Soumillon Combining G1 Wins With First-Class Tuition At SIPA

[Wandering Eyes]

Last Sunday, Christophe Soumillon was doing what he has become famed for: riding a Group 1 winner. In this case it was Diego Velazquez in the Aga Khan Studs Prix Jacques Le Marois for those celebrated racing names of Aidan O'Brien and Sam Sangster.

Soumillon's name is of course equally celebrated, but as a young boy in Belgium, growing up riding ponies, the path to becoming a jockey wasn't always clear to him. To try to solve that problem for the budding riders coming up behind him, the ten-time champion jockey in France has recently set up the Soumillon International Pony Academy (SIPA) at a farm just outside Deauville. Through the summer, he has been riding winners in the afternoon, after training the potential young winners of the future by morning. 

“I remember when I was training my ponies on the training centre in Belgium and I was the only one there. I brought one friend, then two friends and there ended up being four or five of us, but I think since I was that young I probably had it in my brain and my heart to do this,” he says. 

Now, youngsters from the age of eight can benefit from his experience and that of fellow jockey Dominique Boeuf among the team of instructors at SIPA, where a wide range of mounts, from tiny ponies up to Arab and Thoroughbred former racehorses, are available for the five-day course. Classes are generally on the oval, sand gallop and the large paddock within at the former pre-training facility, but there is also a thrilling morning galloping along Deauville beach at the end of the course. 

Soumillon says of his new role, “It's something that for me has became a real passion. I couldn't believe, even three or four years ago, that I would achieve something like that but today, for me, it looks normal. It's a part of my daily work.” 

He says that he wishes to help open doors into racing for those who do not already have connections in the sport. 

“When you have the chance to become famous like I am now, and also with the money I have, I think it is good to contribute to the whole racing industry,” Soumillon continues. “There are a lot of big owners helping the industry but I think trainers and jockeys also need to give of their money and their time to make sure the youngest can get the help. 

“I'm giving everything I can because, for me, that's what I was dreaming of when I was a young kid. I would love to be seven or eight again, but now I am living it through them. I can see it in their eyes when I see them finish a canter and they have stars in their eyes and want to cry with joy. It's something that you can't have anywhere else.”

 

Christophe Soumillon and Dominique Boeuf at work in Deauville | Emma Berry

 

Certainly the children being tutored in Deauville this summer represent a wide range of riding abilities. Some are the offspring of trainers and jockeys, others arrive with no connection to racing. There are also five places on each course of around 20 which are paid for by Godolphin, to ensure that children whose families cannot afford the fee of around €1,000 are still given the chance to learn.

This bright morning, most appear to be loving every bit of the gallops session, a mixture of determination and excitement writ large on their faces. One small boy falls off the tiniest of ponies on several occasions, each time picking himself up and remounting. Gotta keep getting back on the horse. One girl, however, is in tears, and a change of mount is proffered to ease her fears. 

“I explain to them every day that we all get stressed, we get scared, so we need to try to control that,” Soumillon says. 

“What I want first is to make them discover what we are doing with a different type of pony that they are used to riding in other pony clubs. For me, the most important thing is to have the confidence and the trust so they can listen to me and go on the track because, like you can see this morning, there were two or three newcomers that have never ridden racing ponies before. They can be sometimes a bit shy, a bit scared, some of them can even cry, but we need to explain to them that everything is going to be alright if they just follow the right instruction.”

 

 

Soumillon points out ex-racehorse Didymos among the string. The four-year-old was gifted to SIPA by the Niarchos family after a less-than-glittering racing career. “He's a grandson of Divine Proportions, but he doesn't know it,” he says with a grin.

Whether on a Thoroughbred or switching to the recalcitrant pony that upset the young rider, Soumillon looks much younger than his 44 years. This new lease of life appears to have brought calm to the once-flamboyant, sometimes wayward, character he was in the early days of his riding career.

“I'm training differently now,” he says. “I'm riding two, three, four strings sometimes in the morning. I stay on the ponies three, four hours every day before I arrive to the racecourse. 

“I think I'm more of a horseman than I was because I don't care who's the dad, who's the mum from [the rider of] each pony. For me, it's one horse or one pony and I need to find the way to try to make the best pony possible. And now when I'm arriving at the races I'm trying to do the same thing. I don't care if it's a big owner, small owner, big trainer. I don't look at the origins. 

“I think my eye is more sharp now because I can see things that I didn't look at before. And now when I'm riding I'm really happy, I'm fit.”

This pathway for the young riders is also a welcome new direction for him, then?

“I never thought I would be a good teacher but, yeah, today it looks like that's something that suits me and that makes me happy every day, and proud,” he agrees.

“So I will keep continuing as far as we can and make sure we get the best ponies and the best riders coming around. And sometimes we know some kids are not going to [be a] match for racing, but if they had a great time, that's most important.”

 

 

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