French Provincial Diary

[Wandering Eyes]

The last instalment of this series ended with Vichy’s five-day Grande Semaine festival in July, which was provided with a boost in September as the Listed Prix Frederic de Lagrange winner Pedro Cara (Fr) (Pedro the Great) went within a nose of Jockey Club Derby victory at Belmont for the Mauricio Delcher-Sanchez stable. Aiming high with the bay gelding, whose education had also included a win at Nantes in April, the 10-time Spanish leading trainer’s enterprise would have paid handsome dividends had Spanish Mission (Noble Mission {GB}) not swooped late. In third was San Huberto (Ire) (Speightstown), who in May had garnered the Listed Coupe des Trois Ans at Lyon-Parilly. Also springing from that Vichy meeting was Al Shira’aa Farms’ Mutamakina (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), whose success in the Listed Prix Madame Jean Couturie preceded a smart effort when making Sottsass (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) break a sweat in the G2 Prix Niel at ParisLongchamp.

La Teste de Buch staged more provincial black-type fayre July 30 and it was the Pascal Bary-trained 2-year-old filly Les Hogues (Ire) (Bated Breath {GB}) who carried off the Listed Criterium de Bequet on a card that also played host to Ecurie Waldeck’s newcomer Chares (Ger) (Ivawood {Ire}). Off the mark by six lengths over seven furlongs, the Christophe Ferland-trained half-brother to the useful British handicappers Qaysar (Fr) (Choisir {Aus}) and White Chocolate (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) did much the same thing a month later at Dax before beating the highly-regarded Frederic Rossi-trained Choise of Raison (GB) (Zoffany {Ire}) in the Sept. 27 Listed Criterium de Lyon at Lyon-Parilly. Chares, one of the better progeny among Ivawood’s first crop and his biggest prizemoney earner so far, is due to sell in Saturday’s Arqana Arc Sale.

Ferland, who made his name with the juvenile champion Dabirsim (Fr) (Hat Trick {Jpn}) in 2011, trains at La Teste de Buch and is one of many who are making a success of basing themselves outside of Chantilly. “The level is getting higher in the South West,” he says. “The racing is very strong now and we have good owners who are investing a lot of money in good horses. Jean-Claude Rouget has been here for over thirty years training for all the big owners and there are other powerful trainers like Francois Rohaut. The quality of tracks like Lyon, La Teste, Bordeaux, Toulouse and Marseille is very high, you could run a Group 1 around these, no problem. If a racecourse is closed in Paris or you couldn’t race in Paris for some reason, you could easily move the races to La Teste, Lyon, Toulouse or Bordeaux. Lyon is a big track and La Teste has nearly a three-furlong straight off the home turn which is longer than Deauville.”

Jockey shortage is a particular problem in France, according to Ferland. “In the provinces and in Paris, there are not many young jockeys and they tend to be middle-aged,” he said. “It is hard to get them out of school and train them–it’s a quality problem. You have only a three-week period at a time and they make progress but they don’t train all the time. The racing school in France has a problem with that. One to follow is Guillaume Guedj-Gay, who looks as if he is going to be a good jockey.”

Of Chares, Ferland has high hopes that he will achieve the kind of price he warrants on Saturday and whatever he makes will be a measurement of how much respect provincial racing is given, with him not having set foot on a Parisian track so far. “He is a very good horse and a beautiful animal, so we’ll try at the sales and see what he makes,” he adds. “If he doesn’t make the price we expect, we will take him home and train him for next year.”

One other of his 2-year-olds of note is Ecurie Normandie Pur Sang’s Shinning Ocean (Fr), a son of his beloved Dabirsim who scored at Toulouse on Monday. “He had a good start at Deauville when beaten in fourth by Ecrivain (Fr) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) who has since won a Group 3 and is on his way to a Group 1 on Sunday,” Ferland explains. “He’s a nice horse for next year who will probably have one more run this year.”

