Steve Moran Reports From Hong Kong
Bougoure, not surprisingly, has fond memories of his excursions to the Hong Kong International Sprint, a race his horse won twice in three attempts. A race no other Australian-trained horse has managed to win despite fifteen others, Falvelon at his third bid included, trying since 2001.
The Queensland trainer was, by no means, the first from this part of the world to successfully venture to Hong Kong for international competition. Neville and Grahame Begg, James Riley, Brian Smith and Bart Cummings had won various incarnations of the Mile and the Cup in the 1990’s and Trevor McKee was also a winner with Sunline (Desert Sun) in 2000.
However, Bougoure’s effort has special significance given that he ‘rolled the dice’ and won the second and third editions of this new feature; peaking his horse twice in successive years and now remaining the only visiting Australian trainer to win it despite sprinters and sprint trainers supposedly being our long suit.
Bougoure’s stables are appropriately named after the admirable Falvelon who was partnered by Damien Oliver in the two Hong Kong wins (which, incidentally, followed Oliver’s great rival of the time, Steven King, having won the first International Sprint on Fairy King Prawn (Danehill).
The first of Falvelon’s wins in 2000, when the International had Group Three status, came after the horse failed at Flemington on Derby day. That demanded a level of faith from the trainer and, as he concedes, some reassurance from the jockey.
“Plenty of people said I was mad to be taking the horse to Hong Kong, although not to my face. But the ground was soft at Flemington and I also felt he’d had an adverse reaction to the travel vaccination. Damien (Oliver) said he just raced a bit flat and said ‘not to worry about it’.
“So we went and to do that, go somewhere new like Hong Kong and get the result was just fantastic. And then to go back again and beat the same horse (Morluc by Housebuster) again was amazing. Morluc’s trainer blamed his jockey the first year and declared we wouldn’t beat him the next time but, of course, we did,” he said.
Bougoure is anything but boastful about his handling of Falvelon but he did manage to get it right both in Hong Kong and at home with the horse winning at Group One level on his return after each of his Hong Kong wins.
“We planned well and made sure everything was done properly and if you do that, things tend to fall into place. Planning eliminates any pressure and you’ve got to stay relaxed. If you’re tense and nervous, the horse will sense that and you don’t want that,” Bougoure said.
The trainer also had a good assistant on the ground in Paul Hamblin – a jumps and flat winning rider whom, I daresay, would be the only man to supervise a Hong Kong Sprint winner and ride in the renowned Pardubice steeplechase in the Czech Republic.
“Paul’s pretty casual but a hard worker and he can do everything with a horse. I think the keys, with travelling, are to have the right horse and time the arrival. Two weeks beforehand is ideal, with a minimum of 12 days and with the horse it’s all about having the right temperament and attitude. He (Falvelon) had the right attitude.
“And we didn’t have any worries with him performing well when we came home. I asked Neville Begg, who’d had plenty of experience in Hong Kong, about this and he told me the secret was just not to run them too quickly after they’d come home,” Bougoure said.
Falvelon, who was passed in at just $8000 as a yearling, was indeed able to return to a further Group Two success in Australia even after his third trek abroad when he finished third in the 2002 Hong Kong Sprint, behind the David Hayes trained All Thrills Too (St Covet). Bougoure also ran Scenic Peak (Scenic), ninth in the Mile, that year.
“He (Scenic Peak) probably wasn’t the right sort of horse to travel. But Falvelon ran very well again the third year but was obviously that bit older and had a few joint issues. They were just wear and tear and the owners were happy to go again when I assured them he wasn’t going to break down… and why wouldn’t you go again given how well you are looked after there? I have nothing but admiration for Hong Kong racing. I certainly had a few of the best weeks of my life there,” Bougoure.
I’m sure Bougoure also had some of his ‘best weeks’ a few years earlier when he travelled Europe in a six months holiday which included, as he he puts it, ‘following around’ Strawberry Road (Whiskey Road) whose original trainer was his late father Doug.
“I saw him win at Baden Baden (1984 Grosser Preis von Baden) when Brent (Thomson) rode him. That happened to be around the time of Oktoberfest. ‘Drunk’ was not the word. Dad was ill and I came home just before he ran (fifth) in the Arc but it was a great time,” said Bougoure who’d strapped Strawberry Road in Australia and led him back to scale after his 1983 Cox Plate (Gr 1, 2040m) win.
Bougoure is pleased to report that Falvelon is still ‘going strong, getting winners up here’ as he continues the quest to find another one like him or, indeed, Strawberry Road.
“Once you’ve been there with a good horse there’s such a rush. Yes, there’s a nice financial plus to it as well but you can’t beat that rush and money can’t buy that,” said Bougoure who finished up with Falvelon rather serendipitously, “the owners just appeared one Sunday morning, pretty much out of the blue.”
He knew, early, he had an exceptional horse on his hands.
“In his very first prep, we gave him a little 400 metre jump out just for the experience. He was four or five lengths slow out of the gates and beat them by six lengths…. over 400 metres. We knew he was smart,” Bougoure said.
Falvelon was an unbeaten stakes winner at two. He won his first seven starts before running second to Testa Rossa (Perugino) in the Lightning Stakes (Gr 1, 1000m). He was a dual Group One winner who was four times named Queensland Horse of the Year and was twice crowned Australian Champion Sprinter.
And, of course, he won twice in Hong Kong. The irony now, as Bougoure observes, is that: “about the only way you can survive these days is by selling one to Hong Kong.”