French 2-Year-Old Racing: Some Insight

[Wandering Eyes]

As discussed in Part 1, France’s 2-year-old scene is badly in need of a health check, with the stats pointing to both poor representation and performance in its pattern races. While precocity has never been one of the country’s most pronounced focuses, in an age where the commercial market is placing a keen demand on juveniles who can burn brightly for a few weeks or months, is it in danger of being left behind? Is there a matter of national pride at stake when most of the main events for this age group are won by visiting stables and how does that impact racing deeper down, in the consciousness of the trainers and owners and even breeders?

Whatever opinion is formed as to why France is missing out in this sphere, it is clear that all agree that the tradition is for treading steadily where the greenhorns are concerned. Okay, so Francois Boutin was brilliantly extrovert enough to campaign the likes of Arazi, Machiavellian and Hector Protector and countless others to sweep up the chief contests of the program, but generally the attitude has always been a conservative one with an eye on the future. For trainer Fabrice Chappet, this unwillingness to stretch the juveniles is woven into the fabric of the nation’s sport. “First and foremost, there is a major cultural gap between France and the British Isles when it comes to racing 2-year-olds,” he explains. “In France, trainers just don’t tend to put as much emphasis on it as their British or Irish counterparts. Whether it’s a good or a bad thing is up for discussion and there have been some notable exceptions, such as Francois Boutin who trained so many top-class juveniles for the Niarchos family, but generally speaking racing at two doesn’t seem to be the primary objective when trainers attempt to lay out a career plan for a young horse.”

Michel Zerolo of Oceanic Bloodstock, who is also a part-owner of Haras des Capucines, is in total agreement. “Culturally, the French tend to see their horses as ones for the 3-year-old year,” he says. “The majority of top trainers in France very rarely start their best 2-year-olds before August and you are lucky if they run three times. We don’t tend to push our 2-year-olds. The trainers in Chantilly just sit on them and don’t run them. You need to go back 30 years to the days of Francois Boutin and Francois Mathet who trained proper 2-year-olds and the French would go to Royal Ascot, but now you only get the odd one going there. The trainers are very timid and you’d have to ask them why. In June, we are barely getting going in France.” Trainer Gina Rarick adds further strength to this argument. “Two-year-old racing is not the French way,” she states. “It is about the ability to stay around for a bit as older horses. It is not to drill ’em and kill ’em.”

If culture is the main issue, then has this ingrained patience had an effect on the way the French pattern program for 2-year-olds is structured? Has it become easy for the authorities to sacrifice races in this sphere? Chappet thinks so. “Culture is where the basic difference stems from in my opinion, but one must also factor in the recent evolutions of the racing programme,” he says. “Two years ago France Galop scrapped 60% of the conditions races dedicated to 2-year-olds. This move has considerably reduced the opportunities available to a 2-year-old maiden winner and goes against the gentle build-up that juveniles require in order to progress to the highest level. It definitely hasn’t encouraged trainers to race their 2-year-olds more often.”

Zerolo also places the blame for the decreasing importance of juvenile racing mainly on the decisions made at the top in recent years. “The program was changed under Mr Lagardere and I can’t say it was for the better,” he says. “The [Prix Robert] Papin was downgraded to Group 2 and the [G1 Prix de la] Salamandre disappeared. Then there is the Criterium de Saint-Cloud. For me, it is heretic to have a Group 1 race for 2-year-olds over 2,000 metres. The program is just non-existent, is very poor for fillies and needs to be revamped.”

This leaning towards slow-cooking talent in the young stock and the perceived lack of a program that promotes early racing has led several prominent breeders to issue their later-maturing types to French trainers. There is no arguing that the country’s bloodstock heritage sits proudly among the world’s elite, but has the anti-precocity culture become a self-fulfilling prophecy? Are the trainers there getting handed the more later-developing types from establishments already renowned for a less-rushed mentality?

Chappet is in accord. “Such a culture probably derives both from the typical expectations of the leading owners who have modelled French racing over the years, as well as from the breeding industry, with French stock having long been more renowned for producing durable, rather stout horses rather than early, speedy juveniles,” he says. “Despite the globalization of Thoroughbred breeding, the lesser availability of precocious pedigrees in the French production as compared to its Anglo-Irish counterparts remains a fact.”

Zerolo adds, “The international owners favour the fact that French trainers don’t tend to train 2-year-olds and I suspect that, for example, the Godolphin horses sent to Andre Fabre are more with a view to being 3-year-olds than those sent to Charlie Appleby. I’m guessing, but I suspect I’m not too far wrong. It has painted itself into a corner in that respect.”

