Category: Updates from the yard

It’s been so busy the past few days I haven’t had time to post results on the last two races, and it’s already nearly time to load Hard Way on the truck to Longchamp for his handicap this afternoon. Versaki ran at Lonchamp on Thursday and had tremendously bad luck; he is a horse that needs to come from behind, and he was drawn 1 on the gate, an impossible position for him. Normally the inside draws are great on the 1,400-meter course, and Skid would have been in the money if he had that draw when he ran. But for Versaki, who gets out slow and then grinds toward the finish, the inside post left him trapped on the rail behind a wall of horses. I know I’ve been doing a lot of complaining about post position lately, but it is so important in sprints to have a good draw. If a race is 2,000 meters or longer, the post no longer really matters. But in the sprints and even on the mile, it is crucial with our 20-runner fields.

Timelord ran yesterday in Maisons-Laffitte, and he was 7th again in easier company than last time, but I’m not too worried about him because he’ll have his day. We’re still learning  about him and I think he needs a slightly longer trip and slightly softer ground. They flew over the mile yesterday on good going, and while he finished well, it was just too quick for him. I think he will be better at St. Cloud or Compiegne, on a long uphill straight.

And back to Hard Way, who goes back to his distance of 3,000 meters today at Longchamp. The positive factors: He seems to like Longchamp, it is his distance and he will have Christophe Lemaire on his back, a top jockey who I hope will be a good choice for Hard Way. It is an easy field and he is working well. The negatives: It has turned hot and the track will be very quick, and Hard Way still hasn’t finished changing out of his winter coat.  At this distance, the post position doesn’t matter, but he does need to load last in the gate or things can go wrong. So now we’re off to see what happens.

Versaki goes to Longchamp tomorrow with a good chance if he handles the 1,400-meter “toboggan.” We are drawn in post 1, so I can’t complain. On that course, it’s a great draw – would have rather have had post 4, with a chance to tuck in behind, but Greg Benoist is up and I’m confident we’ll get a good ride.

Skid’s Tierce was frustrating. He charged out of the gate to the front and then dropped back to finish nowhere. It’s true that 1,000 meters is probably a bit too short for him; he’s really a 1,200-meter horse. That said, he never found his action and galloped “au genoux”, with high knee action. When he stretches out he has a beautiful, ground-covering stride that can win a race. We see it all the time in training. But he rarely stretches out in a race, probably because he is too stressed and can’t relax into his stride. I have to find a solution, because I still believe he’s a good horse and will definitely win a couple this year.

Meanwhile, the filly still has no name, but thanks for all of your suggestions. The lists are now getting long and silly, but something will float to the top soon. In any case, she started trotting in the Rond de Poulain today and she is a beautiful mover. We are all dreaming big, which is what untried two-year-olds are for!

Skid Solo will run the 1,000-meter Tierce handicap in Maisons-Laffitte tomorrow. He hasn’t been able to do much at this level so far, and it will be a tough race tomorrow, but he has no choice but to take a shot. He is too highly rated for easier handicaps and the program for sprinters is limited, so we can’t let this one go by. I’m confident he will win one of these this year, but probably over his best distance of 1,200 meters. We have some things in our favor: he should like the ground, Thulliez will be on board and he seems fit and ready. It will be an interesting race and I’m hoping we can at least get up for a place.

On another note, we have a new filly in the yard who should be quite exciting. She was bought Saturday at the two-year-old breeze-up sale at St. Cloud, has a great paper, breezed well and looks great. She is by Oratorio out of a Hello Gorgeous mare. She is still unnamed, so suggestions are welcome!

And on a lighter note, one of my horses is owned by a man who is an identical twin. If I see him next to his brother I can tell them apart most – but not all – of the time. Like many twins, they often do things together, like go racing, which is where things get complicated. Because when they’re not together, I can’t tell them apart. So I will have a long conversation about the mare and it ends with “My brother will be interested to hear that.” Damn. Wrong twin. So the twin that DOESN’T own the horse is a farmer who, among other things, sells straw. I have started to order straw from him. Or maybe from his brother. I’m not sure because I just had a phone conversation with one of them about a straw delivery for tomorrow, and not five minutes later the other brother called me and had nearly the same conversation. In any case, I think there is a load of straw coming tomorrow morning. Or maybe two.

