ENGLISH VERSION is respect. Each of us knows how hard it is to win races. And Jean-Claude Rouget won a great many of them.
G. What brought you together and what set you apart?
A. R-D. In truth, our methods were quite different. He worked his 2-year-olds much more, taking them to the racecourse early. On our side, we tended to let the horses mature. In the end, we all shape our work according to where the horses are bred. Personally, I trained fewer speed horses than he did. With the Aga Khan, at that time, they were mostly stayers. I must say he used his method admirably.
G. Did you take inspiration from each other’ s work?
A. R-D. You can’ t copy. All the young trainers who tried to imitate the Rouget method never really managed it. He trained short and very fast. And he bought a lot. It was a very well-oiled system. I always respected his work. It’ s a fine success story.
G. Do you have an anecdote about Jean-Claude Rouget?
A. R-D. After I retired, I ran into him at the sales and he came up to me and said:“ It’ s good that you’ re stopping; we’ ll see how to go about it when it’ s our turn to turn the page.”
G. What does stopping feel like?
A. R-D. He said on television the other day:“ I didn’ t realise everything I had won.” When I ended my career, I felt the same thing. When you train, you are always thinking about tomorrow, about succeeding again and again. You move straight on to another horse, to the next preparation. It’ s exciting, but you don’ t always have time to really savour the moment.
G. How did you see Jean- Claude Rouget evolve?
A. R-D. Being based in the south-west led him to adapt. After the time when he won his first Group 1 races in Paris with Jean-René Dubosc( the Prix Jean Prat and the 1994 Grand Prix de Paris with Millkom), he realised that running in the trials before the big races wasn’ t ideal because of the fatigue from travelling. I believe he argued to the racing authorities for a four-week gap between the trials and the major races, rather than three.
G. How do you view your two exceptional records?
A. R-D. We can be pleased with them, naturally. But racing depends a great deal on the quality of the horses you train. Jean-Claude Rouget relied much more on numbers, with a bigger string than mine. The famous law of numbers.
G. And on the man himself?
A. R-D. He had an excellent eye. He could sometimes go a little too far, but that is part of his temperament. He even stirred up a small Paris-versus-the-provinces controversy in the press and on the airwaves. Everyone handles things in their own way.
G. Do you consider Francis- Henri Graffard a worthy successor to you both?
A. R-D. He manages his career extremely well. His approach is also based on numbers. It’ s another way of seeing things, but one you can only applaud. His stable runs beautifully. The Aga Khan breeding operation is well represented there, with superb bloodlines throughout. Every trainer must follow their instinct and try to improve. My experience has taught me that improving often means anticipating problems, because the same causes often produce the same effects …
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HIS INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENTS
BY PIERRE CHAMPION
JEAN-CLAUDE ROUGET, GLOBETROTTER
Alain de Royer-Dupré and Jean-Claude Rouget won most of his greatest titles in France, but he still won eight Group 1 races – and by no means minor ones – beyond its borders. It was in England that he was most successful, with five wins, compared with one in Germany, one in the United States and one in Ireland.
ASCOT, A FAVOURITE“ PLAYGROUND” In the United Kingdom, Ascot
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