Brasme and Monfort: Friends and Rivals

[Wandering Eyes]

On Monday in Deauville, the curtain came down on the distinguished training career of France’s adopted son, John Hammond, whose penultimate runner Nisreen (Ire) became his final winner. The following race was won by Mathieu Brasme, a trainer who is not yet as widely known as Hammond but is steadily making a name for himself from his picturesque base in the west of the country, just outside Le Mans.

In fact, Brasme, who sent out his first runner in December 2017, shares the training centre at Luché-Pringé with another young trainer, Edouard Monfort, who has held a licence for the last year and about whom we will also certainly be hearing more in the seasons to come.

The two relatively new recruits to the French training ranks have much in common: they are both the sons of trainers—Brasme’s father Olivier trained at Mont Saint-Michel, while Monfort’s father Patrick trains in partnership with Edouard’s brother Francois at Sennones. Furthermore, they met while both riding as amateurs. Most importantly, they are good friends, a helpful factor while they run their separate businesses, effectively in competition with each other, but also side by side at the training establishment still owned by record-breaking former trainer Guy Henrot.

“I discovered this place five years ago when I used to work for Mikel Delzangles, who decided to rent the place as a pre-training centre, and I was his assistant in Chantilly. He asked me to come to look after the string here and I accepted, so I discovered this wonderful place and, little by little, the idea to start training here was born,” says Brasme, whose six years with Delzangles included some long-distance travelling as the rider of Dunaden (Fr), winner of the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup and Hong Kong Vase.

“We are lucky. It is so quiet here, with natural sand tracks through the woods. Guy Henrot was very successful from here—he was the first provincial trainer to lead the trainers’ championship by number of winners.”

In Brasme’s first full year as a trainer, the 36-year-old sent out eight winners last season from a string of just 22. As his stable has grown in 2019, so has his tally, with the table showing 17 winners for the year to date. Among the owners of the 30 horses in his stable is successful owner-breeder Antonia Devin of the nearby Haras du Mesnil, whose son Henri-Francois trains in Chantilly and also has a horse with Brasme. Al Shaqab Racing features on the list, while recent Deauville winner, the juvenile filly Salsa Chic (Fr) (Rio De La Plata), is owned by a partnership which includes Sebastian Desmontils and Brasme’s fellow trainer Alessandro Botti.

Monfort, 30, has also trained 17 winners this year, including the listed-winning duo of Just Sherry (Ire) (Intense Focus) and Plegastell (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}), who finished fifth in the G1 Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac. His stable’s client list is on the rise, too, and currently includes Gérard Augustin-Normand, John Halley and the Queen’s former trainer Lord Huntingdon.

Both trainers eulogise about the stable which served its owner well, and standing within its expansive grounds, even in the middle of one of the wettest Decembers for northern Europe in years, it is easy to understand how they fell for its charms. Guy Henrot, whose numerous successes included the 1997 G2 King’s Stand S. winner Don’t Worry Me (Ire) (Dancing Dissident), still lives on the property which includes a beautiful listed mill on the banks of the River Loire which runs alongside the property. The 73 boxes in the square stableyard were installed by Henrot within the site of an old walled garden and are now split between Brasme and Monfort, who have added turnout paddocks for their horses just outside the ancient walls.

“It’s important that we get on well and that the staff get on well as this place wasn’t made to be shared, but we have rules in place and everything is going well so far,” says Brasme. “There are many benefits to being here together as it helps with the maintenance of the tracks and the upkeep of the place.”

Luché-Pringé’s proximity to a number of provincial racecourses, as well as it being less than a three-hour drive to Paris or Deauville, was also a draw for Monfort, who says, “I looked at a few places in Chantilly, Deauville and Senonnes, and I knew that Mathieu needed another trainer to rent this place so I came to visit and I decided that this would be the best place to train, especially as I had known Mathieu for a long time from when we were amateur riders together.”

He adds, “It is peaceful here and we have good gallops and tracks in the woods. It’s like a small Chantilly.”

A small Chantilly it may be, but it has already proved to be the perfect place to make it big.

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