From our special correspondent in Balto (and Budapest)
Antoine Griezmann has not spent the best sporting weekend of his life. In addition to the disappointing draw in Hungary, the French team striker and eponymous team boss saw his filly Natsukashi finish last in the prestigious Prix de Diane for his third race (the first two were nevertheless promising with a victory and a 2nd place). To believe that the encouragement he had requested from the journalists present at his Sunday press conference were not enough to bring luck to the debutante, whom Grizi loves as we love a child.
Mickaël Cormy, coach of the many Blaugrana trotters. “He talks about it like it’s his babies. I remember he bought several yearlings from us, and it turns out that one of them was not fit to race. For him, it was never a question of an agent, the first thing that preoccupied him was that they find him a foster home. So we did that. There are teams that would not have done it because some do not have feelings. “
The horse is fantastic
Love of the horse. This is often where it starts. Two or three phone calls to employees or mount trainers are enough to capture the appeal of high-level athletes for the aesthetics and elegance of the animal. But if there are only two in the locker room of the France team to own their stable – the second being Clément Lenglet – it is because a child must have been bathed in the intoxication of the race to find any interest in it. once an adult.
Arnaud de Courcelles, director of the media center of Equidia: “70% of people come to this universe by transmission, either through a relative or a friend. If we take Clément Lenglet or Antoine Griezmann, we are really in there. This is pure family transmission. “When Antoine was young, we went to the races in Cluny (Saône-et-Loire) and I passed on my passion to him”, remembers Alain Griezmann, father of. “I love horses and he wanted to buy some. “
Wrong string number, but what a pleasure to see you THANKS for these feelings! #Natsukashi pic.twitter.com/uAykZQdDJb
– Antoine Griezmann (@AntoGriezmann) June 20, 2021
For Clément Lenglet, who acquired gallopers in Francis-Henri Graffard’s boxes in Chantilly, the story is similar. The defender grew up watching the races on TV and going to racetracks during the holidays. He had the click, and the desire, to become the owner of gallopers after having attended, behind the scenes, a Prix du Jockey-Club. His advisor Ghislain Bozo said: “It was important in these first contacts to gain confidence, to explain the ins and outs of a team and to put a strategy in place. He accompanied me to training, we saw together when to buy a horse, how much it costs, how long we wait before starting a horse, which vets to surround ourselves with… Because horses are athletes, they have a rhythm of life that is very similar to that of top athletes and therefore need as much attention. “
Like horse, like player
The comparison is not trivial since it has a lot to do with the good relations between footballers and coaches, which is not the case for some owners of horses from the television world, for example.
“I have colleagues who have dealt with people in this field, it was a nightmare,” says Cormy. At the first failed race, it was the end of the world. They are spoiled children, they want immediate results, they have a yard around them who are there to put on a layer when things go wrong. For us as coaches it’s day and night to work with an athlete because they are a clientele accustomed to good times and bad. “
From there to saying that our two loustics of the France team are bumping into the results of their horses, there is a step that we will not take. “Clément understands that it is hard to obtain them, but he still expects results”, continues Bozo. You only have to see the pride of Lenglet when Bois d’Argent offered him his pride by winning his first victory in May 2020 to understand that results do matter. “It’s a lot of pride and adrenaline in these famous last 200 meters,” he confided to Equidia. It was a lot of joy, pleasure and a lot of gratitude for everyone who worked on this result. “
Horse races are also a form of escape for our two Catalan loustics, and even if they do not always have time to visit their animals on the spot because of a busy professional agenda, they ask for them. coaches and various collaborators to have news quite regularly.
“We talk to each other a lot, about every week,” says Cormy.. With the Covid, Antoine only came to visit us once, but I try to play along by sending videos of his horses. “
In both cases, the fathers play the middleman, are present at the races and take care of the paperwork while their kids talk horse in Barça’s locker room, but always in a good mood. As little as we have grasped, it seems that both Lenglet and Grizou are delighted with the victories of both. The group is living well.
Tony Parker’s sensational entry into the game
The arrival of footballers and more generally of sportsmen with strong media potential is a boon for a sport which has a huge delay to catch up after having missed the turn – a height – of digital. Luckily, he has just paid a huge blow of the whip with the arrival of Tony Parker in the middle, who, via his stable “Infinity Nine Horses”, signed a partnership with France Galop and Equidia, which Arnaud de Courcelles welcomes. “We made the choice to get closer to Tony Parker because we need to find other ways so that the transmission of this passion continues. “
And it continues. The former basketball player has already embarked with him the pilot Charles Leclerc, owner of a gallopeur at TP. The Monegasque was touched by the enthusiasm of the Spurs legend. “What rocked him,” says Arnaud de Courcelles, “was listening to Tony talk about horse racing, what it means to own a horse, the first time he met Best. 16 [son cheval] when he saw and stroked it for the first time. Something happened. And Charles Leclerc said to himself ‘ok, I’m taking a horse with you’ ”. And it’s not over. Noises from the hallway make the name of Teddy Riner resonate as a potential reinforcement of FC Cheval which is perhaps at a crossroads. And history will remember that in France, everything will have (re) started by Antoine Griezmann.