Former jumps jockey Cyrille Leveque made his mark in a new role on Friday when Saviour won the ILT Foundation Maiden (1400m) at Ascot Park.
Saviour delivered a first training success for Leveque, who is based at Otautau. The same horse, who was previously trained by his part-owner Rebecca Bevin, had been Leveque’s very first runner when he was unplaced at Wingatui on October 18.
“Getting that first win today was very good, and from only two starts, so I’m very happy,” the 40-year-old said.
“One of the owners used to train this horse, but they were having a bit of trouble with him when he was young. At one stage they sent him to me for about a month to do some pre-training.
“Now they’re moving to Australia around Christmas time, and they said that since I seemed to get on well with the horse, they wanted to offer me the opportunity to train him. It’s great to get this win for them in quite a short space of time.”
Saviour, who was bought on Gavelhouse.com for $2,900 as an unraced two-year-old in May last year, has now had seven starts for a win and a placing, earning $13,370 in stakes.
The four-year-old Echoes Of Heaven gelding is currently the only racehorse in Leveque’s Southland stable, but he is keen to expand that side of his business in the future.
“I’ve got one that I’m pre-training and one that I’m breaking in, but he’s the only racehorse I’ve got in work at the moment,” he said. “Training is something that I’d like to get into a bit more if I can. I’m not planning to ever have a very big team, but a few more horses to train would be good.”
Originally hailing from France, Leveque is best known for his successful stint among New Zealand’s jumps riding ranks. He racked up 30 winners between the 2004-05 and 2012-13 seasons, forming particularly successful associations with Kevin Hughes (five wins), Jane Hunt (three wins), Ralph Manning (three wins) and Mark Walker (three wins).
“I enjoyed my riding career and had some good luck with 30 wins from only about 250 rides,” he said. “Winning a steeplechase at Ellerslie (on the Rudy Liefting-trained Shooting Daggers in June of 2012) was probably the main highlight for me. That was a special track to ride on.”
Leveque also partnered Shooting Daggers in a number of feature jumps races, finishing third in the Wellington Steeplechase (5500m), third in the McGregor Grant Steeplechase (4150m), fourth in the Pakuranga Hunt Cup (4900m) and fifth in the Great Northern Steeplechase (6400m).
Leveque has kept himself busy throughout the 11 years since he hung up his race-riding boots.
“I’ve been to a few different places since I stopped riding,” he said. “I worked for John Sargent and Lance Noble, and I also spent nine years with Te Akau. I got on very well with Jamie Richards while he was there, and then Mark Walker after that as well.”