Jean-Claude Rouget

Coming into Tuesday's G3 Prix Djebel with two runs already under his belt this year, Al Shaqab's Afandy (Mehmas) made that count as he led from the break to take Deauville's Classic trial. Already gelded and unable to contest the Poule d'Essai des Poulains, the Jean-Claude Rouget-trained homebred who had surrendered his unbeaten record to the filly Baklawa (Stunning Spirit) in Cagnes-sur-Mer's Listed Prix de la Californie in February showed abundant zest from the outset under Cristian Demuro. A sitting duck for all the big contenders up the centre of...

Jean-Claude Rouget's health issues are well-documented, but at the end of a troubled year the stable favourite Arrow Eagle (Gleneagles) swooped to conquer to raise morale in the G1 Prix Royal-Oak at Saint-Cloud. A highly respectable sixth in the Arc, Waltraut Spanner's homebred half-brother to the illustrious Ace Impact showed no ill-effects of that recent effort when storming by Queenstown (Galileo) and dominating the final furlong. At the line, the 11-5 favourite had registered an authoritative two-length success from that Ballydoyle outsider, with Sevenna's Knight (Camelot) a short head away...

Favoured for the G1 Melbourne Cup next month, two-time Group 1 winner Sir Delius (Frankel) has been ruled out of both the G1 Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup by Racing Victoria stewards due to a heightened injury profile. Owned by a partnership that includes Go Bloodstock Australia, the four-year-old colt has run first or second in all four runs Down Under. A winner of Doomben's G3 JRA Chairman's Handicap in May, he was second in the G2 Chelmsford Stakes at Randwick last month. Successful in the G1 Underwood Stakes next,...

Lightning couldn't strike twice, could it? In a sense it already has. Gerard Augustin-Normand, who made his entrance to the world of Thoroughbred racing with Prix du Jockey Club winner Le Havre, recently celebrated victory in the Grand Prix de Paris with Le Havre's son Leffard. The colt had been born a month before the untimely demise of his sire at the age of just 16. That victory brought not just Leffard's posthumous tribute to Le Havre as his first Group 1-winning colt, but also the resurgence of the man...

The tears were flowing following a dramatic finale to Sunday's G1 Cygames Grand Prix de Paris, with Jean-Claude Rouget pulling off an upset with Leffard (Le Havre). Rested since beating only one rival in the Prix du Jockey Club, Gerard Augustin-Normand and Ecurie Antonio Caro's 15-1 shot was able to run down Ballydoyle's favourite Trinity College (Dubawi) in the dying yards under Cristian Demuro for a short-head success. Rouget, who is in an ongoing battle with lymphoma, said, "Of course this is a very emotional moment for me. I was always...

Declarations for Sunday's €1.5m G1 Qatar Prix du Jockey Club were confirmed Thursday morning and G1 Poule d'Essai des Poulains third Camille Pissarro (Wootton Bassett) will head a field of 18 for the 10 1/2-furlong Chantilly Classic. Last term's G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere hero has been allocated stall one and is joined by Aidan O'Brien-trained stablemate and fellow TDN Rising Star Trinity College (Dubawi), who is drawn in stall three. O'Brien's lone victory in the race was provided by St Mark's Basilica (Siyouni), who departed from stall two en route...

The recently announced merging of the stables of leading French trainers Jean-Claude Rouget and Jerome Reynier will now not take place. Rouget, the five-time champion trainer in France, has been undergoing treatment for lymphoma and in August announced that he would take out a joint-licence with Reynier from January 2025. He said at the time, "I have known Jerome for some years and when I looked at the way he works, everything about it pleased me." In the days following the announcement, the Aga Khan Studs relocated its horses from...

Less than a week after it was announced that Jean-Claude Rouget was set to join forces with Jerome Reynier, the Aga Khan Studs revealed that it has relocated horses trained by Rouget to Francis-Henri Graffard. A statement released on Tuesday said, "The team at Aga Khan Studs extend their heartfelt thanks to Jean-Claude Rouget for his dedication over the past 19 years, during which time he has won seven Group 1 races for H.H. the Aga Khan, including Valyra (Prix de Diane), Ervedya (Poule d'Essai des Pouliches, Coronation Stakes and...

Jean-Claude Rouget, one of the most successful trainers in French racing history, is set to join forces with Jerome Reynier with the pair set to operate from a joint licence from January 1, 2025.  Rouget, 71, has training bases in Pau and Deauville and has managed the careers of some of the game's biggest stars, including  Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winners Sottsass (Fr) and Ace Impact (Ire). The four-time champion trainer in France announced back in May that he had been suffering from exhaustion and was set to follow...

Sunday's €380,000 G1 ARC Prix Maurice de Gheest shares this weekend's European top billing with Dusseldorf's 166th G1 Henkel-Preis der Diana (German Oaks) and, while the field for that Classic was finalised on Wednesday, declarations for the Deauville highlight were not confirmed until Friday morning. There were no defectors from the overnight set of 16 nominees as all main characters--G1 Prix Jean Prat victor Puchkine (Fr) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}), G1 July Cup hero Mill Stream (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire} and dual G1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes winner Khaadem (Ire) (Dark Angel...

Deauville August is underway and with it a new TDN Rising Star as White Birch Farm's homebred Ultrafragola (Ire) (Sottsass {Fr}--Toinette, by Scat Daddy) provided her Prix du Jockey Club and Arc-winning first-crop sire with a sensational breakthrough winner turning the Prix des Marettes into a procession. Well found in the market as the 7-5 favourite, the Jean-Claude Rouget-trained daughter of the four-times graded-stakes winner travelled strongly for Christophe Soumillon in the wake of the early leader Marques (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}). Looming to that stablemate two out, she was...

The hitherto undefeated Fraise Des Bois (Fr) (Zelzal {Fr}--Artifix {Ire}, by Lawman {Fr}) registered a hattrick of 5 1/2-furlong victories at Tarbes earlier in the campaign and continued on an upward trajectory with a career high in Sunday's Listed Criterium du Bequet at La Teste. The eventual winner recovered from a stuttering start to track the leaders in fifth after the initial strides of this black-type debut. Fanning wide to the stands' side off the home turn, she seized control with 300 metres remaining and powered clear inside the final...