Graffard Enjoying Summer Of Milestones

[Wandering Eyes]

Following a script rarely goes to plan in the realm of racing Thoroughbreds. But for the Chantilly-based Francis Graffard, the story of his progression to Group 1-winning trainer could easily be snatched up for a Hollywood film.

To set the scene, the Burgundy-born Graffard was introduced to racing by his grandfather, who kept a string of National Hunt horses. The elder Graffard broke into the game in the early 1950s, when he came across an ad in the local newspaper for a filly foal for sale.

“He went to see her, and in the field there were two fillies,” Francis Graffard explained. “Somebody had once told him if there are two in the field always take both, because the other one will be the good one. So he took both, and the other filly–not the one he had gone to see-was named Wild Miss and won the Prix Vermeille in 1955.

“He always said to me, ‘I hope you don’t start like me, because you’ll think it’s too easy.'”

The younger Graffard wasn’t that far off the mark. It wasn’t his first Group 1 win-that came courtesy of Erupt (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the 2015 G1 Grand Prix de Paris-but in 2017, some 62 years after his grandfather had accomplished the feat and five years after he took out his training license, Graffard won the G1 Prix Vermeille with Bateel (Fr) (Dubawi {Ire}).

“I still have some very nice black and white photos in my office of Wild Miss, and two years ago when I won the Prix Vermeille with Bateel it meant a lot to me because in my youth he talked a lot about Wild Miss and the Prix Vermeille, so it was something very special,” Graffard said.

Graffard’s career has been on a steady upward trajectory since a strong debut season in 2012 that included stakes victories by Pearl Flute (Ire) (Piccolo {GB}) and More Than Sotka (Fr) (Dutch Art {GB}): his numbers grew from 20 to 60 the following year and have hovered between 80 and 100 ever since. The dream run that Graffard experienced this past June, however, reads like the perfect culmination of eight years of grounding plus all the vital education that serves as its foundation: a stint in America, Godolphin Flying Start, four subsequent years with Darley and the finishing school of Alain de Royer Dupre.

On June 16, Graffard won his first Classic, the G1 Prix de Diane, with Channel (Ire) (Nathaniel {Ire}), who was entrusted to him by the one-horse stable of owner Samuel de Barros. Five days later, he scored his first Royal Ascot win in the G1 Coronation S. with Watch Me (Fr) (Olympic Glory {Ire}), a homebred for longtime breeder Alexander Tamagni-Bodmer.

The Diane victory for Graffard provided consolation for thirds in 2016 and 2018 with Volta (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) and Homerique (Exchange Rate). In fact, the next step was already in the works by the time Homerique crossed the wire at Chantilly last June, with Graffard and Bertrand le Metayer having selected Channel for €70,000 for de Barros from Mayfield Stables at Arqana’s May Breeze-Up Sale just weeks before. Homerique had cost €75,000 from Mayfield at the same sale a year earlier.

“They came from the same consignor and they were in similar condition; not overworked but doing everything very naturally,” Graffard recalled. “The consignor said to me, ‘do you want the next Homerique? This is her.'”

Graffard doesn’t proclaim to be a genius in predicting Channel’s Classic ascent. He described her as a backwards filly early on that needed plenty of time and patience, but granted those requirements she proceeded to pass every early test. After a debut second on Mar. 30 to highly touted but subsequently unraced Coolmore filly Secret Walk (Ire), Channel broke her maiden at Lyon Parilly and scored in a Diane course and distance conditions race on May 17. That put her squarely at 9-1 for the Diane; not directly in the spotlight but not without chance, either.

“So there was no pressure, compared to Homerique and Volta,” Graffard said. “They were both supplemented to the Prix de Diane so I felt a lot more pressure. With Channel she was in good form, she was entered, we had a good draw, we had our jockey, so no pressure. Channel had won a Chantilly conditions race over course and distance and she had won it the way you want. I wanted to see if she could win that to know if she could compete in the Prix de Diane, and she did it easily so after that race we had no choice but to go to the Prix de Diane.”

“The race went perfectly,” Graffard recalled. “At Chantilly in front of the castle there is a downhill part and then it climbs again. You know you don’t want to make a move while you’re climbing the hill, and when you see your filly, the same as Homerique, climbing the hill on the bridle, taking the jockey up the hill, you know you’re in good shape. In the straight we needed a gap, and the Japanese filly [Amarena (Fr) (Soldier Hollow {GB})] couldn’t keep up so the gap came at the right time and she went through, and that was it.”

“I always organize a picnic for friends and owners on Diane day,” Graffard added. “We had a lot of friends there and my two daughters were there, and my dad; it was just fun and relaxed. We didn’t have time to stress about it. Everyone was cheerful and having a good time, the weather was great; people appreciate these things. It was a very special day because of that too, because after the win you have a place to go back to celebrate.”

Graffard noted that Watch Me’s Coronation victory at 20-1 was similarly seamless, something he says is important at the highest level.

“Watch Me had the perfect race also in the Coronation,” he said. “Everything went as we planned; after 200 metres of the race I had a feeling that everything was going our way. You don’t know if you’re good enough but at least you won’t have any excuses. Both races went perfectly, and you need that to win a Group 1.”

Watch Me was more forward than Channel, breaking her maiden at listed level at two and following up in the G3 Prix Imprudence in April. An unlucky passage in the G1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches resulted in a sixth-place finish and Watch Me was perhaps overlooked at Royal Ascot.

“Watch Me was a filly that had showed a lot of ability in the morning,” Graffard said. “She was third first-time out. I never squeeze my 2-year-olds hard, but then she won a listed race straight away and the plan was always to start in the Prix Imprudence and she won that easily. Then in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, everyone saw that she was very unlucky; everything went against her in that race. So we had no pressure going into Ascot because we were 20-1, but I was confident in the filly and the owner was very quick to say, ‘we’ve won a Group 3, there’s nothing to lose, let’s run and we’ll see.'”

