranks, then it would be further reward for a man who has already invested so much of his time, money and emotion in the sport. The post ‘The Arc is the Dream’: Gerard Augustin-Normand’s Emotional Attachment to Leffard appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Spatchcock · Posted
few old grouches in here afraid of change. Newsflash: Thursday night harness turnover is garbage so next to no-one is watching/punting. So why not try something different? Pots both weeks have been over 10,000. One made 30% and the other took a minor loss (maybe 10%?). -
Reads as if AFR’s source was BETr’s PR dept wanting to ensure their share price remained propped up….. -
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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Patience has been a virtue for Vincent Ho Chak-yiu as he prepares for his return to race action at Sha Tin this week, after seven months on the sidelines following a horror fall. The 35-year-old has been away from competitive action since suffering a traumatic brain injury when taking a tumble from Oldtown at Sha Tin on February 9. He spent time in intensive care after the incident and then underwent a period recovering in Geneva, with doctors there giving him the all-clear to ride track work at...View the full article
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