From this month's TB Owner & Breeder mag:
Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera is preparing for a British invasion. Following the success a year ago of a small raiding party from David Nicholls's Yorkshire yard and with prize money levels still the envy of Europe, demand for stabling at its upcoming six-week Flat meeting has been intense.
Almost £2.8 million will be on offer at the 19 fixtures which start on January 17 to February 26, when the closing day features two Listed races over middle distances.
The lowest first prize during the meeting is £7,000, so it is no surprise that applications for boxes from Britain have been flooding in. John Best, Elaine Burke, Gerard Butler, Gay Kelleway, Michael Magnusson and Nigel Tinkler have all been turned down, but Nicholls will again be taking six horses; Stan Moore will be making his first visit to the track, while Simon Dow and James Bethell, both Cagnes stalwarts of some years standing, have been granted a pair of boxes each.
Bethell's two winners from four runners apart, Nicholls alone mined the riches on offer 12 months ago: from 21 participants he had 4 wins and 6 places. Only one third of his representatives finished out of the money as he plundered over £63,000.
(There's a bit more about travelling there and the awful on-course accommodations from Dandy's secretary Kate Sigsworth.)
Sigsworth attributes some of the success of the visit to using local jockeys and taking their advice. "We had a queue of jockeys to ride work for us and I cannot speak too highly of Ioritz Mendizabal. He ironed out a language problem we had following a claiming race and would help wash down the horses after they'd worked. How many champion jockeys do you know who would do that?"
And if Cagnes would build some more boxes, we might see more British horses snapping up prize money that shames their home country.
Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera is preparing for a British invasion. Following the success a year ago of a small raiding party from David Nicholls's Yorkshire yard and with prize money levels still the envy of Europe, demand for stabling at its upcoming six-week Flat meeting has been intense.
Almost £2.8 million will be on offer at the 19 fixtures which start on January 17 to February 26, when the closing day features two Listed races over middle distances.
The lowest first prize during the meeting is £7,000, so it is no surprise that applications for boxes from Britain have been flooding in. John Best, Elaine Burke, Gerard Butler, Gay Kelleway, Michael Magnusson and Nigel Tinkler have all been turned down, but Nicholls will again be taking six horses; Stan Moore will be making his first visit to the track, while Simon Dow and James Bethell, both Cagnes stalwarts of some years standing, have been granted a pair of boxes each.
Bethell's two winners from four runners apart, Nicholls alone mined the riches on offer 12 months ago: from 21 participants he had 4 wins and 6 places. Only one third of his representatives finished out of the money as he plundered over £63,000.
(There's a bit more about travelling there and the awful on-course accommodations from Dandy's secretary Kate Sigsworth.)
Sigsworth attributes some of the success of the visit to using local jockeys and taking their advice. "We had a queue of jockeys to ride work for us and I cannot speak too highly of Ioritz Mendizabal. He ironed out a language problem we had following a claiming race and would help wash down the horses after they'd worked. How many champion jockeys do you know who would do that?"
And if Cagnes would build some more boxes, we might see more British horses snapping up prize money that shames their home country.
