IT may be very early days, but there is little doubt as to the identity of French racing’s ‘Personality Of The Year’ for 2024 so far – take a bow Marseille trainer Jerome Reynier.

Yet to reach his 40th birthday, Reynier has begun the season in stunning style, backing up his champion trainer title at the Cagnes-sur-Mer winter meeting with an incredible last fortnight, which kicked off with Facteur Cheval’s narrow success in the Dubai Turf, continued with the Group 2 Prix d’Harcourt triumph of Zarakem at ParisLongchamp last Sunday, and was rounded off by Lazzat extending his unbeaten career record to four races with a determined front-running display in the Group 3 Prix Djebel at Deauville on Tuesday.

He even leads the nascent French trainers’ championship, just ahead of Jean-Claude Rouget both in terms of winners and prize money, and maintaining a fabulous win strike rate of over 26%.

One slight word of warning before we all get carried away is that the ground in Paris is no drier than it is on Merseyside or in Co Kildare, so the results of these early skirmishes could end up as unreliable indicators for the coming months if, please God, we ever actually see some sunshine.

Also, the warmer climate in the south of France means that Reynier’s string are likely to be some way ahead of their Chantilly-based counterparts fitness-wise.

Big relief

Zarakem’s win must have been a big relief for Reynier given that this Zarak colt had run just once since being sold for a whopping €500,000 to new owners Sofiane Benaroussi and Haras d’Etreham at the Arqana Arc Sale last autumn, flopping badly in the Group 2 Prix du Conseil de Paris.

Before that sale, Reynier has guided him to five consecutive provincial victories, including two at listed level, in the colours of his chief patron, Jean-Claude Seroul.

The Prix Ganay would be an obvious target following this one and a half-length defeat of last term’s Group 2 Prix Dollar victor and Group 1 Champion Stakes third Horizon Dore, but Zarakem would have to be supplemented for that Group 1 event, which takes place on April 28th.

Last Sunday’s other two pattern races, a pair of Group 3s for three-year-olds over a mile and a furlong, saw strong performances from Dare To Dream, to land the Al Shira’aa Racing Prix Vanteaux for fillies, and Atlast, to lift the Prix La Force, for colts.

Faster time

Dare To Dream, a daughter of Camelot from the same family as the Arc heroine, Danedream, clocked much the faster time of the pair to give Co Cork native Gavin Hernon, son of Castletown Stud owner Joe Hernon, the second group winner of his training career which just started in 2018.

Third in the Group 3 Staffordstown Stud Stakes at the Curragh when last seen six months ago, Dare To Dream will now be aimed at the Prix de Diane on June 16th, taking in the Prix Saint-Alary en route.

Atlast, a Wertheimer brothers homebred son of Farrh so named because he was not born until May 31st, has a rather ungainly way of galloping, but this doesn’t seem to stop him from being an athlete and his trainer, Christophe Ferland, nominated the Prix du Jockey Club on June 9th as his classic goal following his comfortable length and a quarter victory over Mondo Man.

The disappointment of the race was the fifth-place finish of the Group 1 Critérium Internation winner, Sunway, though his trainer, David Menuisier, was putting on a brave face during the debrief, stressing that his stable star was well short of peak condition and suggesting that his jockey, Oisin Murphy, had been caught out by the slow pace.

ON Tuesday, Deauville’s straight seven furlongs proved just as suitable for the Reynier-trained Lazzat as the round course at Cagnes, where all of his earlier races had been staged.

After adopting his usual front-running tactics under Antonio Orani, Lazzat had the majority of his six-strong opposition cooked with a quarter of a mile to run, the one exception being Rouget’s Blue Point colt Keran.

Lazzat never relented, and still had two and a half lengths to spare at the line but Keran, who beat the rest by five lengths, emerged with plenty of credit.

Gelded last September, the winner is thus ineligible for the classics, so Reynier will choose between the Prix Paul de Moussac and the Jersey Stakes at Royal Ascot for his spring target.

In the longer term, the in-form handler is convinced that this son of Territories, who is owned by Nurlan Bizakov and was bred by his Sumbe operation, is neither dependent on testing ground or making the running.

Lazzat’s time was two seconds quicker than the fillies, led by the Godolphin-owned Charlie Appleby-trained Night Of Thunder progeny Romantic Style, managed in the Group 3 Prix Imprudence over the same course and distance 70 minutes earlier.

She got the better of the odds-on favourite, Ramatuelle, by half a length with Menuisier, who saddled Devil’s Point to finish third in the Djebel, also having to settle for that position here, albeit his representative, Tamfana, was only another half-length behind Ramatuelle.

Swerve

The first three all hold entries in the English 1000 Guineas but Romantic Style is likely to give Newmarket a swerve.

“I don’t, in all honesty think that she’d see out a mile at Newmarket,” Appleby said. “So we thought we were better off coming here as it gives her more time between now and the French Guineas.

“William [Buick] was delighted, he said she was fresh but travelled sweetly in his hands. She’s a filly who has got natural pace in her pedigree but should give herself the chance to stay an easy mile.”

Christopher Head, by contrast, was loathe for Ramatuelle’s defeat to deter him from sticking to Plan A and sending her to Newmarket.

The ground was surely all against this daughter of Justify, who had been absent since getting caught close home by the mighty Vandeek in the Group 1 Prix Morny last August, and she pulled hard enough in the early stages to make this a particularly praiseworthy effort.

Francais fails on return

to action

LAST season’s top young French novice chaser and impressive winner of the Grade 1 Kauto Star Novices’ Chase at Kempton, Il Est Francais lost his unbeaten record over fences when finishing last in the Grade 2 Prix Murat at Auteuil on Saturday.

The Noel George-trained gelding was prepping for the Grand Steeplechase de Paris nexxt month and was expected to make a successful return from just over three months off the track. James Reveley switched to more patient tactics, initially attempting to settle his mount at the rear of the five-strong field.

He eventually gave Il Est Francais his head and allowed him to stride in front, but he was in trouble on straightening up for home and he had almost stopped to a walk by the time he clambered over the final fence.

Reveley allowed his mount to coast home from there on in as Youtwo Glass narrowly denied the George and Zetterholm second string Gallipoli victory in a driving finish.

The six-year-old is now out to 14/1 for the Cheltenham Gold Cup and 6/1 for the King George.