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News In Brief of French Racing and Trotting - 29th December 2021.

This week's News-in-Brief focuses on Trotting from around the country and we commence a review of winning premiership tables, this week looking at the top five 2021 flat and jump jockeys… 

Trotting  

When winning his seventh race in nine starts at Vincennes on Sunday Idao de Tillard not only recorded a personal best of 1'10"7 for the 2100m mobile race but also broke the previous record for a three-year-old by almost one second. Trained by Thierry Duvaldestin and driven by his son Clément, he is an exciting prospect who will now face Group level races in the New Year as a four-year-old. 

Following his win in the G1 Critérium Continental (2100m) on Sunday, Hohneck is qualified to compete in the G1 Prix d'Amerique at the end of next month. In the past ten years, all bar one winner of the Critérium Continental has elected to take on the older horses with two successes – Bold Eagle and Facetime Bourbon. 

At Meslay-du-Maine on Thursday eighteen-year-old Cléa Roger rode her first winner when Étoile d'Été won a mounted race. Working for Stéphane Provoost, Cléa had her first competition start in August.  

On Thursday Benjamin Rochard became the fifteenth driver/jockey to notch up 100 winners for the season when Get Up Brown won a mounted race at Meslay-du-Maine. This has been a strong year statistically for professionals to achieve winning success with Éric Raffin having over 300 winners, Matthieu Abrivard, Yoann Lebourgeois and Alexandre Abrivard more than 200 and eleven above 100.

Top trainer/driver Matthieu Abrivard suffered a fall last Friday week (17th) at Vincennes and it has been revealed he suffered a fracture of the tibia. He is expected to be off the track for at least a month.  

December racing at Cabourg frequently unearths a very good horse. Past winners have included Impressionist (2020), Ecu Pierji (2016) and Feliciano (2017). Although disqualified at his first two race outings, the Fabrice Souloy trained Jaguar Marancourt bounced back on December 12 winning his first race. For driver Jean-Philippe Monclin this gave him his 999 winner in France. He was the trainers' seventh two-year-old winner of the season.

It was anticipated Gu d'Héripré would make his winter meeting debut in the G2 Prix Tenor du Baune on Sunday but his return to the track has now been put back to next Sunday's Prix d'Amerique Qualif # 5 - Prix de Bourgogne.  

Jump 

Quality steeplechaser Celtior has made a change of trainer and will now be prepared by Phillipe & Camille Peltier.  

Flat & Jump Jockey Statistics   

As the 2021 season draws to the final days, the top five flat jockeys for the year are   

For jumping

James Reveley – 101   Clement Lefebvre – 77   Angelo Zuliani – 63   Felix de Giles – 62   Kilian Dubourg - 61