French philosophy offers punters and owners something different
Scott Burton talks to five of France's up-and-coming Flat trainers
Five of France's up-and-coming Flat trainers – Florian Guyader, Tim Donworth, Julien Phelippon, Gavin Hernon and Adrien Fouassier – talk to Scott Burton about their ambitions
- French jump racing: it's diverse, has great prize-money and is a magnet for top British and Irish owners and trainers
- 'We can buy these unbelievably well-bred horses as yearlings and two-year-olds - English or Irish trainers don't have that opportunity'
While the look and feel of racing on the Flat in France is perhaps easier to grasp than is the case with the jumps for a British and Irish audience – there are no unfamiliar obstacles to be jumped and fewer tricky French names to navigate– the sheer breadth of the country and its racing programme takes a little bit of knowing.
And while the names of Andre Fabre, Francis Graffard and Jean-Claude Rouget are well known abroad, there is a wealth of talented professionals spread across the training centres of Chantilly, Maisons-Laffitte and beyond, including many who have chosen France as their base of operations over their country of birth.
There are almost as many different training philosophies, with everyone seeking their own place in French racing's ecosystem, and a style to suit every different type of owner and punter.
Florian Guyader - 'People don't have the time and money to wait, they want action'
There is a persistent idea that the French attitude to two-year-olds is "everything is a bonus, wait till next year"; certainly at Group level the juvenile races go for export at a much higher rate than is the case with those for three-year-olds and upwards.
But there is a young breed of trainer in France that wants to turn that idea on its head, starting from the ground up with lucrative two-year-old claimers and the €50,000 super-maidens.
In between stints in Australia, the US, Britain and Ireland, Florian Guyader cut his teeth working with Con Marnane's breeze-up horses in Maisons-Laffitte and it is there that he has set up with the express aim of exploiting precocious youngsters before selling them on. And if one or two are good enough to go to Royal Ascot, then so much the better.
In flawless English which betrays his travels, Guyader says: "I’d say to anyone who wants to have a horse for Ascot, you can go and buy a nice two-year-old here in France that has all the ability and the pedigrees, and you’ll have the opportunity to get him ready and win good prize-money with the premiums that we have in France.
"It’s a win-win because you have a horse with precocity and the ability to run fast and at the same time the premiums give you that push."
Our conversation comes just before France Galop's announcement of cuts to prize-money but the maths, while slightly altered, remains a powerful argument for Guyader's view.
"My goal is to concentrate on two-year-olds, to have as many as I can; for them to run as well as they can at two and then be sold on to continue their career with somebody else," says Guyader, who nominates Caro Buono, a colt by Zelzal, as his potential star among the early runners.
"I know we work with horses for the passion but we have to offer an owner something that pays them back sooner.
"Those owners who have time and money to spare, there are fewer and fewer of them. What I offer is not just different to other trainers, while nearly every horse I have either breaks even or makes a little bit of money.
Guyader says of his string: "There aren’t many that lose money. I’ll put them in fast work against one another and tell my owners straight away where their horse needs to go, and where they can earn their money. A lot of syndicate owners don’t come from a horse background. They want action, and they want it quick."
Tim Donworth - 'The race I'd most like to win is the Morny'
You need only have eyes in your head to see that Tim Donworth is a man whose career is going places somewhat ahead of schedule.
As second lot circles in the beautiful yard on Chantilly's Avenue du General Leclerc he bought over the winter from Carlos Laffon-Parias, he is joined by bloodstock agent and major supporter Marc-Antoine Berghgracht, while 15 minutes later another agent, Laffon-Parias's son Fernando, joins us in the collecting ring adjacent to the gallop known as Le Perth.
As the horses float by, Donowrth reels off the names of starry stallions and important investors and breeders; American Pharoah, Earthlight and Practical Joke, followed by Kirsten Rausing, LNJ Foxwoods, Chris Steadman and James and Anita Wigan.
Born and raised around the sales ring at his parents' Roundhill Stud in County Limerick, Donworth says: "I like working with agents and working with breeders and I love turning up at sales and pulling out horses. I was raised that way. I like that part of it."
