‘It’s a great moment’ – Rouget enjoys first French Eclipse winner in 62 years
Saturday: Coral-Eclipse, Sandown
He has trained more winners than any other trainer in Europe yet there was no disguising the pleasure in Jean-Claude Rouget’s voice having just seen Vadeni win a vintage Coral-Eclipse.
Never one to shun a challenge, Rouget became the first trainer based in France to land the Eclipse for 62 years, having urged the Aga Khan to supplement his Prix du Jockey Club winner at a cost of £50,000 at the start of the week.
It proved money well spent, with Vadeni showing the same brilliance he had displayed at Chantilly 27 days earlier, quickening past the entire field having been settled in last by Christophe Soumillon, before fending off the late surge of Mishriff down the outside.
Despite having sent Bay Bridge off the 9-4 favourite, a crowd nudging 10,000 lapped up a barnstorming finish, with the official margin of victory a neck, with Irish 2,000 Guineas hero Native Trail a further head away in third.
In 2016 after Almanzor had won the Champion Stakes at Ascot, Rouget amazed reporters when declaring that victory had been number 6,035 of an unparalleled career.
Fast forward six years and Rouget was at it again, revealing he was now on the cusp of 7,000 winners, a total unmatched by any trainer past or present in Europe.
“I can tell you today I’m on 6,982 now,” said the Pau-based trainer with a Gallic chuckle. ”It’s a great moment. My career started very slowly with some jumpers and some bad Flat horses, so it’s a long story.”
Asked how confident he had been heading into the race, the 68-year-old added: “If I decide to supplement a horse like that, it’s my basic instinct, so I was confident. I have 43 years of training in my legs, so I know it’s always difficult to win.
“To win the Eclipse for me was a real challenge, like when Almanzor won the Irish Champion Stakes. I hope this horse will also win the Irish Champion and that will be his next race. They are two champions.”
Having hit the front a furlong out, Vadeni had looked to be on course for a cosy success, but Soumillon reported the son of Churchill to have taken a false step in the final 100 yards and he had to show tenacity to repel the late flourish of Mishriff on the outer, as well as the renewed challenge of Native Trail on his inner.
“We wanted him very relaxed in the first part of the race,” said Rouget, who before Saturday had never had a runner at Sandown. “I was a bit anxious at the beginning of the straight but with his turn of foot he came [through] easily.
“Christophe said he had a bad step 80 metres from the post and at that moment I thought we could be second, but he showed his courage.
“For me he’s a typical mile-and-a-quarter horse. It was very important to win this race for him and for his stallion career later on.”
For Soumillon, who punched the air in jubilation crossing the line, the victory evoked memories of the great Almanzor and the French-based Belgian was in no doubt Vadeni was in the same class.
“I was in last position but the pace was just fine,” he said. “We didn’t go really fast but for my horse it was perfect. When we came off the turn the pace started to pick up and for 100 yards he was a bit off the bridle, so I had to give him a chance.
“At the two-furlong marker he took hold of the bridle and changed legs. That was the time when I was thinking maybe I wait a bit longer, but I could see Mishriff on my inside completely stuck. I just let him go and that’s maybe why I hit the front 50 to 100 yards too early.
“Everything was fine but unfortunately 80 yards from the line he stumbled and lost balance for a few strides, but he was a bit like Almanzor and gave me that extra gear only champions can give you.”
It was not all good news for Soumillon, who was handed a 12-day careless riding ban as he allowed Vadeni to cause “considerable interference” with Native Trail and Lord North after the line as he celebrated.
He added: “I didn’t see William Buick and James Doyle on my inside and the horse just shifted to take the corner. Like I said to the stewards, that’s my fault. I shouldn’t have celebrated first and made sure I didn’t put them in trouble at that point.”
John Gosden thrilled with ‘superb race’ from Mishriff despite missing break
Another Group 1, another near miss for a John Gosden-trained horse who was arguably further back than ideal, struggled for room at a crucial time and, despite picking up once getting out, did so too late.
Yet the reaction from Gosden could not have been more different than at Ascot 16 days ago when the trainer spoke after Stradivarius’s defeat and Frankie Dettori was left feeling the shockwaves.
On a day when he publicly offered his old rider an olive branch, here the champion trainer was at pains to absolve Mishriff’s rider David Egan of any blame.
Egan and Mishriff missed the break and ended up three back on the rail – somewhere the jockey admitted post-race is not where you want to be on Sandown’s round course. Then, with two furlongs left to run, Egan tried to part the retreating Bay Bridge and the challenging Native Trail, but the gap was not there.
In fairness to Egan, with Lord North to his right and the surging Vadeni to his left, in that moment switching was hardly an option either and it was only once Christophe Soumillon had flown on the French challenger that he was able to move left and swoop down the outside for a fast-finishing second.
Gosden said: “Mishriff missed the break and wound up on the rail and he’s run a fabulous race, I’m thrilled with the way he’s finished. David did everything right having just missed the break, so it was a super run.
“I think Mishriff was fit enough, he’s not blowing too much for that and he’s run a superb race against star three-year-olds. The Saudi Cup did not go well, he got a whole load of sand down his throat, they changed the track there and made it heavier. I’m over the moon with the horse and the jockey did absolutely nothing wrong.”
Egan too was proud of the race his mount ran, albeit he seemed to concede with a smoother run he may well have won.
“He was under pressure a long way out and when they hit top stride it was at the wrong time,” he said. ”When we needed the gap it just closed and I had to switch him to the outside and he showed a great turn of foot.
“We wanted to switch him off on his first run of the year, he was going to be fresh, but it doesn’t help missing the break a little bit. We were in a lovely rhythm but three back on the fence is not the place you want to be at Sandown, so in the circumstances he’s run incredibly. A lot of people may say the best horse finished second.”
Gosden has won the Eclipse three times in the last decade, twice with three-year-old colts in Golden Horn and Roaring Lion, and he emphasised the advantage he felt the Classic generation have in the race with the two young challengers finishing first and third.
“You’ve three-year-olds there getting a lot of weight and he’s split the two of them,” Gosden said. “I’m over the moon with him and I thought Lord North squeezed through on the inside and ran a blinder of a race.”
Charlie Appleby, trainer of third-placed Native Trail, offered no excuses in defeat. He said: “William [Buick] said he sees no reason not to stay at a mile and a quarter. He said he saw it out well and is very straightforward to ride through a race.
“There are no excuses, at the end of the day he was beaten by a better three-year-old and Mishriff’s not a bad older horse at all.
“Maybe on a stiffer track when they go a gallop it may suit him. I’m not making any excuses today, he’s run a solid race and more importantly he’s opened up his options for us, as we know he stays a mile and a quarter.”
Read more:
‘He was remarkable’ – Soumillon lands Coral-Eclipse thriller on France’s Vadeni
‘He’s definitely the best I’ve had’ – Raasel makes it eight wins for Appleby
John Gosden ‘over the moon’ with Frankie Dettori as he hints at reunion
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