Jumps grand finale at Cagnes

Sunday, January 6th is the Grand finale card of the jumps Winter meeting in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Four graded races are scheduled with a first start at 12:35pm French time. Each of these events plays the role of a finale with the 4 year-old chasers meeting in the Prix Christian de l'Hermite (L) while de best 4yo hurdlers compete for the Prix André Massena Hurdle (L). The best aged horses will gather over the hurdles in the Grande Course de Haies de Cagnes (L) and the Grand Prix de la ville de Nice - Bernard Sécly (Gr3) is the Riviera's "Grand Steeple".
Twelve runners are confirmed at the start of the latter, including the title holder The Reader (Lando), who sports the colours of famed French owner Pierre Goral. Second and fourth of the two prep races this winter at Cagnes, this 10yo will have to give weight to all his rivals with a load of 71 kilos. Trained by his co-breeder Philippe Bourgeais for his other co-breeder and owner, Marie-France Besnard, the 7yo Grand Philippe (Denham Red) won the first prep race, the Prix Jean Gailly de Taurines, on December 7th. beating The Reader, who was giving him two pounds, against three this Sunday. He was not seen again because he missed the Prix du Comté de Nice, the second prep race, won by Grand Départ (Astarabad), trained by Patrice Lenogue and owned by Hubert de Waële. He had had to settle in 5th earlier in the race won by Grand Philippe but seems to have improved from there. He also won the Grande Course de Haies de Cagnes last year in front of Serienshock (Sholokhov), a dual winner of the Riviera championship who will try his luck again in the race on Sunday.
Trained by Alexandra Rosa, the German-bred Serienshock is now 11 and represents the owner Terry Neill. He has already won the race in 2016 and 2017, and as usual, he did not run at Cagnes before this big event.
The Prix André Massena looks like an open race because none of the 4yo best hurdlers is clearly leading the generation, as with the chasers in the Prix Christian de l'Hermite.
The last jumps meeting at Cagnes this Winter is scheduled Monday, January 7th. The flat season starts a week later, Monday, January 14, with 19 meetings to mark until the closing of February 23.