View from connections ahead of Sunday's meeting at Cagnes-sur-Mer
As the curtain begins to come down on Cagnes-sur-Mer’s winter jumps meeting, it is time for the ‘Grande Journeé de l’Obstacle’ at the Hippodrome de la Cote d’Azur.
With 65 races already contested since the opening day on November 30th, all roads have led to this afternoon and we are treated to three Listed contests along with the Group Three Grand Prix de la Ville de Nice, worth a whopping €140,000.
Leenders seeks further Glory with d’Anjou
Checking out of the 2019 season with an impressive 82 winners and a further 193 placed horses, trainer Gabriel Leenders will be looking to continue his fantastic run of form as he saddles red-hot favourite Gloria d’Anjou for the Grande Course de Haies de 4 ans, the four-year-old Champion Hurdle.
Successful in both her starts since here debut at Cagnes in early December, the talented daughter of Maresca Sorrento has been pleasing her trainer, especially with her latest outing
"I am quite impressed with the way Gloria d’Anjou has started her career, she won in quite nice style here the last day even if we are not sure what we beat. This weekend she is going to come across some battled hardened rivals and although she is still a bit tender she has handled everything we have asked of her up until now, which is great,"said the Jarze-based trainer.
Although the second of those victories demanded minimal effort and came only three weeks ago, trainer Leenders issued a word of caution to punters, stating that Gloria d’Anjou has had a slightly interupted preparation but still envisages a solid performance
"We haven’t had a clear run with the filly since her win a few weeks ago, she has had some small issues in training therefore we were not able to get her to exactly where we would have liked in terms of work but she remains well and should have a great chance," he said.
Jockey Clement Lefebvre takes the ride once again and a confident sounding Leenders says that the plan will be to keeps things simple as Gloria d’Anjou has her final run of the winter campaign before taking some time out to mature
“In theory, if she runs to her best she should win. She found herself in front the last day and although that went OK the idea this time would be to get a lead off someone if we can and that way we can let her accelerate away at the finish, hopefully!
“She is going to evolve a lot over the coming months and is going to head off on a break after this weekend. We will bring her back with an aim to go chasing and I think then we will really see her at her best, she is very big and jumps like a chaser. Hopefully we can see her at Auteuil, but she needs to continue improving," the trainer added.
While more than pleased with his haul of 82 winners and an over 20% strike-rate in 2019, the popular trainer hopes that the 2020 season will bring an increase in Black-Type performers to his yard.
"The 2019 season was great, we trained a lot of winners and it was a fantastic team effort. Aside from that we were probably lacking a bit of quality, so that is the real objective for this coming year.
"We are lucky to have plenty of nice horses so hopefully we can keep training lots of winners while trying also to increase the quality all the time, especially in the Group races."
Young duo can continue rapid progression
Rising young trainer Hugo Merienne has been enjoying quite a purple patch for some months now.
It started back in October when he consigned the top-lot at Osarus’ 100% National Hunt Sale, Ganzo d’Airy, who sold for a record-breaking €300,000 having finished an eye-catching second at Nancy on his debut.
Continuing the good run of success for the trainer has been young recruit Rockadenn, who has been one of the stars of the show this winter at Cagnes, notching up a treble while mixing it over both hurdles and fences and the four-year-old lines up once again as one of the favourites for this afternoon's Listed Grand Steeple-Chase des 4 ans, a race worth €60,000.
Owing to his trainers keen eye and an obvious ability to nurture young talent it is no surprise that Rockadenn has gone from strength to strength in the short few months since joining Merienne’s stable. He is certain that the best has yet to come from the progressive son of High Rock.
“He is a lovely big horse who we only got a month before the meeting, before that he was with my uncle for who he ran a couple of times. He still has filling out to do and we haven’t seen everything that he can do just yet, there is a lot more improvement in him I think and to win three races already is great," said the handler. based at Avilly Saint Leonard, just outside Chantilly.
Rockadenn won a claimer over fences at the end of November on his first start for the yard before going on to notch up two further successes in quick succession and albeit this afternoon marks a notable step up in grade, 28-year-old Merienne is expecting a big performance from the gelding.
"He is going well since the win the last day, doing all his work well and ticking over nicely. I was very happy with the way he won and the extra distance again can only help him, I think he will be very hard to beat this weekend," added Merienne, who spent substantial lengths of time working and race-riding for both Willie Mullins and top French trainer Guillaume Macaire.
Rockadenn will be ridden jockey Adrien Merienne, younger brother of the trainer, and who according to his sibling is a huge part of the yard's success.
"It’s great to have my brother Adrien riding a lot our horses, not only is he a talented rider but he also knows the horses really well from riding them at home, that helps a lot," said the trainer.
Of the remainder of the field, the biggest threat to Rockadenn’s potential four-timer could be Pour Vous Et Nous, an easy winner of a trial for this race in December and earlier in the year was placed fourth in a Group One hurdle race in Italy.
Ubeda can strike again on Grande Journeé
2-2year old jockey Dylan Ubeda had one of the biggest days of his career when taking the 2019 renewal of the Group Three Grand Prix de la Ville de Nice aboard veteran chaser Achour and although this afternoon's race is arguably a stronger edition, the pair are not a forlorn hope as they team up once again.
Recently seen finishing third in the Listed Prix du Comte de Nice (which is run over a three furlong shorter distance), Achour was beaten that day by Berjou and Myboy, both of whom re-oppose again today.
Campaigned less aggressively this season by his trainer François-Marie Cottin, there is strong reason to believe that the nine-year-old can reverse the form with his rivals as the son of Limnos steps back up to his preferred distance and tries to defend his title in the €140,000 chase.
Ubeda has strong book of rides (provided predominantly by Cottin) with possibly his best chance of the day coming in the third Listed race on the card, the Grande Course de Haies de Cagnes, where he partners red-hot favourite Capharnaum.
Unbeaten in both starts at this year’s meeting, eight-year-old Capharnaum comes here on the back of demolishing the field in a €100,000 handicap just under a month ago. Earmarked for this afternoon's race by his shrewd trainer since that impressive win, he looks the one to beat even though he is slightly wrong at the weights.
His main rivals could be Normandy Invasion, who finished third in this race last year, and Pop Art Du Berlais, who is officially the highest rated in the field and runs off a mark of 65 (143 in UK).
