Have you come down from your little cloud after your victory in the Quinté+ on Saturday at Vincennes with your horse Ideal de Riveray? We imagine that you must have celebrated this event?
“The next day, I came down from my clouds, because we have to go back to work. I haven’t had time to celebrate yet since I had to go to the races with two good chances on Sunday and Monday, but we will take time to celebrate with friends afterwards.”
This success allowed you to come to the forefront? What is your background in the world of racing?
“I studied to be a cattle breeder, but the farm that I was to take over was not immediately available. At the same time, I have always been fascinated by the world of horses. One day, I saw a advertisement to work at Romuald Mourice. So I chose to take the plunge and decided to call him. He told me to come and two days later, I took the car towards the South-East. I stayed with Romuald for almost three years between 2011 and 2014.
Subsequently, I wanted to set up on my own, but I had to give up the profession, because you had to have worked for three years in a stable to obtain the training license. Unfortunately, I had only worked for 2 years and 9 months at Romuald Maurice. As I had taken over responsibility for a farm in the meantime, I could not return to work for a trainer. As soon as I was able to free myself, I went to do a three-month internship at Igor Blanchon to be able to obtain my license in 2018.”
Where are you based and what type of facility do you have?
“I am based in Charente in Montbron. I have four horses in training, but also “L” horses which are in the field for next year. To train, I have a straight line of 680 meters to train my horses with a turn to turn at the end and leave. For my agricultural activity, I have 100 hectares of grass and 40 cows. In my typical days, I feed the horses then the cows before returning to take care of the horses then I. go back to take care of the cows When it’s hay season, I don’t have much time to take care of my horses, so I rely on the AFASEC trainee, because I don’t get off the tractor. of the day.”
Ideal de Riveray now totals €156,240 at 6 years and has offered you your first Quinté+. What is the story of this horse?
“The horse was at Romuald Mauricehe bought it at the Caen sales. As I still work with him a bit, he called me to tell me that he had a horse that had a lot of behavior to entrust to me, but that was having gait problems because of a testicle. He didn’t have time to take care of it with his large stable and that’s how he arrived at the house where he was castrated. At the beginning, I had it as a rental then we bought it during its third place in Challans by sharing 50% with a friend.
You said that seeing the horse again at this level was a miracle, because your horse had had heart surgery a year ago, what was the nature of this operation?
“My horse suffers from atrial fibrillation which is a heart rhythm disorder. It corresponds to an uncoordinated action of the myocardial cells, leading to rapid and irregular contraction of the heart atria. His heart had to beat twice as fast to maintain the Blood flow This is a problem that also happens to humans. We had to give him general anesthesia and defibrillate him, the operation was not risky, however there is always a risk when you anesthetize a horse and he. there is everything similarly 33% chance of recurrence. For the moment, knock on wood, everything is fine.”
Do you have an idea of the rest of the program for your champion?
“I don’t have much in Vincennes apart from races with an autostart start in which I don’t want to take part with him. He should run in Angers over 3125 meters at the beginning of January and then we’ll see.
I would love to run the Green Trophy or the GNT with him in the future, but with the hot summer weather, I don’t want to take the risk of running him at this time of year when the majority of stages of the race are contested. this circuit, since he has heart problems. This is why every summer, he is stopped and goes to the field with the foals which does him the greatest good, he must be taken care of. But why not let yourself be tempted by the first stages of the Grand National before this time of year. I spoke about it with Jean-Michel Bazire, who told me that it was playable and he even added that the horse was like him, nice, but a little touchy. My horse also has the advantage of turning right and left, but still prefers long distances, because getting into the legs is not his strong suit.”
Finally, what does the future of your stable look like? Do you think you can develop further and do you have horses capable of taking over from Idéal de Riveray?
“I would have to go through the training to become a public trainer and be able to have more horses under my control. Strangely, since Saturday, the phone has been ringing to put horses in training for me. But I need time and I Currently lacking, I have to take care of my farm, but also my 8 month old daughter, my wife is very busy with her job in the restaurant business so we have to juggle our schedules.
As for the next generation in my stable, I have Lancelot de Beyleva complicated horse, but one with a future. He is better than Ideal at the same age, but he is more of a ridden horse. I also have Ideal’s brother, Marvel by Riverayit is promising but late, I think I will qualify it at the end of February.”
Ideal of Riveray during his last victory on the Vincennes racecourse with Jean Michel Bazire on his sulky
