With a roll of honour that includes Cirrus Des Aigles (Fr), Solow (GB), Dolniya (Fr) and Vazirabad (Fr), France has an impressive record at the Dubai World Cup meeting, and one man who will be hoping to enhance his country's tally is first-time Meydan visitor Fabrice Chappet.
The Chantilly trainer arrived in Dubai on Tuesday with his horses in a rich vein of form on home turf and he's pleased with how his G1 Al Quoz Sprint contender Finsbury Square (Ire) (Siyouni {Fr}) has fared during his stay in the desert.
“I'm quite happy with the horse. Although he's a 5-year-old he hasn't done that much travelling––only once before this has he left France to go to Goodwood––but he travelled very well and seems content,” says Chappet, a native of Chantilly who returned to his home town after a five-year stint with John Nerud in America. After spending another five years assisting Robert Collet, he applied for a licence of his own in 1996.
A quiet man, his laconic responses could be mistaken for a reluctance to participate in the brave new racing world in which trainers and jockeys are required to spout forth opinions almost on tap. But it is certainly worth taking the time to listen carefully to Chappet as not only does he clearly love the horses in his care but he is steadily creeping up the training ranks without the patronage of some of the sport's bigger owners.
Only the powerhouse French stables of Jean-Claude Rouget and Henri-Alex Pantall have trained more winners than him in France this year, but he has a far better strike-rate, with 16 wins from only 35 horses to have run.
One of those victories was notched by the dual Group 3 winner Finsbury Square on his seasonal resumption at Chantilly on March 3. So can the gelding maintain his unbeaten run for 2017 on Saturday?
“It's already a victory to be here, to be invited to such an important race,” says Chappet.
He came very close when he was fourth in the Prix de l'Abbaye and he showed then that he belonged with the best sprinters in Europe, so now he has his place at the start.”
In a 26-race career to date, Berend Van Dalfsen's homebred has only been out of the first four on one occasion, when contesting the G2 Qatar King George S. at Glorious Goodwood. His six wins and regular placed efforts have seen him amass more than €527,000 in earnings.
“The horse has been very consistent and has made a lot of money. He deserves to be here even if he doesn't have a favourite's chance, but we are pretty confident that he will run well,” advises the trainer, who has engaged the services of the world-class Christophe Soumillon.
“Christophe knows the track pretty well––I think he was even involved with the plans to build it,” he adds with a grin.
While other trainers are still shrugging off the winter blues, Chappet has started 2017 in the most positive frame of mind, not just on the racecourse but with the largest string of horses in his 20 years of training.
“We've got quite a few this year,” he admits. “We have improved our numbers and have 90 in the yard. We've had a good start to 2017, but let's hope it lasts a bit longer than just the first three months of the year.”
Finsbury Square is a rare older horse in a stable of which almost 50% of the residents are juveniles.
“We have about 40 2-year-olds but we do have some nice 3-year-olds,” he adds. “Funnily enough, Baccarat (Ire) (Dutch Art {GB}), the brother of one of my nicest 3-year-olds named Precieuse (Ire) (Tamayuz {GB}), is running against us in the Al Quoz on Saturday.
“Precieuse is owned by Brendan and Anne-Marie Hayes and she was stakes-placed twice last year. She won very nicely last week and is entered in the Guineas.”
Chappet will doubtless prefer that Precieuse, rather than her brother, provides any immediate updates to the family but, Baccarat aside, Finsbury Square still has some pretty talented sprinters to face over 1200 metres of the Meydan Turf, not least Henry Candy's dual Group 1 winner Limato (Ire) (Tagula {Ire}).
However, the inclusion this year of the extended Al Quoz to the 10-race Global Sprint Challenge already has the trainer plotting further international forays.
“We may go to Hong Kong in May for the next leg of the Sprint Challenge [the 1200-metre Chairman's Sprint Prize]––there's nothing in Europe in May in for this type of horse. Of course we will be thinking about Royal Ascot as well.”
Stand by to see Finsbury Square collect plenty more airmiles as he bids to maintain his trainer's flying start to the new season.
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