August began with a meeting at Brittany’s Saint Malo racecourse, one of the smaller venues which is situated just outside the beautiful tourist trap of the Intra Muros with its abundant cafes, restaurants, awe-inspiring architecture and cobbled streets. Whereas the site of the Fort National, the Grand Bé and Les Remparts is one of France’s most visited, the nearby tight right-handed circuit is lucky to attract a high quality of racehorse. There may have been one who proves more than useful to appear there as the country’s traditional holiday month got underway in Plegastell (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}). Edouard Monfort trains Jean de Cheffontaines and Gerault de Seze’s chestnut from the small wooded enclave of Guy Henrot’s stables in Sarthe near Le Mans. Out of a half to the GII Wise Dan S. winner Pleuven (Fr) (Turtle Bowl {Ire}), she reappeared at Craon at the end of the month and beat the fellow provincial learners Scripturale (Fr) (Makfi {GB}) and Bellanodine (Fr) (Anodin {Ire}) in the Listed Criterium de l’Ouest.

Another 2-year-old to catch the eye during August was Ecurie la Vallee Martigny’s colt Chachnak (Fr) (Kingman {GB}), one of Fabrice Vermeulen’s brighter prospects who scored at Vichy Aug. 3. Out of the G1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and G1 Prix de Diane runner-up Tamazirte (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), the homebred bay went on to follow up at Lyon-Parilly Sept. 5 and is due to take part in Sunday’s G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. More ambitiously, he holds an entry in next year’s Epsom Derby. On the same card, Haras de Colleville’s first-season sire Galiway (GB) was handed his first black-type winner as his son Kenway (Fr) captured the Listed Prix des Jouvenceaux et des Jouvencelles. Haras de la Gousserie’s Frederic Rossi-trained chestnut out of the G3 Prix Eclipse winner and G1 Prix de la Foret-placed Kendam (Fr) (Kendargent {Fr}) went to ParisLongchamp Sept. 1 to add the prestigious G3 Prix la Rochette to his tally–with the aforementioned Les Hogues well beaten in fourth–and in the process stamped himself as one of the best of his age in France.

At La Teste Aug. 7, the 2-year-old filly Avenue de France (Fr) (Cityscape {GB}) won on debut in the silks of Jacques Beres whose Whortleberry (Fr) (Starborough {GB}) achieved notoriety in the first half of the 2000s. The Didier Guillemin trainee had to fight to get another win at Mont-de-Marsan Sept. 10, but proved up to the task against a decent standard of opposition and is one to watch. At Moulins Aug. 24, the Racecourse of Jean Gabin which staged the Prix du Jockey-Club or French Derby in 1916, another potentially smart juvenile was introduced in Robert Ng’s Natural Path (Ire) (Toronado {Ire}). Trained by Henri-Francois Devin, the bay followed this debut effort with a success at Maisons-Laffitte on Tuesday and looks set to add to his owner-breeder’s stellar season. Another winner at the potentially-doomed Maisons-Laffitte was Haras du Logis Saint Germain’s filly Dream and Do (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}), who had broken her maiden when making all at Marseille-Borely Sept. 9 and is another of Frederic Rossi’s big hopes for 2020.

Bordeaux-le-Bouscat hosted two promising Francois Rohaut trainees in the colt Sharib (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and filly Look of Victory (Fr) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) Sept. 24. The former, a Shadwell homebred half-brother to this year’s G1 Prix du Jockey Club third Motamarris (Ire) (Le Havre {Ire}) from the family of Tamayuz (GB), looks a bright prospect. Rohaut has started many a luminary in the South and his winners are feared as much as any of the Chantilly-based clientele when they journey to Paris.

Of course, it is Paris which is the centre of it all this weekend as the all-important Arc meeting looms. One of the monument’s live outsiders, the G1 Grosser Preis Von Berlin hero French King (GB) (French Fifteen {Fr}), is one who was buried out of sight in the provinces in 2018. Before he became a winning machine overseas this term, his five black-type attempts at the lesser-known tracks in France last season yielded placings at best. In fact, Sheikh Abdulla bin Khalifa Al Thani’s 4-year-old signed off in his native country with a sixth placing in the Listed Grand Prix de Nantes. It would be quite some leap if 12 months on he could feature in his nation’s biggest test.

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