ENGLISH VERSION
The fairy tale was under way for the son of Kendor, and Hervé Morin did not miss a moment of it. Every race is still etched in his memory.“ First time out, he dead-heated with a Spanish horse. Jean-Bernard Roth had told me:‘ You should come, he’ ll finish very fast.’ Then at Vichy, he won on his own after weaving his way through. That’ s when we started telling ourselves we had a promising horse. I was in Niger when he followed up at Deauville. When I got back, I switched on my phone: I had a dozen messages … After that, he won two Listed races, at Lyon and at Toulouse. That’ s when José Coves called me to say:‘ The times for his last 200 metres are exceptional!’ We went to sleep all winter and woke up dreaming every morning.”
“ GO ON, MY BABY, GO ON, MY BABY!” Unbeaten at two, the little grey, who stands 1.57 m at the withers, made his mark among the big boys the following year. After a quiet return, Literato won the Prix La Force( Gr. 3) and finished runner-up in the Prix du Jockey Club( Gr. 1).“ Dettori set a golden gallop on Lawman, but I’ ll always regret that second start, caused by a stalls problem, which may have cost us the race.” Then the dream came true.“ We won the Prix Guillaume d’ Ornano at Deauville thanks to an exceptional run down the straight. I’ ve never seen a horse go so fast. Jean-Claude told us:‘ We’ re going for the
Champion Stakes.’ He had it all planned already. He had never won a Group 1 abroad, and that triumph took him to another level and made him a leading trainer. Whenever I’ m feeling a bit low, I watch the race again, those 200 metres of fight to the death with Eagle Mountain, the Coolmore horse. It gives me goosebumps every time. I can still see Jean-Claude shouting‘ Go on, my baby, go on, my baby!’ We were all in tears. An unforgettable moment.” Sheikh Mohammed Al Maktoum’ s offer, however, proved impossible to refuse. A silent smile:“ A very nice sum …” A sum that allowed him to go into breeding, at home in the Eure. Without ever losing sight of Literato.“ Sadly, he got no support at all as a stallion. He went to Dubai and it went very badly. I ended up buying him back for € 8,000. He’ s living out his days happily at the Haras du Logis Saint-Germain. I give a few nominations to friends. He’ s still in great shape.” Literato, the horse of a lifetime and the foundation of a solid friendship.“ Jean- Claude and I have shared a great deal. He’ s not an easy character, but when things go wrong, he’ s always there. We’ ve had so many good times together. Magical years and fantastic parties!”
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BY KATHERINE FORD
The day after a second Prix de l’ Arc de Triomphe, no one would have blamed Princess Zahra Aga Khan for simply savouring the moment. Daryz had just doubled the stakes at ParisLongchamp, and the room rose to applaud her before she had even begun to speak. She could have talked about glory. Instead, she talked about studs, stable staff and the land. Before the delegates of the 60 th International Conference of Horseracing Authorities, Princess Zahra challenged the image that sticks to our sport: the top hats, the fascinators, the heels on the lawn. That is not what our profession is about, she explained in essence. It rests first and foremost on agricultural and rural activity, on jobs at studs where hardly anyone dreams of working any more, and on that everyday concern:“ taking care of the land and the animals”. As I listened to her, my mind wandered far from Paris. Back to those point-topoint weekends we used to go to as a family, with the horse my father trained,
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