by Mark Cramer
The 2013 edition of
the Gras Savoye Grand Steeplechase of Paris brought racing fans a multitude of
dramatic plots and subplots in a 5,800 meter race (3 miles and 5/8) with 23
varied obstacles, including a river jump and a long open-ditch jump.
David Cottin: from
the operating table to the Grand Steeplechase
Ten days before the
big race at Auteuil, in west Paris, jockey David Cottin fell and broke his
collarbone. He was operated on Monday, six days before the big event on May 19.
The 23-year-old Cottin did not want to miss his chance to win this race for the
first time, aboard Shannon Rock, who had finished second in last year’s edition.
Can a 12-year-old
win her fourth Grand Steeple?
Mid Dancer won this
legendary race in France in 2007, 2011 and 2012, as an 11-year old.
Since 1950, only two other
10-year-olds besides Mid Dancer had ever won this race, and only one other
11-year old (back in 1962) besides Mid Dancer was able to get the job done. Mid
Dancer’s sire was the American, Midyan, in turn sired by Miswaki.
Can Nathalie
Desoutter become the first woman to win the Grand Steeplechase?
Miss Desoutter would
be riding Quarouso, for trainer Jean-Paul Gallorini, who also trained Shannon
Rock. Desoutter had been riding hot, with 5 wins in her last 30 races and
nearly 50% in the money. I had once seen Desoutter fall from a horse that was
prepping for a major stakes race. She was back aboard for the big race and
ended up finishing second.
A few days after that
great ride, I asked her if she had not become hesitant or shy about getting
back on the same horse after such a fall.
“It was my own fault,”
she said, “and I knew what I had to do so that the same thing would not happen
again.”
In Sunday’s Grand
Steeplechase, Quarouso galloped near the leaders but began to run out of gas
before the last of 23 jumps, after having leaped elegantly over the long
open-ditch jump and the river jump right in front of the grandstand. Desoutter
and her partner finished 8th of 16.
Mid Dancer came up
with a courageous late run before his fan club, but could only capture third
place, some distance from the two leaders.
David Cottin and his
partner Shannon Rock (6.4/1) caught the favorite Belle la Vie (4.5/1) in the
last 100 meters and looked like a winner with about 75 meters to go. Belle la
Vie’s rider Bertrand Lestrade changed leads and his partner burst back
forwardly to win by a half length.
“I needed to jump a
little less high over the final hurdle,” Cottin told the press, “because
Shannon Rock stopped slightly after the jump, and that may have cost us the
victory.”
Of the 16 starters,
two were eventually stopped from fatigue and four threw their riders. Regarding
falls, after speaking with several jump riders, I’ve discovered a level of courageous
competitiveness that my cowardly soul cannot fathom. It is so pronounced that a
fall makes them even more eager to reach a peak performance, as was the case
with Nathalie Desoutter previously and David Cottin in the 2013 Grand
Steeplechase of Paris.
In her last 100 races,
Desoutter has fallen or been thrown 7 times and on three occasions has come
back to finish in the money. Cottin had only fallen twice in his last 100
races, finishing fourth after the earlier fall. Back in August of 2012, rider Benoit Giquel
was thrown in three of four races. He came back to win three of his next five
with another second thrown in.
All drama aside, in
some countries, various advocacy organizations, including animal rights groups,
have called for banning obstacle racing. As I once noted, a medical journal in
Australia listed being a jockey as more dangerous than being a boxer, with only
off-shore fisherman having more risk to lives.
The Australian and New
Zealand racing industries responded to the protests with measures to make the
game safer for both horse and rider. This included a new transparency, with
statistics being published on fall rates and jockey and horse fatalities.
One of the ways to
make it safer for horse-and-rider partners is for a rider to simply stop a horse
during a race when doubts arise about the horse’s condition or stability. Even
with an amazing 37% in the money statistic, David Cottin has stopped his horses
25 times in his last 100 races.
Bertrand Lestrade has
stopped his horses in 22 of his last 100 races. In the race immediately
following the “stop”, he’s won 8 of 22! He’s fallen in 8 of his last 100 races,
coming back to win twice and place twice. These statistics are illustrations of
the incredible sense of competitiveness of the best jump jockeys.
You’d think bettors
would shy away from obstacle races, where the race can end abruptly for the
horse they’ve bet, long before the stretch drive. But in places like France,
England and Ireland, bettors perceive that the jumpers are more formful than
the flats.
Raised on American
racing, I had shied away from playing races where my horse might fall or be
stopped during the race. I blotted out the jumpers from my racing boundaries
until I discovered obstacle racing in both France and England.
Sunday’s Grand
Steeplechase certainly proved to me that American players and fans should at
least have the chance to judge for themselves whether or not they’d like to add
this genre to their bouquet of aesthetic racing pleasures.
The 12-year old Mid
Dancer may be an extreme case, but he illustrates the greater longevity of jump
horses compared to flat racers. Jump race fans and players get to follow longer
horse careers and thus become more attached to their equine heroes.
I lost my win bet on
David Cottin, but I collected the placé (show) bet on my system of betting
jockeys in their race following a fall.
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