The name Head appears multiple times in the winning trainer category on the Prix Saint-Alary roll of honour. Alec, Criquette and Freddy have all trained winners of the fillies' Group 1, and the latter also rode the winner, usually for his father or his sister, on seven occasions.
In the line-up for the 2021 running of the Saint-Alary next Monday is likely to be a filly trained by one of the next generation of the Head family, Christopher, a son of Freddy, who has taken the bold decision to supplement the unbeaten Sibila Spain (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) for her first outing in Pattern company, straight to the very top level.
Head is now in his second full season with a training licence and has his Chantilly team based in the stable still owned by John Hammond alongside the town's famous Les Aigles turf gallops. That his team of around 14 horses enters the training grounds daily via the Porte Montjeu is an indication of at least one of the champions that has trodden that path before them, and it is not lost on Head.
He says, “Suave Dancer and a lot of very good horses that John trained have been in the same places and I hope it rubs off on this filly, too.”
Sibila Spain is one of two horses in his stable owned by Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals of Yeguada Centurion. The Spanish businessman's equine interests began in the sport horse world with native Andalusians, but in recent years he has made quite a splash as an investor in Thoroughbred racing, notably spending more than $3 million on mares at Keeneland's November Sale in 2019, as well as making significant purchases in Europe. One of those was the Coolmore-bred Frankel filly out of the listed winner L'Ancresse (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}), now known as Sibila Spain. She is a full-sister to Group 3 winner Master Of Reality (Ire) and half to listed winner Chamonix (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), and her immediate family already includes a Saint-Alary winner–her dam's full-sister Cerulean Sky (Ire)–while the mare's half-sister Moonstone (Ire) (Dalakhani {Ire}) won the Irish Oaks.
It is a pedigree which entitles both owner and trainer to dream big, and that is exactly what they are doing, though it is no pipe dream. Sibila Spain made her racecourse debut in the Prix Monade at Saint-Cloud on Mar. 25 in a race replete with bluebloods. At the winning post she was nine lengths clear of the runner-up. Three weeks later, the ground at Lyon Parilly was good to soft, rather than the heavy turf she encountered in Paris, but she finished out in front again over the 2,200 metres. In the process she did nothing to alter the impression that she is a filly just waiting to have her name stamped in bold black type.
Head casts his mind back to his own early impressions of the filly who arrived in his stable on Feb. 2. He says, “She changed a lot through the first month and then I had the chance to work her with some of the good horses of my father and she was going a lot better than them. She showed enough for me to feel that she could start out in a good race. Most of the later-developing fillies that are going for the Diane start in that maiden. So we were already expecting her to run well, but we were against big trainers, big owners. Although I thought she would be able to win I didn't think it would be by that far. That was the real surprise, the number of lengths she was from the others.”
He continues, “We needed those few races to know her better and I have the feeling that she is coming to the Saint-Alary in the perfect shape and with the perfect timing. Since the race in Lyon I feel she has really improved and that's why I think it is the right thing to do. She probably is better in the soft ground, and that should be perfect for the Saint-Alary on Monday as it's soft now and we are expecting more rain through the week.”
Head, a fifth-generation Chantilly horseman from a family with English roots, is not the only trainer in France with a horse for Yeguada Centurion. The Spanish-born but French-based Mauricio Delcher Sanchez trains Reina Madre (Ire) (Kingman{GB}), the winner of the G3 Prix Imprudence in April who subsequently finished down the field in Sunday's G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches. Head is naturally delighted to welcome a major owner to his fledgling stable, and Sibila Spain has been joined by the owner's homebred 2-year-old Ready To Win (Ire) (More Than Ready), who was in utero when her dam Miss Melbourne (Fr) (Kentucky Dynamite) was bought by Fernandez Pujals for 300,000gns at the Tattersalls December Sale.
The trainer's introduction to the owner came through his cousin several years ago. Head says, “I met him at a lunch in Deauville and he had started the project of buying some black-type mares and breeding his own Thoroughbreds in France. He is doing everything he can to make it succeed and has invested a lot of money. He's really a brilliant man and it's a pleasure to deal with him. Unfortunately he can't come to France for the Saint-Alary as it is still difficult to travel, but he is very excited about the filly.”
Fernandez Pujals is not the only one entitled to be excited. A filly with stakes potential is enough to put a spring in the step of any small trainer, particularly one who is a relatively new licence-holder.
Head laughs as she says, “Of course I am not taking any risks right now to say that she is the best horse I have trained in my life.” But as he speaks the excitement which must be growing in his stable is almost palpable.
He adds, “I am very, very happy with her. I know we are coming from a Class 1 at Lyon and we haven't competed against the group horses, but it's not just the results from her races, she is showing me good things in the mornings and so I expect her to be able to win the Saint-Alary. Her behaviour and temperament has been very good going into the races and that's why we are looking at this race, and the Prix de Diane if she's right after the Saint-Alary.”
The trainer nevertheless describes himself as cautious as the number of horses in his stable rises “slowly but surely”.
“I'm having so much fun. It is my passion but I want to make sure I am working with the right people who I can trust,” he says.
All being well, Sibila Spain will be added to the Prix Saint-Alary line-up at the supplementary stage this Thursday and, come race day, will renew her acquaintance with Aurelien Lemaitre, who has ridden her in her two wins.
“We won't change the jockey,” Head says. “I've been raised by a jockey and he always told me that it's not their fault when a race goes wrong. Most of the time it is the fault of the trainer rather than the jockey. Aurelien is a very good jockey and we grew up together as I was working at my father's place when he was apprenticed there, so it is really good now to be running in a group race together.”
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