JAMES REVELEY’S THOROUGHBID BLOG: GRADE 1 CHANCES AFTER “UNREAL” FOUR-TIMER COMPIEGNE FOUR-TIMER
Nov 2, 2022
I had some nice horses to ride going into the meeting, but I wasn’t expecting to get four winners. When everything falls into place like that it’s unreal.
It was obviously one of the biggest meetings of the year at Compiegne, and it was brilliant to win the Grand Steeple-Chase on Louisa Carberry’s GRAN DIOSE. He’s a big horse that is on the improve. Apart from last time, when he made a few mistakes and things didn’t go to plan, he’s been improving with every run.
Louisa is a very good trainer at getting a horse right for the big day. Everything was in place on Saturday, and he won with a bit in hand. Louisa’s given him time to come to himself and there should still be some more improvement to come. I don’t know what the plan is next with him. He’s got a potential race at Auteuil at the end of November, otherwise he might be coming over to the UK for a race.
GOA LIL, who won the Listed race, is a super horse. He loves his racing, I saw him come into the paddock and he was raring to go – he came in with his ears pricked and just wanted to get out there and do the job. In the race, he was perfect all the way round. He’d obviously had two runs for the Georges in France beforehand, two very good runs actually, and on the day everything went well. He jumped perfectly and was very tough at the finish.
Noel George approached Nigel [Twiston-Davies] to buy the horse and run in France, but Nigel obviously soon saw that it was quite a shrewd move, so instead sent them the horse to run. So Nigel is paying the training fees in France with the Georges, and it’s already paid dividends!
Cravache d’or and Grade 1 hopes
It’s been a good season so far, I’m just about top and I’ll just keep going. I would have looked to have had a few more winners by now, but it’s still going well and obviously last weekend’s four-timer helped a lot.
It would be nice to win a Grade 1 this season, as it’s been a few seasons since I’ve won one. I’ve got a couple of good chances coming up hopefully, with one for the Georges – IL EST FRANCAIS – and one for Hugo Merienne, called ST DONATS. They would be my big hopes for a Grade 1 winner.
Il Est Francais runs on Friday at Auteuil, which is his prep race before going for the G1 Prix Renaud du Vivier. The following weekend is the big meeting at Auteuil, where St Donats will hopefully go for the G1 Prix Cambacérès, which horses like Long Run and Master Dino have won in years gone by.