Rouget Taking Aim at Seventh Jockey Club

Pau trainer keen to better French Derby record with Leffard and Tipinso at Chantilly

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PARIS - After first forfeit, French trainer Jean-Claude Rouget could saddle two runners in the €1.5 million (S$2.2 million) Group 1 Qatar Prix du Jockey Club (2,100m) at Chantilly on June 1.

He is simply the most successful active trainer in the great French spring championship for three-year-old colts and fillies.

Having won the Prix du Jockey Club, also referred to as the French Derby, six times, he may now better his own record thanks to a two-pronged attack.

The first time came in 2009 with the remarkable Le Havre, who coincidentally, will be represented in 2025 by his son Leffard, trained by Rouget as well and raced by the same co-owner, Gerard Augustin-Normand.

It would not be unprecedented if the son were to follow in his father's footsteps.

Of late, last year's Jockey Club winner Look De Vega - trained by Carlos and Yann Lerner, respectively father and brother of ex-Kranji jockey Marc Lerner - emulated the deed of his sire, 2010 winner Lope De Vega, himself a son of Shamardal, winner in 2005.

In 2011, Reliable Man stepped into the shoes of his sire Dalakhani, who in 2003 had himself replicated the feat of his sire Darshaan (1984).