Rapsodie ran dead last today – practically came over the finishing post at a trot – after one of the most dismal rides I’ve ever seen from a jockey. She would have done better on her own. I’m not saying she had a chance – it was a comeback race after a nearly a year away from the track, so all I wanted to see today was a decent run. In the hopes of learning more about the horse, I put up a jockey I’ve never used before but who had ridden her through all of the early races in her career. It turned out to be a mistake. I know we’re in trouble when the jockey turns up in the presentation ring and instead of discussing the race merely says “don’t worry, I’ve got it handled.”  This is one of the most irritating things a jockey can say to me – it tells me he has no interest in what I have to say about the horse, and no respect for me as a trainer. Rapsodie was nervous going down to the gate and then extremely fractious once loaded, so now we know that like Hard Way, she will need to load last. She broke OK, though, and was running near the back of the pack when unfortunately a horse next to her broke a back leg and was pulled up (and, very quickly I hope, put down). That was about when my jockey decided he wanted no part of the race. He put his hands down and basically let her hack canter the rest of the way around. When he came back, he complained about her in the gate, and said that cost him any chance to do a decent job with her. I disagree. It was a dismal day all around – cold, rainy and miserable, worst of all for the owners of the poor horse who broke down. You don’t see it too often here in flat racing, so it always has an impact when it happens. Nice horse, too, coming off a win. Anyway, looking at the bright side – and there always is one – Rapsodie came back fine, we learned a couple of things about her and she will improve from the race.

We now have a few days break before Skid Solo on Monday…but it needs to stop raining for that to happen. Before that, I’ll be at the breeze-up sales on Saturday at St. Cloud, and then I will guide a group tour around Longchamp on Sunday. But first, I can enjoy an easier couple of days before gearing up for what’s next.

As most of you already know, Blessing Belle came home the best of 20 runners at St. Cloud yesterday. We weren’t the only ones surprised as she paid 48-1 for the win. Needless to say, my loyal railbirds were a little annoyed at not being tipped off, but I really did not expect her to do what she did. As I told our jockey Theirry Thulliez before the race, we knew she had the ability, it was just a question of whether she would use it. All I did know is that I expected he would have more in hand yesterday than in the previous race at Longchamp, because Belle seemed a bit stronger physically (I know this from the motivated way she spun round to try to kick me in her box the other day). He was forced to go to the lead about 800 meters into the 2,400 meter race, because the pace was absolutely crawling. I was worried when I saw her in the lead, but she stayed there and fought on in the stretch to pull away from the field by two lengths at one point before Thulliez let her relax a bit to the post. (Note to my American readers: The point of racing in France is to simply win the race, not to flog your mount into ground beef to win by as many lengths as possible, thereby ruining not only your horse’s morale and the public’s good will, but also the horse’s handicap mark.)

Belle’s owners and a good group of friends were there, some of them seeing her race live for the first time, so she couldn’t have picked a better time to find an extra gear. She came back well and recovered very quickly. I’m not sure what her next target will be, but we will certainly try to time it around her reproductive cycles, because she seemed to not be in season yesterday, which surely helped matters.

Next up, Timelord tomorrow in Chantilly, followed by Rapsodie on Tuesday in Maisons-Laffitte. We’ve now got two wins and five places from 18 starts this year, which isn’t too bad. We’re going to try to keep it up.

Skid’s comeback race at Longchamp yesterday went pretty well.  He finished 9th of the 19 runners, handled himself well and came back in good shape. He had no chance to do better from the wide draw; our jockey did manage to get him moved over toward the rail so he could settle in the back of the pack and then move forward when the sprint began. Just to show how bad the track bias is on that course, the first four home came out of stalls 1 through 4. Anybody who bet that made a good amount of money! Skid broke from the 19 hole, and he also confirmed that 1,400 meters is a little too long for him. His distance is really 1,200 meters, although we may try the 1,000 meter sprint at Maisons-Laffitte next.

Blessing Belle gets another try tomorrow, running a 2,400-meter handicap at St. Cloud. I really don’t know what to think of her chances. She seems in great form physically and is her usual dangerous self in the box; at the moment, she appears not to be in season, which could be a minor miracle if she manages to hold herself together for tomorrow. Theirry Thulliez was still keen to ride her, so hopefully he can find the right button.

After that, we have Timelord at Chantilly on Monday, and that should be very interesting. This little horse has been quite a challenge, but he’s looking fantastic and worked a blinder this morning. He is a horrible boxwalker, so he spends his afternoon in the paddock, where he seems happy and calm. At some point every night, he lives up to his name and travels back to the 14th century by spinning around his box. When I feed him in the morning I have to cross the well-trodden piste he has built and then he gets tied up, which is the only way to stop him! All that said, he seems to be really ready to run, and he has a good record in England, so we’ll see what happens.

And finally, we have a new filly, Rapsodie du Desert, who will run Tuesday in Maisons-Laffitte. She is coming back after a year off with an injury, so this is really an exploratory race to see how she goes. She is working well and might not quite be 100 percent ready, but the entry is good and she is fit enough to run. It would be great if one of these guys might follow Bay’s lead and give us our second winner this year.

