test

This is the fairytale of a Japanese adventure for a team of family and friends who could never have anticipated being treated like emperors in Tokyo as privileged guests of the JRA. 

Iresine, a six-year-old gelding who cost just €6000 as a yearling before climbing the ranks to a pair of Group 1 successes in France, brought the dream to life for hands-on trainer Jean-Pierre Gauvin, France’s leading lady jockey Marie Velon and a group of low-key owners and supporters eager for the experience of a lifetime.

Rags to riches stories are nothing new to Jean-Pierre Gauvin, famed in France as the handler of Saonois, the “Cheval du Boulanger”, who was bought for a song and won the 2012 Prix du Jockey-Club for local baker Pascal Treyve, and renowned for his success with the unfashionably-bred mare Siljan’s Saga, multiple Group 1 placed and 4th at 100/1 in the 2016 Arc. 
Winner of the Prix Royal-Oak in 2022 and Prix Ganay in 2023, his latest star, Iresine, has been high on the wish list of the Japan Racing Association for the Japan Cup for many months and this autumn, Gauvin decided the time was right.