Rising force in training ranks is eyeing America’s richest race with Dubai Turf winner Facteur Cheval before teaming up with Jean-Claude Rouget in the new year
Aidan O’Brien’s bold bid to capture the Breeders’ Cup Classic with Derby hero City Of Troy will be pored over for the next few months, but he is not the only European trainer dreaming of dirt glory at Del Mar with a classy turf performer.
Like the Ballydoyle maestro, Jerome Reynier is thoughtful, articulate and helpful, although the pair probably differ when it comes to box-driving duties. The Frenchman put in a stint behind the wheel when steering stable star Lazzat, last seen landing the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, some 600 miles to Deauville from his base near Marseille for Prix Djebel in April.
“It’s just part of the job and he’s such an important horse – I wanted to do everything right,” he explains.
On the other hand, when another leading light, Dubai Turf winner Facteur Cheval, heads further afield for the $7m Breeders’ Cup Classic on November 2, Reynier is not even certain of joining him as Lazzat has his own big-money date in Australia on the same day. The three-year-old gelding is being targeted for the A$10m ($6.8m) Golden Eagle at Rosehill in Sydney.
Throw in Zarakem’s intended appearance in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe a month earlier and it is easy to see why the 38-year-old is viewed as a rising force of the training ranks – and not just in France, but worldwide.
That point will be underlined in bold marker pen next year when he joins forces with dual Arc-winning trainer Jean-Claude Rouget, a heavyweight figure who has saddled more winners in Europe than anyone else.
“You try to inspire yourself from the best and when I was young I’d be looking at the best horses and seeing which races they were going for, so I knew the international programme really well,” explains Reynier, who was smitten with the sport through his father Serge, an architect by day who bred 1988 Djebel winner Shaindy.
“I was hoping one day I would have a horse good enough to travel the world and we won in Qatar with Marianafoot in 2019, while Royal Julius won the first edition of the Bahrain International Trophy the same year.
International brigade
“We took Skalleti to Hong Kong during the coronavirus pandemic, so we’ve been to many international places and we’re aiming for more with Lazzat and Facteur Cheval. It’s something very exciting for all of my team and the owners.
“When Facteur Cheval won in Dubai it was unreal. We went wanting to see him run well and maybe pick up a check, but to win was amazing.”
That $6m prize was the most lucrative among five G1s on Reynier’s resumé, an impressive effort for someone who dreamed of a career in the breeding and bloodstock spheres before finding his niche as a trainer.
Prior to that, Reynier was dispatched to various stud farms to gain industry experience and, on his father’s insistence, learn English.
A breeding season at Coolmore, pounding the beat at the main yearling sales across Europe, and doing the Irish National Stud and Darley Flying Start courses whetted Reynier’s appetite for more but making money as a bloodstock agent was, in his words, “really
hard”.
He adds: “I also missed the contact with the horses, so tried to get my training licence with France Galop, but they didn’t want to give it to me because I hadn’t been an assistant trainer for two years.
“Patrice Camacho offered me the chance to be his private trainer before I got my public licence in 2010. I started then with five or six horses, but we’ve been growing nicely.”
Soon responsible for 40 horses, the divorced father of five-year-old Rose and three-year-old Marius was approached in 2018 to train a further 50 for influential owner-breeder Jean-Claude Seroul, whose colours were carried by prolific gelding Skalleti, Reynier’s first top-level winner in the 2021 Prix d’Ispahan.
“I might have got to that many horses on my own, but it was a great help,” he continues. “It was convenient, but the number of horses and people to deal with was challenging. That said, I think we coped well and, after Skalleti won that first Group 1, he won another in Germany a few months later and then Marianafoot, who was also owned by Mr Seroul, won the Maurice de Gheest.
“To win three Group 1s in three months was unbelievable,” he goes on. “But you’re always doubting yourself and I’m not someone who is really sure of themself. I need the horses to perform well and that makes you proud and gives you confidence for what’s next.”
