During this period of confinement, here are some news from our stables.
We are lucky to be able to go on working as usual with strict sanitary measures for our staff of course. All the team is at work except one mother (who has no nanny).
Each horse goes out as usual and the fine weather takes off the stress of this very particular situation.
As far as racing is concerned, it should resume mid-April, therefore we maintain our horses at work for them to be competitive as soon as racing resumes. Looking forward to seeing you soon at race-courses.
The nice weather we have this week suits mares and foals perfectly as they can go out to the pastures. At the end of the winter it is a pleasure for them to move around but also to eat the first spring grass which is a change with the dry food (hay) they ate all winter…
Our foal is happy to go out a little bit longer every day and… what about TROTOT who needs to walk and who starts being fed up in her box with this little cheeky boy who doesn’t stop annoying her…
For your information, foals are weaned when they are between 5 and 6 months, and sometimes earlier because some mares have no more milk.
…for OR GRIS at Saint-Cloud on March 15th in the “quinté” (big handicap) for 4 year-olds over a mile and a half. He finished 5th ridden by Alexis Badel.
He started in 2nd, 3rd position… and the race was regular. OR GRIS is a very easy horse that you can place anywhere in the field.
Alexis chose to attack outside the last bend because he didn’t want to find himself blocked behind a “dead” horse. Although he came a bit too soon, OR GRIS performed a nice finishing straight but weakened in the last 100m (half a furlong).
Debriefing: “Not quite ready but nevertheless a good come back race!”
We had a message from the race-course of Argentan: “Races of March 15th are cancelled because of climate conditions
. It rained a lot and the track was waterlogged.”
I wanted to give you this piece of information for you to understand that in our job, we are dependent upon situations that we don’t master!
FEU D’ARTIFICE is a horse we have esteem for…
After his very easy win at Pau, he had 3 bad races… ( fell twice and unplaced once).
We chose to run him at Auteuil which is a racecourse more adapted for the big mover that he is. Ridden by Ludovic Philipperon, he finished 3rd, not beaten much for the second place.
Report from Ludovic: “we should have been second, but I was badly hampered by the fall of a competitor in the far straight and it took FEU D’ARTIFICE two hurdles to find his balance back.
On top of that, the horse who finished second was helped by the inside rail. As far as I am concerned, I couldn’t rely on the rail because my horse is very left-handed.”
To follow in his next races.
