French Provincial Diary

So far in 2019, the analysis of France's provincial season has highlighted the early promise of Etoile (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) at Cagnes-sur-Mer and Channel (Ire) (Nathaniel {Ire}) at Lyon-Parilly, with the pair going on to establish themselves among the very best of their generation's middle-distance fillies. Following her smooth wins in the South during January and February, Etoile–who is now part-owned by Martin Schwartz– was runner-up in the G3 Prix Vanteaux and won the G3 Prix Cleopatre before taking part in the G1 Prix de Diane. In the event, she was slightly unlucky to be only fourth, beaten just under a length by Samuel de Barros's sole horse in training Channel who gave her owner the ultimate thrill. Fifth in a tight finale to the Chantilly Classic was Cala Tarida (GB) (Garswood {GB}), whose career began at Salon-de-Provence and Marseille-Borely, so it is clear that the country's smaller tracks are playing an increasingly vital role in the education of some of its most promising horses.

At Marseille-Borely on May 4, the venue in the grand Parc Borely next to the sun-blessed Borely beach under the mountains of Les Calanques saw the latest Marnane-Palussiere project take shape in the 2-year-old colt Real Appeal (Ger) (Sidestep {Aus}). Two starts later, he had captured the Listed Prix la Fleche at Maisons-Laffitte before being sold for £265,000 at the Goffs London Sale to Zhang Yuesheng and put into training with Jim Bolger. Initially snapped up in a private sale for just €9,000, Real Appeal is the latest example of the power of getting eyecatching results after a maternelle period in the provinces with precocious juveniles for major investment rewards. Along the way, the Marnanes are picking up decent prize money and owners' premiums and that is why they currently sit ninth in the owners' table behind the likes of Godolphin, the Wertheimers, Gerard Augustin-Normand, His Highness the Aga Khan and Al Shaqab Racing. This outstanding example of entrepreneurship has perhaps not been fully appreciated as yet.

Back at Marseille-Borely 10 days later, owner-breeder Jean-Claude Seroul's 4-year-old filly Spirit of Nelson (Ire) (Mount Nelson {GB}) gave a clue in the Prix Raymond Martin as to what she would achieve two starts later when winning Deauville's Listed Prix de la Pepiniere. Seroul is in the ascendant in France, sitting 11th in the owners' table as this is written and ahead of Khalid Abdullah. Spirit of Nelson hails from the local stable of the Godolphin Flying Start graduate Jerome Reynier, who trained Royal Julius (Ire) (Royal Applause {GB}) to win last year's G2 Premio Presidente della Repubblica and finish runner-up in the H H The Amir Trophy at Doha in February. Seroul and Reynier also combined with the upwardly-mobile 4-year-old gelding Skalleti (Fr) (Kendargent {Fr}), who beat Diamond Vendome (Fr) (Style Vendome {Ire}) in the June 22 Grand Prix De Marseille-Vivaux on the all-weather.

Jean-Claude Rouget has his stable in amazing form and is consequently on the tail of Andre Fabre in the trainers' ranks. Claudio Marzocco's 3-year-old colt Ferblue (Fr) (Motivator {GB}), who had won at Tarbes in April, added to his Pau-based stable's tally at Bordeaux-le-Bouscat on May 25 and the chestnut has since won again at Deauville. He was warming up for the yard's Taos (Fr) (Toronado {Ire}), who captured the 163rd edition of Bordeaux's Derby du Midi. As its name suggests, the 9 1/2-furlong test is a race with prestige in the Gironde, with the former Rouget star and multiple Grade I-winning Grand Couturier (GB) (Grand Lodge) on the honour roll. Showing a fine attitude, Martin Schwartz's relative of the G1 Prix d'Ispahan-winning sire Never On Sunday (Fr) (Sunday Break {Jpn}) is unexposed at present and while it is early days, he is in the right hands.

Nantes in the Loire-Atlantique is renowned for culture, being the base of the world-renowned Les Machines de L'Ile which include a mechanical elephant which takes patrons on a stroll around the block to the weird-and-wonderful carousel creation Le Carrousel des Mondes Marins. The racecourse, the Hippodrome du Petit Port, was set up in 1875 on the land owned by the family of Rene-Theophile-Hyacinthe Laennec, inventor of the stethoscope. On June 11, the seven-furlong debut winner Eversweet (Fr) provided the ex-German and Haras de Saint Arnoult-based first-season sire Sommerabend (GB) with another winner. Orientating her way around the tight, tricky, tree-shaded left-handed circuit to win with something in hand for the Larissa Kneip stable, the bay caught the attention of Team Valor who made another potentially lucrative half-share investment. Now with John Hammond in Chantilly, she ran a fair race in Saturday's G3 Prix Six Perfections at Deauville under Tristan Baron.

Two days later at the Hippodrome de La Touche Craon between Rennes and Angers, the Prix de L'Avenir witnessed a taking debut from the Rouget-trained 2-year-old filly Baga (Fr) (No Nay Never). The subject of a ridiculous wide trip, Bernard Weill, Daniel-Yves Treves and Laurent Dassault's bay made light of that under Coralie Pacaut to score by five lengths before heading to ParisLongchamp to double her tally the following month. Under Rouget's assistance, Pacaut is 12th in the riders' championship with 39 winners, nine clear of her younger female rival and rising star Marie Waldhauser.

Waldhauser, the 19-year-old Jura-born rider who is helping to augment the current surge of France's female jockey scene, is based with Maxime Cesandri and spoke about her driving ambition in an interview with Paris Turf. “I don't like losing and I'm an adrenaline junkie,” she declared. “I get it from racing. He [Cesandri] doesn't congratulate me every time I improve and doesn't hesitate to expose my mistakes,” she said. “He analyses the races with me and that's a big plus. Thanks to him, I'm learning every day. The aim is to win in the right way and prove that even without the [weight] allowance, women are competitive.”

Following the La Fete National celebrations of July 14, it was time for Vichy to stage its traditional five-day Grande Semaine festival by the Allier River. Having enjoyed the honour of staging the country's first evening flat meeting in 1992, the right-handed circuit has a history of innovation and enterprise and an atmosphere all of its own during this week. Situated near the magnificent opera house, the once-titled “Club Med of racing” got underway with the Listed Prix Madame Jean Couturie for 3-year-old fillies over 10 furlongs. It was won by Al Shira'aa Farms' unexposed and progressive Mutamakina (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), a Carlos Laffon-Parias-trained descendant of the brilliant Ridgewood Pearl (GB) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), who being by that sire could be looking at a fruitful autumn.

The middle of the five days featured the evening meeting under atmospheric floodlight and the feature G3 Grand Prix de Vichy, where Christophe Soumillon made all unchallenged on the Grand Prix de Marseille-Vivaux runner-up Diamond Vendome for the Christophe Escuder stable. Escuder may not be a household name in Britain and Ireland, but he is seventh in the French trainer's title and battling it out with closely-matched contemporaries Francis-Henri Graffard, Fabrice Vermeulen and Frederic Rossi. The following day's Listed Prix du Haras De Bouquetot Jacques Bouchara, named in honour of the track's former president who turned around its fortunes in the nineties, was taken by Prime Equestrian's Lady Galore (Ire) (Raven's Pass), while the festival closed with the Listed Prix Jacques de Bremond success of the aforementioned Skalleti.