Tongue only partially in his cheek, he adds: "We buy a lot on spec because we’re ballsy. I love it. We bought six or seven last year and I don’t own any of them now. Marc-Antoine helps me a fair bit with that. He sells a bit and I sell a bit and we get there.
"Now I’ve got Ramiro Restrepo with his client Jose Aguirre-Moreno from JR Ranch, and they’re bringing in some new people. They have Tigress Of Gaul with me this year, who won her first two starts and I think she’ll be black type.
"And they just bought two breezers at Arqana, which was the first time they’ve bought in Europe. A Wootton Bassett and a Practical Joke. Hopefully it’s the start of a big project."
Project Donworth is already growing at pace, with jockey Aurelien Lemaitre a recent addition to a core of staff that have been with him from the start four years ago.
"I’m different from most people in that the race I’d most like to win is the Prix Morny," says Donworth. "I’m sure you wouldn’t stick your nose up at the Arc but I want to win the Morny. This year we’ve got some really nice two-year-olds after getting some great support at the sales last year."
Julien Phelippon - 'Betting on racing was the gateway to me becoming a trainer'
There are a few trainers who back themselves to be able to handicap all the runners in a race they are involved in but Julien Phelippon may be just about unique as a man who earned enough to become a trainer through betting.
"The details of the programme might be the preserve of trainers but a good punter needs to know the different types of races to prepare his bets and that knowledge helped me a great deal, especially when it came to buying horses and making entries," says Phelippon, who trains 15 horses from his yard in Chantilly, mostly for a collection of friends and associates.
"As a bettor I know every horse in France as well as plenty abroad. It’s never a bad thing if you can look at a race and know that there are more hold-up horses than those likely to make the running. So betting on racing really was the gateway to me becoming a trainer."
Phelippon admits to being a losing punter for quite some time before earning enough to become a professional and eventually buy a couple of horses.
When his trainer was forced to quit Phelippon took them to Corine Barande-Barbe and learned on the job as her assistant, before casting out on his own in 2011.
One thing that becomes abundantly clear as the string files past after cantering along La Plaisanterie is how much interaction the trainer has with his work-riders; it's like having six assistants on horseback.
"I have always tried to have a reasonably small string, around 15," says Phelippon. "The big advantage of that is you can spend a lot of time on each horse and discuss them with their riders.
"I think it’s really important to try to understand my horses, who are often of second or third grade and might have had minor issues. Such attention means I have the best chance of taking their careers in a positive direction."
The stable star is Ferrari Fever, who has fought his way up the ratings and is now running against the sort of opposition which might see him contesting Listed races before the end of the season.
But as pleased as he is to be talking about his own horses, Phelippon is at his most animated when he talks of spreading the racing gospel to as many people as possible.
"I think some recent developments aimed at attracting more racegoers have shown that there is real potential there, and this sport is far from dying," he says. "My vision is to make racing once again the sport of ordinary people. We need the tracks in Paris to offer much better value in terms of food and drink.
"We need the racecourse to be a place where, even on a weekday, people want to come and spend a couple of hours between jobs or at the end of the afternoon; a place where they can meet up with people and where you can drink a beer that is the least expensive in Paris."
Gavin Hernon - 'I don't mind having a pop back home, I live for it!'
Like his Irish compatriot Donworth, Gavin Hernon has come the route of adopting Chantilly as home via working as an assistant to one of France's leading trainers.
In Hernon's case that mentor was Nicolas Clement and, from the moment in August 2018 when his first runner was a winner at Deauville - on the eve of the Arqana yearling sales no less - his progress has been steady yet relentless.
Last season Dare To Dream took him to the Classics at Chantilly and the Curragh, while he also enjoyed a notable sales race success back at Irish racing's HQ during the Irish Champions Festival with Spirit D'Or.