Formal link
What’s next for Reynier, at least from January 1, is a formal link with the 71-year-old Rouget, who has sent out more than 7,000 winners. However, Rouget’s racecourse visits in 2024 have been limited indeed since he underwent treatment for lymphoma.
“He approached me, so I’m hoping he’s soon back in good shape and we can share some really good moments together,” says Reynier, who also had educational spells with trainers Neil Drysdale in California and Erwan Charpy in Dubai.
With Rouget’s stables in Deauville and Pau added to the mix, there is a reason the incipient partnership has been referred to as a French ‘superstable’.
“He’s got a great team behind him – I’ve been dealing with them recently – so I’m really looking forward to this new experience,” says Reynier.
Dynamic operation
“I’ll still keep my stable in Calas near Marseille as I love it. I don’t think I’ll ever leave and, with the bases in Deauville and Pau, it will be a dynamic operation.
“You learn every day with horses and how to deal with problems and Jean-Claude has been dealing with problems for so many years. It’s certain he’ll be teaching me and I’ll learn new things – that will be priceless.”
If Reynier can’t put a price on that, he is not fussed about splitting success either. “I like to share everything,” he says.
“Success with my team, my owners, so to share training with Jean-Claude will mean a lot. My dad was 71 when he passed away and he only saw me train for one year, so when Jean-Claude, who is 71, called me and I knew he was not feeling good, I had to try to maintain his stable the best way I could. That was a mission I accepted without a doubt.”
Victory for any of Zarakem, Lazzat or Facteur Cheval in their nominated races in the coming months would more than justify Rouget’s decision to join forces with one of the training ranks’s brightest talents.
“We thought about that Australian race right after Lazzat won the Djebel,” reflects Reynier, fond of a fishing trip or catching the odd Olympique Marseille soccer game during any rare downtime.
“As a gelding, he couldn’t run in a Classic, so we looked at the programme and thought this race was the most valuable and best challenge we could have, while his owner-breeder Nurlan Bizakov is keen to go as well. He won’t run beforehand and I’m very confident we can get him there in good shape.”
Royal Ascot runner-up Zarakem was a disappointment in the Juddmonte International. “I think he was ridden too prominently at York and he was too keen,” says his trainer. “In the Arc, we’ll wait at the back, try to get him relaxed and try to run like he did at Royal Ascot when he was second in the Prince of Wales’s.”
Daringly audacious
If Zarakem running in the Arc makes sense and Lazzat heading down under is imaginative, fielding Team Valor’s five-year-old Facteur Cheval in the Breeders’ Cup Classic for his dirt debut after 16 starts on turf appears daringly audacious.
“His owners, Barry Irwin and Gary Barber, really want to give it a go,” says Reynier. “But he’d been training really well on the dirt when he was out in Dubai and he’s better going left-handed as well.
“He’s run over a mile in the Queen Anne and Sussex Stakes this summer, but might be better over further and if it doesn’t work we’ll be back home prepping for the Dubai Turf again.
“If he did run well, we could be thinking about the Saudi Cup or Dubai World Cup.” he goes on. “Del Mar will be a good test, so we’ll see how he can run against dirt specialists.
“I still think we’re a small stable so to have horses going for a massive race in Australia, the Breeders’ Cup Classic and Arc is unreal – something you wouldn’t even dream of – but I do appreciate what it means.”
Reynier has other ambitions as well. “I’m still chasing a first win in Britain and have been second in the Queen Elizabeth, Champion Stakes, Sussex Stakes and Prince of Wales’s so I’d like to win one soon enough,” he says.
The link with Rouget should also bolster Classic ammunition. “I haven’t had enough yearlings coming in to aim for a Classic,” he explains. “But now we’re going to have many well-bred yearlings, so the target is a Classic, that would be a dream.”
As dreams go, this one looks more than achievable. And, considering Rouget’s estimable record in the French Classics, probably sooner rather than later.
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