ENGLISH VERSION racecourse was the favourite playground of the Rouget horses, with two wins at the Royal meeting in June, both in the Coronation Stakes: with the Aga Khan’ s Ervedya in 2015, and with Al Shaqab’ s Qemah in 2016. In the autumn, on Champions Day, it was Almanzor who shone brightest at Ascot, landing the 2016 QIPCO Champion Stakes after winning its Irish equivalent, the QIPCO Irish Champion Stakes, at Leopardstown the previous month. Christophe Soumillon, who would often ride for Jean-Claude Rouget once he had reached the top level, partnered both Ervedya and Almanzor on these occasions, just as he would partner Vadeni when he won the Coral-Eclipse at Sandown in July 2022.
TWO VERSIONS OF THE CHAMPION STAKES Of these Anglo-Irish adventures, Jean-Claude Rouget will particularly remember those at Ascot, with an atmosphere like no other, on a particularly selective and demanding racecourse. In the interview quoted earlier, given recently to“ Paris-Turf”, he admits that Ascot is his favourite racecourse abroad:“ Its topography demands a great many qualities. I loved winning there, especially in front of packed grandstands, with a fervour that we see far too rarely at home.” Jean-Claude Rouget also had the privilege of winning another version of the Champion Stakes, not at Ascot this time but at Newmarket, the race’ s original home, over that very particular straight 2,000 metres. That was in 2007, with Literato, in the colours of Hervé Morin, then Nicolas Sarkozy’ s Defence Minister, and ridden by Christophe- Patrice Lemaire. He had bought Literato as a yearling in Deauville for just € 40,000.
A WAY OF COMING FULL CIRCLE Jean-Claude Rouget’ s record abroad features two more Group 1 victories: in Germany, in the Grosser Preis von Baden with Prince Gibraltar in 2015, and in the United States, early in his rise, with Millkom in the Man O’ War Stakes in 1995. A way of coming full circle, returning to his original champion, the one who propelled him into the deep end of top-level international competition.
ITW HERVÉ MORIN
BY SERGE OKEY
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LITERATO, HERVÉ MORIN’ S CRACK WITH WHOM JEAN-CLAUDE ROUGET“ MOVED UP A LEVEL”“ I wanted to buy a horse and François Bayrou said to me:‘ Come to Pau and see Jean- Claude Rouget. He’ s the best trainer and you can trust him.’ I took the plane: an hour later, I was at his yard. He showed me a filly who was no crack, but that moment sealed our friendship. The meeting lasted a quarter of an hour. An hour later, I was back on the plane.” Hervé Morin was not yet Minister of Defence, nor President of the Normandy region. But horses were already his hobby horse. Like Jean-Claude Rouget( 1), he grew up steeped in a passion for racing in Normandy. In his thirties, he bought his first horse with Lydia and Jean-Jacques Rabineau, a couple he had met at the local fishmonger’ s,“ where we liked to watch the tiercé in the back kitchen over a little glass of muscadet.” The small team grew:“ With my brother and Éric Pokrovsky( Hertz, Feu Vert), we started buying claimers at the end of the 1990s and, after a bit of success, we moved on to yearlings.” That is when Jean-Claude Rouget came back into the picture, at the famous August yearling sale of 2005 in Deauville. The prize money won by Lolita Kom and Poly Dance allowed the Morin-Rabineau- Pokrovsky trio to hand the Pau trainer a budget of € 60,000. The rest is history: Literato was knocked down for € 40,000.“ He’ s a nice little grey, a first foal. Aliette Forien wanted € 40,000 for him,” Jean-Claude Rouget once told us. And he added:“ An exceptional horse, the kind you don’ t get many of in a lifetime. In the morning, he looked like a pony. But in the afternoon, he would be bouncing around the parade ring and turn into a fighter.”
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