Skid Solo didn’t get any breaks with his race tomorrow at Longchamp; I chose a claimer over a Tierce handicap thinking it would be easier, but it won’t be. There are several black-type horses in the field, and we have a horrible draw in the 19 hole. We’ll have to really treat it as a comeback race and be careful not to ask for too much. With that draw, he will have to go behind and do what he can.

I’ve also finally got a look at Hard Way’s race, and nothing went right there. He looked pretty stressed out before the race, but putting him in the gate too early really did us in. He set a slow pace, but the eventual winner ran just on his heels or three-quarter length, which Hard Way can’t handle. We’ll toss this one out and start over. If he is well, there will be another chance for him at Longchamp near the end of the month, over 3,000 meters. In any case, I can see that the ear plugs will go back in and he MUST go in the gate last. Those two things will help us next time.

DerringBay, meanwhile, has come home in good shape and is eating up well. He was in hand today but will be ridden out tomorrow, and I’ll start looking for a race for him near the end of the month. Still waiting to see if Belle gets in Saturday at St. Cloud.

Our Channel Island adventure paid off yesterday when DerringBay won his race, becoming the first French-trained horse to run – and win – there. The whole trip was quite an adventure, and Bay was our first international runner. He was also the first runner for our new Guernsey-based owners, and it was fantastic to see them hit the board on the first time out. The weather was a bit blustery, but the sun came out for our race, and we had a crowd topping 3,500 people on hand for the event. It is safe to say that Bay is unlikely to run in front of that many people in France! Bay also picked up the “best turned out” award.

We finished with only three runners in our race, but it still turned out to be a proper race with an exciting finish. Bay was carrying more than 10 kilos than the second-placed horse, which had already won several races and Bay was still a maiden. It turned into a match race toward the finish and the two really dueled it out, with Bay prevailing by a neck. He was ridden by Tony Proctor, who is the champion jockey in the Channel Islands and is a work rider for Sir Michael Stoute in England. I told him that Bay has a two-furlong turn of foot and hangs left, and he did the rest in great style.

It took about 12 hours stall-to-stall to get Bay to Guernsey by truck and ferry, but now that we know how to do it, I see that it could be done again. The trip home was slightly more complicated, involving a 3:30 a.m. freighter and a change of boats in Jersey, but Bay handled it all very well and is now collapsed in his box at home sleeping it off.

While I was away Hard Way ran a very disappointing race in Chantilly, but I’m still digging out and haven’t been able to find out exactly what went wrong there yet. Meanwhile, Skid goes to Longchamp on Thursday and Blessing Belle has an entry for Saturday, but the race is quite oversubscribed and we might not get in. But a little sleep is in order before I can sort out who goes where next.

DerringBay, accompanied by me and my friend Louise, head off to Guernsey tomorrow for what should be an interesting time, to say the least. We run in the fifth and last race on Monday, a handicap with only four runners and we have top weight of 69 kilos. We’re hoping that all the paperwork is in order and – more importantly – we have calm seas for the crossing. I don’t know how Bay feels about boats, but I hate them, so I’ll be happy to get that part of the trip over with.

Hard Way, meanwhile, is all set for Monday at Chantilly, where he will face only 11 runners in the bottom half of the Tierce handicap. We are exceptionally lucky to have such a small and relatively easy field, so he should do well. It’s a shame I can’t be in two places at once, but Valerie will handle things at Chantilly.

With all going on in our own yard, I will miss the big races in America and England on Saturday. The Kentucky Derby and the 2,000 Guineas are great races, but I’ll have to settle for the replays. I will, at least, get to watch the 1,000 Guineas live on Sunday.

Watch this space for a full report on both of our races when I come home.

Versaki ran a good third in his handicap in Chantilly today. He is still a frustrating horse, because he probably should have won in relatively easy company, but he closed like a bullet to overtake most of the other 18 runners, so that’s a good sign. His next target is likely to be a 1,400-meter handicap at Longchamp on May 20. Meanwhile, we’re still looking for a buyer for him, because he is well-placed in the handicaps, seems useful and is still mine, so that can’t go on! He needs to find a new owner soon.

Next up are Hard Way in Chantilly on Monday, and, of course, DerringBay’s Guernsey outing. Just found out today that we have only four declared runners in Bay’s race in Guernsey, so I’d have to like our chances…And Skid’s comeback race is hopefully the 1,400-meter claimer at Longchamp a week from Thursday. He’ll be running for a high price, because we don’t want to lose him, but I think the claimer will be a better comeback race for him than today’s handicap – which we had originally targeted – would have been.