Oisin Murphy has bagged another big international mount at Royal Ascot next week.
The three-time Flat champion jockey has already secured mounts on Australian sprinter Asfoora, and Kitty Rose, who will be a first runner for Aussie trainers Mick Price and Michael Kent Jnr. Now he will take over on Ramatuelle, the French filly trained by Christopher Head for a group of owners headed by former NBA star Tony Parker, in the Coronation States.
Ramatuelle finished third in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket where she led until being caught in the dying strides of the race.
It’s another blow to regular partner Aurelien Lemaitre who has also been ditched as the jockey of French Group 1 stars Big Rock and Blue Rose Cen who will now be ridden by Christophe Soumillon in the Queen Anne and Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
Lemaitre will still be riding at the meeting with Head confirming he would be aboard Sea The Lady in the Duke of Cambridge Stakes.
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Head had no complaints about Ramatuelle’s run at Newmarket. “I really loved the race,” he said. “We almost got it. She did something incredible that day and that's the only thing that I will remember.
But Head, who trained Big Rock and Blue Rose Cen until they were moved to Maurizio Guarnieri, added that Lemaitre would be stepping aside for her next assignment.
Aurelien Lemaitre: replaced on three Group 1 mounts at Royal Ascot (AFP via Getty Images)“It’s not really a losing, it’s pretty much an optimisation,” he said. “When you go to a certain racetrack then you are going to use jockeys that do very well by the stats on the racetrack.
“I am looking forward to that way of doing things and I am coping with it. Aurelien is not losing Ramatuelle, he is pretty much going to get the opportunity to ride her in the future.
"It’s going to be Oisin Murphy as part of the contract with one of the owners.”
Ramatuelle: now the mount of Oisin Murphy in the Coronation StakesLemaitre rode Blue Rock in the Lockinge Stakes at Newbury and Blue Rose Cen in the Prix d’Ispahan since their stable transfer but Guarnieri was unhappy with both rides on the pair who finished sixth and fifth respectively, so went for a change of jockey at Ascot.
“The problem at Newbury was the stalls because the jockey tried to get away first and the horse put his nose on the stall and then put his knees on the ground.," Guarnieri explained. "For a frontrunner that is a real problem.
“I think when this happens the jockey needed to give the horse plenty of time to recover. The jockey push ten metres after the problem and so the horse finished the race 200m before the end.
“Lemaitre is a good professional jockey but there is not a great feeling between me and him. For me it’s important that after Blue Rose Cen came back after 224 days first time against colts of four and five is hard.
“I was not satisfied with the race. She finished well, she did a good performance but we can try to do better. I think it was the moment for me and the stable, and the owner is in accordance, to change.
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“I say thank you to Lemaitre for the two months we worked together.”
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