Prixdelahorse Tracker - Le Kerry

A rare trip to La Teste to look at the hurdles races, but LE KERRY really caught my eye when winning the Prix de la Foundation Claude Pompidou on Wednesday. Everyone loves a big galloping grey horse don’t they? He is a Gemix Colt and a half-brother to both Funny Berry (Gab Leenders) and Great Snow (Harry Fry) and this is the family of David Cottin’s star chaser Le Berry (G1 Prix Maurice Gillois winner 2020). The Macaire and Lageneste team are superb at placing their horses away from the bright lights of Auteuil to give them an education. Le Kerry finished 7th on his debut at Moulins last month behind Larzac du Mathan, but he was given a very educational ride and I liked the way that he finished his race to be beaten less than 4 lengths. The fact that he was turned out within 2 weeks would suggest that his connections are keen to make up for lost time with this 5-year-old, but he had clearly learned from that experience and produced a very polished display to win this €11,040 hurdle by 9 lengths.

Having reared and jinked when the tapes went back, he set off in a prominent position. He did make a couple of slow leaps on the first circuit, but as the pace began to increase and the field began to stretch out, he warmed to the task and once they turned for home, he began to assert his dominance over this field. Once alongside the leader at the 2nd last, Quentin Defontaine asked him to stretch and he did so readily, coming home in 30.74s from the 2nd last to the line, over a second faster than the runner-up. There’s a slight need for caution with this form given that the runner-up (Raffles Glory) was beaten a very long way on his debut at Argentan last month and the 3rd (Sobest) is a 21 race maiden rated just 53 kilos. However, the overall time was faster than the handicap hurdle over the same course and distance won by Lady Ange and the runner-up is a related to Riviere D’Etel and ought to be capable of improvement from Simon Munir and Isaac Souede. Le Kerry was a clear best in any case and he quickened clear with relative ease. The fact that he is still an entire is interesting, but I’m more interested to see that his connections have been very patient with this 5-year-old and now that he has won a race, they may have to be slightly more ambitious with their targets.

If he was a 3-year-old, I would be adding that he is likely to have his suitors given the success that his immediate family members have had on the track. That may still be the case, but this performance may have slipped under the radar, especially with a strong card at Auteuil on Thursday to make the headlines this week. However, Le Kerry does look like the type that this yard can run up a sequence with, especially outside of Paris and it would be no surprise to see him win another hurdle race with a penalty in the weeks ahead.