Neither Channel nor Watch Me enjoyed the same amount of good fortune in their next starts-Channel finished seventh against older mares in the G1 Nassau S. while Watch Me was beaten 2 1/2 lengths when fourth in the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois-but both will live to fight another day.

“With Channel we went to the Nassau S., which was quite a challenge but we like competition and I didn’t see any point in running in a Group 2 in Deauville,” Graffard said. “The problem was that the race was very tough and it was a difficult ask for a 3-year-old filly. We had also had a heatwave in July in Chantilly and she had missed an important piece of work. Maybe with that work she would have been fifth rather than seventh, but we don’t want to make any excuses because she probably wasn’t up to that level. But she’s in great form so we’ll see where we go now; the Vermeille [on Sept. 15] or maybe the EP Taylor in Canada [on Oct. 12].”

“Watch Me, everything went against her in the Jacques le Marois,” Graffard continued. “The pace was not great; compared to Ascot where I was very confident looking through my binoculars, in the Marois after 200 metres I knew it wasn’t going to happen. The track was dead ground, and she came back and her pelvis was not right and she needed a bit of physio. We have to turn the page of that race.”

Graffard has come far in his eight years with a training license, and he stressed that achieving, building on and sustaining a prosperous business is about so much more than being able to train a winner.

“A successful trainer has to wear a lot of hats,” he said. “First, you have to be a good horseman, because at the start you need to win races. And then when you grow, you have more staff, and you need to become a big operator. You still need to be a good horseman, but you also need to organize your team and manage your growth. With more horses you have more clients, more staff and more work. And it’s a different type of work because you need to delegate more; you are less hands-on but you have to delegate and manage people and manage the atmosphere in the yard. It’s an entirely different speed, but when you grow you need to learn to be a big operator.”

Graffard said the purchase of his own yard in Chantilly in 2016 was an important milestone for his business.

“I started out renting a yard in Lamorlaye, and I managed to buy my own place three years ago,” he said. “That was a big important step because when you start out your owners can forgive you if the yard isn’t very pretty, because they know you’re starting out and it isn’t easy, but after a while you need to have a good setup and a nice office to welcome them. When you visit a yard you can feel how the trainer works, with the atmosphere of the team and how everything runs. The owners can see if the yard is neat, the horses are happy, the staff is very polite; it’s little details but it gives a feeling to someone who may want to send you a horse. It’s your image.”

One of Graffard’s recent steps to further his business has been the addition of Charlotte Rinckenbach as his racing and communications manager. Rinckenbach graduated Godolphin Flying Start in July.

“I speak with Francis’s owners and clients every day and keep track of the horses in training,” Rinckenbach said. “During the sales I’ll be out looking at horses for clients, and I’m also involved in the racing office. In the long term I’d be interested in running a racing club and I’m interested in that social part of the industry, so with Francis it will be great learning about the relationship between the trainer and their clients.”

As part of Godolphin Flying Start Rinckenbach spent the past two years working in the Thoroughbred industries in Europe, America, Australia and Dubai, and she said a key takeaway that she thought could be applied to racing in France is improving the raceday experience for patrons.

“We still have to work on the atmosphere at the races in France,” she said. “When you’re in Australia for example, they do a brilliant job; everyone is having fun, betting, having a drink with friends. Often in France we don’t have that atmosphere and we need to step up by taking people to the races. We need to show them that it’s fun and it’s not just for rich people, and that it’s very open to everyone and everyone can have a part of a horse and really enjoy it. We need to help people find a path into it.”

Graffard added, “When you grow, your business has to grow too to provide new services and Charlotte is coming in at the right time. It’s important that we provide the perfect service for the owner, because nowadays they expect it. We have a lot of foreign owners now who are accustomed to a certain level of communication. It’s important to delegate tasks both in the yard and in the office and Charlotte has the right experience to make it work.”

Graffard said the positives of adding a fellow Flying Start graduate to his team were plenty.

“Godolphin Flying Start provides wonderful people for the industry–for any potential employer it’s a no-brainer,” he said. “They know their way around the industry throughout the world, are educated to a high standard and have a skill set that is an asset to any business. You know they’re not going to be afraid to work hard, and everyone wants that kind of energy in their business.”

While the summer of 2019 certainly brought with it a generous helping of milestones for Graffard personally, he insisted it has been just as gratifying to see the rewards reverberate to those around him.

“Personally you’re happy, but when you see all the positives around you that these winners bring–to your family, your staff–it’s so important for your staff to be involved with winners because they work very hard and they’re proud of it,” he said. “All my other owners were very pleased for us too.

“There are a lot of owners in the yard who have been very faithful since the beginning and you have the same ambition to do as well for them. That’s where you get the most reward, I would say, as a trainer; when you’re rewarding the investment of the owners who put their faith in you. They buy or breed the horses and send them to you, and then they send you another one. When it works and you see how much it means to them you want to give them more of that joy.”

“The good thing about Channel and Watch Me, and a lot of people say this to me, is it’s an industry of dreaming,” Graffard said. “You dream of winning a big race, and it’s important for people to see that the dream happens. With Channel and Watch Me, it’s exactly that. They’re owned by ‘normal’ people without massive budgets. Channel cost €70,000 and Watch Me was bought back for €30,000. So it shows that it’s possible, and we need stories like that. If not, people will say ‘I can’t be part of this game because I need 50 horses in training to do it.’ But you can do it with only one.”

The post Graffard Enjoying Summer Of Milestones appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article