Brisset's stock rising alongside talented filly Talk Veuve to Me

A trainer stabled a few barns away from Rodolphe Brisset last winter at Fair Grounds was confused. Brisset’s horses looked great. The operation seemed to run smoothly. Where were the results?

Brisset had his first starter as a head trainer in May 2017. By year’s end, his record stood at 70-6-8-10. The winter, with Brisset split between Fair Grounds and Tampa Bay Downs, was just as slow. Between Oct. 1 and Feb. 1, only two of his 38 starters won.

“I do look at statistics because I know when you are a young trainer, people look at that,” Brisset said. “Fair Grounds, Tampa, it was a tough time to manage over the winter, but you learn from that. There was no panicking – you keep coming and doing the job.”

Brisset kept coming and, finally, so did the results. He won six races between February and the end of April, and for 2018, his stable has gone 75-14-15-10. Brisset won the Tampa Bay Derby this spring with Quip, and on Saturday at Indiana Grand – where he has won with half of his six starters during the meet – he sends out the exciting young filly Talk Veuve to Me as the favorite in the Grade 3, $200,000 Indiana Oaks.

Talk Veuve to Me holds a special place in Brisset’s heart. She was the first horse in his stable when he started out at Keeneland, and it was Brisset himself who bought the filly privately when she failed to meet her reserve at a Florida auction of 2-year-olds in training early in 2017. Brisset brought a friend from New Zealand, Stephen McKay, in on Talk Veuve to Me, and following an eye-catching March 25 maiden romp at Fair Grounds, Team Valor International purchased a share of the filly.

Since then, she has finished second to Mia Mischief in the Grade 2 Eight Belles at Churchill Downs and second to Monomoy Girl in the Grade 1 Acorn at Belmont. The Indiana Oaks marks her first start around two turns, and Brisset thinks she’ll love the change.

“I’m very, very anxious to run her two turns,” Brisset said. “If you look at her numbers, if she can carry that speed around two turns, she could be the real deal. She gives me all the indications in the morning.”

Brisset would know. Once a jockey in France and a longtime exercise rider and assistant trainer, most recently for Bill Mott, Brisset still rides a horse in nearly every training set each morning. His stable has swelled to almost 50 horses, and Brisset will have an 18-horse string at Saratoga this summer, but he has no intention of pulling back from being the rare trainer who continues riding his own stock after his stable blossoms.

“I got lucky and got the right people ‘round me,” said Brisset, 34. “I have good foremen, and when you have the right people, you can keep doing that. The best part about riding is I don’t have my phone with me.”

Brisset rode professionally in his native France between 1998 and 2002 before becoming too heavy. He considers himself an ace exercise rider but said he was “not good” as a jockey. His brief riding career over, he went to work for the famous French trainer Alain de Royer-Dupre, who, he said, “changed my life in France,” instilling the desire to become a trainer.

Brisset rose to a prominent position in the operation and was the exercise rider for Dalakhani in 2003 when the horse won the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

Christophe Soumillon rode Dalakhani in the Arc, and for a year Brisset served as his agent as he cast about for a long-term plan. In 2005, his intention was to move to Australia to work, but when French connections in America learned he was leaving France, they beckoned him to come this direction instead.

Brisset took an American job with France native Patrick Biancone before winding up in the Mott barn. Mott spoke highly of his horsemanship from early on, but in 2009 Brisset went back to France for a visit and wound up being stuck there for the better part of a year while working to get his visa renewed. He went back to work for Royer-Dupre before the situation was resolved and he returned to Mott’s employ.

Brisset, who is expecting his first child with his wife, Brooke, in the fall, last summer already had started laying the groundwork to go out on his own, and, really, it was only a matter of time before his stable began rolling. And in Talk Veuve to Me, he runs more than just an exciting prospect in the Indiana Oaks.

“This is a special filly,” he said. “I’ve been around racing in the world for over 20 years now, and she’s one of the smartest horses I’ve ever been around. It’s scary. She’s like a human. She’s our girl.”

Talk Veuve to Me made one start last year at 2, losing a maiden race at Ellis Park. All she needed was some time to get things together and let her talent rise – just like her trainer.