TRAINERS

Mikel Delzangles

Mikel Delzangles was born in Biarritz, Southwest of France, in 1971. His parents were not involved in the racing industry yet his godmother is the Marquesa Sol de Moratalla, a major owner-breeder in France and Great Britain. It is with her encouragements that the teenaged Mikel started riding out for a local trainer and gained his first professional experience alongside Yorkshire-based jumps specialist Jimmy Fitzgerald. Back to France, he spent ten years working as assistant to Alain de Royer-Dupré before starting up on his own in November 2000, with ten horses in his care. The Marquesa de Moratalla was Delzangles’ major patron early on, and the first big winners for the young professional came in her red silks and green cap. Less than two years after he took out his licence, a grey horse named Saratan put Delzangles on the map by winning three valuable “Quinté” in a row, including the Listed Grand Handicap de Deauville. The gelding, who was incidentally bred by the Aga Khan Studs, went on to land the Gr.3 Prix du Palais-Royal the following year. Not content to have won his first Group race with only 18 individual runners that season, the young trainer also registered a pair of Listed wins courtesy of the fast two-year-old Chineur. The latter blossomed into a high-class sprinter, winning three more Stakes races at three and four before posting a superb performance in the (then) Gr.2 King’s Stand Stakes. This was the year Royal Ascot was relocated to York, a course familiar to Delzangles following his time with Jimmy Fitzgerald, which made this victory all the more special. 2006 saw Mikel Delzangles take another step up as he won the Gr.1 Prix Ganay with Corre Caminos, again for the Marquesa de Moratalla. Such a quick rise to the top did not go unnoticed, and at the end of 2007, the Aga Khan Studs sent him a first batch of juveniles. Among them was Albahri, who took the Listed Grand Prix du Nord the following season, and Shalanaya, who scored in the Gr.1 Prix de l’Opéra in 2009. In 2010, the roaring pace of Mikel Delzangles’ ascension became truly frantic. He first made a dramatic entry in the elite group of Classic trainers when winning the 2000 Guineas with Makfi, a horse he had purchased for 26,000 gns as a back-end two-year-old. The son of Dubawi followed up with a splendid victory in the Prix Jacques le Marois, holding off the “Queen” Goldikova, and was bought for seven figures by Sheikh Fahad Al Thani to stand at stud. This was the beginning of an incredibly fruitful association between the young Sheikh, who races in the name of Pearl Bloodstock, and Delzangles. Then at the end of the season, as Richard Gibson decided to sell his Chantilly operation and move to Hong Kong, Delzangles was not afraid of buying the yard and taking over most of the horses, which suddenly brought his number of charges from 70-80 up to 130. The transition towards this new dimension proved absolutely seamless, which is a tribute to Delzangles’ professionalism and cool-headed attitude. Among the ex-Gibson horses was a five-year-old who had recently won a Listed race for his new owner Pearl Bloodstock, having previously made a living in claimers and lower-grade handicaps. Dunaden’s first start for Delzangles, in April 2011, resulted in the horse’s first Group victory, in the Gr.3 Prix de Barbeville. The rest, as they say, is history: the horse blossomed into a genuine star over extended distances, securing the Gr.1 Melbourne Cup in a thrilling finish and then the Gr.1 Hong Kong Vase. There was yet more glory in store for Delzangles in 2012, with no less than eight Group wins including a Gr.1 double on Arc day courtesy of Ridasiyna and Molly Malone. And then Dunaden, who had been unlucky on several occasions during the season, returned to the winner’s enclosure in the Gr.1 Caulfield Cup, becoming the first horse to win the race under top-weight. Where will Mikel Delzangles head next? At this stage, the sky seems his only limit…