Breeders’ Cup Connections: For Morgane Kervarrec, It’s All About the Horse

[Wandering Eyes]

Morgane Kervarrec knows she's not exactly known for being the most outgoing person on the backside. But for her, the job has never been about small talk or making appearances. It's about the work, the horses, and the quiet rhythm of morning training at Santa Anita.

“People will say sometimes that maybe I'm not really social,” Kervarrec admitted. “It's not that I'm tired of being social. I'm just tired of fake connections with people that you don't get with animals. That's why I picked this job. You deal less with people and more with animals. The connection that you have with them is real.”

The bond she shares with the horses she works with is what she loves most about her job as an exercise rider for Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert. It is also what has helped the 35-year-old build up an impressive list of trainees going into this year's Breeders' Cup. This fall, her mounts include recent GI Goodwood Stakes winner Nevada Beach (Omaha Beach), GI Del Mar Debutante Stakes victress Bottle of Rouge (Vino Rosso), 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' Boyd (Violence), and GSW and GISP Barnes (Into Mischief).

Violence) and GSW and GISP Barnes. She shares her insights on the quartet in this episode of Breeders' Cup Connections.">

Kervarrec's connection with horses didn't just start one morning on the track. As a young girl growing up in Brittany, France, she was drawn to the simple honesty of the animals and she began dreaming of a life spent working with them.

“I think I started falling in love with horses before I started talking, before I even started walking,” recalled Kervarrec. “It's something that runs in my family and I always promised my parents that I wouldn't work with horses. So I went to college to please everybody, but I just realized it wasn't for me. I ended up working with horses anyway.”

Kervarrec moved throughout Europe and Australia working as both an exercise rider and a jockey. In 2019, she traveled to California with the intention of staying at Santa Anita for three months. She never left.

After starting out working for fellow French export Leonard Powell, she moved over to trainer Simon Callaghan's barn. Three years ago, she had to take a pause from riding for the birth of her daughter.

For Kervarrec, it was never a question of if she was coming back to the racetrack, but of how it could be an opportunity to turn over a new leaf in her career.

“When you come from Europe, well let's be honest, Bob Baffert is a legend all around the world,” she said. “There are a lot of good trainers here in the U.S. that we don't know about in Europe, but everybody knows Bob Baffert. I remember when I first came, Justify was still here, so just seeing him in the morning I was just like, 'Wow.' One morning I saw Bob standing in the front of his barn. I was like, 'Okay, I'm just going to take a shot. After all, he's just like any other person.'”

Baffert offered Kervarrec a job on the spot and she started the next morning.

Kervarrec said that she has been a horse lover for as long as she could remember | photo courtesy Morgane Kervarrec

One of the first stakes-level horses that she was assigned to that still holds a place in her heart today is Mr. Fisk (Arrogate). The Sunny Brook Stables homebred brought home three graded stakes in California and is now a stallion at Pleasant Acres in Florida.

“He was very special to me,” said Kervarrec. “He has a great personality and I really miss him every day. I'm just happy that he has a very good life now having babies.”

Another early standout performer was three-time Grade I winner Adare Manor (Uncle Mo), who took Kervarrec to her first Breeders' Cup when she competed in the 2023 Distaff.

“I remember going to the track in the morning with her name on the towel, and it's like you're proud because that's your baby that you train all year long,” Kervarrec explained. “The Breeders' Cup is the target. That's our championship.”

As a member of Baffert's team, Kervarrec gets on no shortage of Breeders' Cup-level quality horses. But she said she treats all her mounts the same, no matter their future potential or existing resume.

“We're spoiled at this barn,” she admitted. “I'm blessed to be able to get on such good horses, but it doesn't matter if they are stakes horses or if they're just going to win their allowance. I love them all the same. I think that we have  to remember that the people [on the backside] really do this job because we love the horses first.”

This year, Kervarrec has an embarrassment of riches with the horses she is working with. She said she shares a unique connection with each of them.

The first time she rode Nevada Beach, she went back to the barn and asked the foreman if she could keep riding the 3-year-old son of Omaha Beach.

“He is just such a sweet boy and he's a huge horse, but he's like such a gentle giant,” she shared. “He really wants to do whatever you ask him to do. He's very special to me.”

After breaking his maiden on debut this past April, Nevada Beach was runner-up in the Affirmed Stakes and claimed the Los Alamitos Derby before his definitive win in the Goodwood, a 'Win and You're In' for the Breeders' Cup Classic.

Kervarrec said she was at pony club with her daughter when the big colt got that first Grade I score on Sept. 27, but she was watching from her phone and cheering him on as he stormed to the wire.

While Nevada Beach is a breeze for Kervarrec to ride in the mornings, Bottle of Rouge requires a touch more concentration and skill.

Nevada Beach wins the GI Goodwood Stakes | Horsephotos

“When she first came in, it wasn't easy to find a way to get along with her,” said the horsewoman. “She was a little sassy, so you had to find a way to ask her what you wanted to do because you don't make them do what you want, you ask them. She has really figured out what we are doing here and now she is really easy to work with. I would say that she is one of my favorites now.”

A winner in her second start at Del Mar, the Jill Baffert-owned juvenile claimed the GI Del Mar Debutante and is now pointing for the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies.

Kervarrec also rides Himika (Curlin), the fourth-place finisher in the Debutante.

She said she enjoys working with the 2-year-olds, and helping them learn the ropes of the racetrack. One colt who needed a steady hand when he first arrived in the Baffert barn was Zedan Racing Stables' Boyd.

“It's funny because I normally don't like riding chestnut horses, but there is something so special about him,” she said with a fond smile. “I remember galloping him for the first time. He was just so smooth and was like, 100% good boy, really. He was willing to do good, but was confused about what he was doing here. That is, until the first race. Then he showed everybody that he totally understood the task.”

In his first start on Sept. 7 going five-and-a-half furlongs, Boyd broke sharply and never looked back, breaking away to win by almost six lengths and earning the 'Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' nod. The colt is now expected to train up to the Breeders' Cup Juvenile.

Kervarrec also rides another Zedan Racing Stables-owned colt, Barnes (Into Mischief). She said that sitting aboard the Grade II-winning colt named after Baffert's longtime assistant trainer Jimmy Barnes is a great honor.

“Jimmy is a great person to work for,” she said. “Same with Bob. He has been supporting me and didn't give up on me when I needed him. He's not easy, but he's a great boss.”

Being an exercise rider is demanding under any circumstances. The early mornings, long hours, and ever-present risk of injury make it a tough way to make a living. For Kervarrec, balancing that with raising her 3-year-old daughter adds another layer of challenge, but also motivation.

“For me, it was never a question to stop working because I'm a mom,” she shared. “It's a big life turn, but I'm grateful for her. She loves horses and is riding already. She loves to spend time at the barn. If you let her, she'll walk down the shedrow and pet everybody so you've got to keep an eye on her.”

Perhaps that horse-crazy streak runs in Kervarrec's daughter, too. It's a common thread on any backside, where so many people have built their lives around the sport because it's what their parents and grandparents did before them, and because deep down, they can't imagine doing anything else.

“What people see on the front of the track is just the glitter,” Kervarrec explained. “It's the pretty side. They don't see all the people on the backside who are here because they love their job. They love horses and they work hard to make all this possible. I think that when you love your job, you get up every morning with the feeling that you're not working. I feel blessed every day when I get to gallop these horses.”

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