Welsh rider gets a very different perspective in France
News from Cardiff-born Charly Prichard, who in January was one of my Turf Talk Questionnaire guests, is that last month at Segre, near Nantes in the west of France, she scored another win on Le Francesca in a conditions chase which she tells me means she had “a wide variety of fences to negotiate”.
These included banks, bullfinches and vast green hedges, and she says: “The closest comparison to draw would be the cross-country chases we see at Cheltenham.”
Another difference is the prize money – for just an average amateur riders’ chase, the winner received £6,500. “A lot more than the Welsh point-to-point prize money,” she joked.
Charly, real name Charlotte, said: “I have also ridden at France’s premier National Hunt track Auteuil and I finished third, and it was a great experience jumping some of their infamous obstacles such as the River des Tribunes, a water jump which spans almost 5m in width. On that occasion my mount was Prince des Gabier who, having won more than £235,000 in prize money, is easily the best horse I’ve ever ridden.”
Charly, a former Welsh champion point-to-point rider, said: “My new boss Guillaume Macaire and French racing have given me chances I wouldn’t have had at home.”
She added: “I ride top-class horses day in and day out, such as Beau Gosse who is already a Grade 2 winner and who could run at the Cheltenham National Hunt Festival in March.”
Charly says she is lucky enough to have some of the top jockeys in France to call on for advice when riding for the first time at an unfamiliar racecourse and that champion jockey James Reveley has been a great help.
She said: “The style of work here suits me well as it’s based on riders building relationships with horses. The boss has an amazing skill of matching riders to horses so that they complement each other and, as such, each horse is as content as it can be in its work and gets the utmost benefit of each day’s exercise.”
The emphasis, she says, is very much on taking the care to complete each lot with as much time as is required. There is no rush to be up and down the gallops and on the next horse, which is so common these days at home.
As a result, Charly finds herself “sitting on everything from a precocious two-year-old to a seasoned crosscountry horse and this has been a massive boost to my experience.”
Charly, who has ridden for top trainers back at home such as Jonjo O’ Neill, Paul Nicholls and Evan Williams, also knows how they go about training horses in New Zealand, having spent time there as well. And as Mr Macaire has won more than £6m in prize money so far this season, she said: “I’m certainly not unhappy with my share of the pool money.”
■ Where Are They Now?
Tonyrefail-born Tyrone Williams, son of late Welsh champion boxer Lennie “The Lion” Williams, began his race-riding career at flapping (unlicensed meetings) in the Vale of Glamorgan. He served his apprenticeship with Henry Candy and rode his first winner under Rules on 20-1 shot Going Going at Epsom in 1983 when he was just 16.
He rode a further seven winners that season. Big wins included the Tote Ebor Handicap on 33-1 chance Far Ahead, which beat the famed Frankie Dettori on the favourite Media Star. The Royal Hunt Cup, the William Hill Lincoln Handicap and the Northhumberland Plate are other big races that went Tyrone’s way. His best season was in 1987, when he rode 53 winners.
Tyrone handed in his jockeys’ licence in 2005 and returned to his flapping roots in 2009. He won flapping’s equivalent to the Epsom Derby, the Tradesmen Handicap at Hawick, on the appropriately named Taff Trail, a 33-1 outsider. He later went through the four-race card at the Langholm Racing Association meeting at Langholm.
Few jockeys can claim to have ridden a 100-1 winner but Tyrone is one. On one occasion his wife Carol won the ladies’ amateur riders’ championship.
Do you know where Tyrone is now? If so, I would be delighted to hear from you.
■ David Brace, of the Dunraven Stud, Bridgend, saw his grandson Connor Brace, 16, have his first point-to-point rides at the Bishops Court Club Point-To-Point Steeplechases at Bishops Court, Ottery St Mary, on Sunday. The former successful pony-racing rider took fourth place in the conditions race on Silver Token and second place on William Money in the mixed open race.
Mr Brace also came away with a winning double after his Doc Cody won the restricted race and his Colorado Doc the conditions race.
Both were ridden by Bradley Gibbs and there was further success for Wales when Sheere Lean’s Moreece took the intermediate under champion jockey Will Biddick.
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