There is always an exception, however, and the one striking example is His Highness The Aga Khan’s Siyouni (Fr), a son of Pivotal (GB) who thrust the unerringly patient Alain de Royer-Dupre into uncharacteristic early action. By the time he lined up for the Listed Prix La Fleche–still France’s first black-type race for juveniles staged as late as June–he had already scored twice. Now a celebrated stallion among the country’s ranks, he is proof positive that precocity does not need to have negative connotations. Mostly, however, the search for France’s early types entails heading South. Zerolo expands, “Most of the runners in early 2-year-old races come from the guys training in the South of France, where there is more of a culture for running 2-year-olds. You have the likes of Guillemin, Ferland and Sogorb, not to mention Rouget and Rohaut, who run their horses early and then go to Paris and thank god they exist.”

Another issue raised in Part 1 was the much-discussed owners’ premiums, which could potentially sway trainers away from encounters with the British and Irish and even Wesley Ward-trained visitors. Zerolo is a major opponent to the scheme.

“They should be cancelled,” he states. “You are encouraging people to breed for the premium. Excellence should be rewarded, but they’ve punished the breeders for not using other European stallions and are discouraging people from operating in a free market. I don’t know of any sport other than ours where they reward mediocre players. The premium is almost like a minimum wage. They have capped the owners’ premium for 2-year-old Group 1 races so that they can distribute more money for the mediocre horses. The money should be either put into prize money in general or into specific quality races, otherwise the vicious circle is going to continue.”

There are other factors at play, two of which are key. Chappet is keen to stress the importance of one of them. “Another illustration of the cultural difference between France and the British Isles is the use of pre-trainers,” he explains. “Many owners in France choose to send their youngsters to pre-trainers for several months in a bid to keep costs down, not realizing that a 2-year-old that only arrives in training in the spring has little chances of making it to the races that season.” Also in play is the effect that virus outbreaks have on trainers who would otherwise be making hay while the sun shines. Gina Rarick explains, “Don’t forget that last year we were all required to vaccinate against EHV-1 after the Rouget incident and that put trainers back six months as it knocked horses flat. I was talking to Eoghan O’Neill and he said it ruined his season and he is one that would have 2-year-olds to race. This year, you might see more French 2-year-olds out earlier than last.”

Rarick is quick to defend the traditional French approach to 2-year-old racing, particularly where the early calendar is concerned. “I’m against the hand-wringing about the state of 2-year-old racing in France, as I think there’s absolutely nothing wrong with the way we approach it,” she concludes. “It’s humane and good and I’d be loath to go down the English, Irish or American way. The continent has always been more conservative when it comes to 2-year-old racing and if you look at the pockets of 2-year-old trainers they tend to be English or Irish or a couple of guys in the South West who have a little advantage with the weather in going a bit sooner. I see the tendency towards precocious stallions, but there’s also a pushback against that too. There’s just a difference in mentality altogether. I’m in favour of 2-year-old racing, but I’m not in favour of this idea of having to have the numbers to win these early races. There is an animal welfare issue there. We’ve seen the wastage.”

So if there is a crisis here, it is a commercial one and Zerolo is steadfast that the system has to be overhauled. “It is hard to see these races go overseas, but hats off to them for travelling,” he says. “We seem to be losing more of our credentials than gaining them. We’re not on the same page as the British and Irish when it comes to 2-year-old races. I think we should have more races at the Deauville meeting and purse money for 2-year-old racing to encourage people to buy yearlings. A meeting at Deauville should be like Saratoga, with two 2-year-old races every day. It needs a serious wake-up call. We need a revolution.”

Bloodstock agent Ronald Rauscher also has a word of warning for French racing staying cast in this age-old mindset. “England and Ireland are miles ahead with regard to those races,” he says. “Whether we like it or not, the fact is that 2-year-olds being retired is happening and it is reality. The market moves on very quickly and people get left out to dry. From that angle, the leading people have not catered for that side of things and it’s probably by design that it has developed this way, which is bad. Money from owners’ premiums is going nowhere and the product is getting worse. The English 2-year-olds winning these races are not exactly top-notch and Aidan is sending probably his second-strings to win too, so I would say it’s certainly not something that is going to be rectified in the next five years. It’s going to go the other way. It’s taken for granted now that the visitors at Deauville come over for the sales, have a nice week, grab a race and go home again.”

Even aside from the paucity of substantial precocious 2-year-olds, are the days of the French juvenile champions such as Blushing Groom (Fr), Arazi, Zafonic and even Xaar (GB) completely gone? Rauscher is inclined to think so.

“The developing 2-year-old, which is not even the typical five-furlong type, is coming out of Ballydoyle or Gosden’s like they used to come out of Andre Fabre’s,” he says. “The French ones just don’t seem to exist anymore and that will go into the commercial sector as well. It is a long way away from going the same way as Italy, but France is heading in the same direction. France Galop and PMU looked the best system in Europe on paper 10 years ago, but it fed a lot of bad stuff and it’s not improving competition-wise. In the Arqana August Sale, you can’t really buy an early French one there because they don’t breed the horse. From that angle, it will all have repercussions in the long run.”

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