Asked about his Irish raids Hernon shoots back: "I live for it! I don’t mind having a pop back home but you’ve got to have the right horse. Going over with a filly like Spirit D'Or on Irish Champions Weekend was great, and it’s good for French training to show that we can train two-year-olds and beat them at their own game. I took Dare To Dream over there as a two-year-old and she got her black type."
Not that returning home to set up shop was ever much of a consideration for Hernon, who has a long list of the advantages of being a trainer in France.
"The main thing with racing in France for me is that an average horse can pay his way," says Hernon. "It doesn’t take an 80 or a 90 horse to be earning 30 grand and paying his bills.
"You take a horse like Marharry, who is rated 79, and earned getting on for a hundred grand last year. You can’t do that elsewhere."
Bertrand Clermont - travelling head lad to Criquette Head back in the Treve days and known universally as 'Capitaine' - files passed aboard a backward three-year-old chestnut who he proclaims confidently is "ready to win on Sunday;" the horse in question is bound for the far-eastern French outpost of Wissembourg at the weekend.
Hernon says: "If he wins his maiden down there that won’t change anyone’s lives but the owners will be happy and so will the trainer and the staff, while you’ve protected his mark for when he comes back up here. If you’re in Ireland you can try to go to Killarney or Roscommon but you’re still running into Aidan and Joseph."
Hernon adds: "Those owners that are maybe not in it for the Group 1 dream but for the fun, having a few runners and all that, they’re not being penalised if their horse can run at all and will come out with 20 or 30 grand a year."
Like every trainer Hernon is in it for the big days but he knows how to plan a campaign.
New recruit Happy Saxon travels to Le Lion-d'Angers on Thursday for the Listed Prix Urban Sea, with Marco Ghiani coming over to take the ride. After that, the bright lights of Paris await.
Adrien Fouassier - 'Next year could be a big one with my three-year-olds'
I have to admit to some trepidation walking up to the Adrien Fouassier's gate in the Loire Valley training centre of Senonnes; after all the stable enjoyed the year to end all years in 2024 with the Prix Ganay success of Haya Zark, only to suffer the heartbreak of seeing him suffer acute heart failure in the Arc, which has been scheduled to be his swansong before a stud career.
I need not have worried as Fouassier is wearing a Haya Zark jacket and is quick to point out that many of the new facilities at the yard were bought and paid for thanks to his great friend and ally.
"The yard is growing nicely and I’ve really worked on building up the facilities," says Fouassier, a man of quiet demeanour which should not be mistaken for a lack of ambition. "I was lucky enough to have Haya Zark in the yard early on in my career and to win a Group 1. It was something I never expected and I’m delighted with how it’s gone.
"I have a good group of owners who support me and share my passion, which is a huge help. This year I have a lot of younger horses and that is because some of those clients are moving away from working the claiming system and are beginning to diversify.
"And then there is Gerard Augustin-Normand who has sent me a lot of young horses and Madame Odette Fau, and with the stock they have entrusted me I would hope to have a very big year with my three-year-olds next year."
A former stable jockey to near-neighbour Alain Couetil, Fouassier has built his reputation on making good racehorses out of unpromising material.
Now he is beginning to acquire better horses with pedigrees, something which clearly appeals to Fouassier, a classicist in terms of his outlook on training.
"I’d rather take my time in slowly building a horse’s career and my nature is not to overface them too quickly, though I haven’t always had the clientele to allow such a patient approach," says Fouassier, whose association with Augustin-Normand goes back to an early yard favourite in Go Fast Traou Land and the veteran Thirsty, who is still going strong at the age of eight.
"Monsieur Augustin-Normand and his manager John Hammond are prepared to give you the time to develop a horse and I find that quite inspiring."
So is there another Haya Zark lurking in the barn? Fouassier is hopeful that his half-brother by Anodin, Haya Gold, might have inherited a little of the magic of Madame Fau's great warrior, and will be in prime position to know as he rides all the important work across a string which numbers 65 but which he would like to settle at 50.
Fouassier says: "I think he’s on the same track as his brother and I can see a lot of similarities between him and Haya Zark in their way of going about things in the morning. Now all he has to do is to win the Ganay!"
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