A Head Start to Training

As one Head retired from the French training ranks in 2018 with a deserved fanfare of tributes, quietly another member of the family added his name to the list of Chantilly trainers some months later.

The low-key entrance of Christopher Head was quite deliberate. The 32-year-old son of Freddy and nephew of Criquette–who retired 18 months ago–has worked alongside both his father and his aunt, as well as completing a stint with leading French jumps trainer Guillaume Macaire, but he is determined that when it comes to training, he is doing things his way.

“I thought it was important not to be in my father's stable,” says Head, who is renting boxes alongside Chantilly's famous Les Aigles training grounds from fellow trainer Pascal Bary. “For a start, he has enough horses, and also I wanted to be seen as a trainer in my own right. If I worked from the same stable as my father, if a horse wins, everyone would say it's down to my father, or if it doesn't win it's down to the son. I wanted to be on my own as I wanted to have my own identity, so that people can see how things work for me. If I was working alongside him, I'm not going to tell someone like my father how to train horses. It would be hard, because he knows all about it, I mean, he's a very good trainer, probably the best of course for me, so if I had a new idea it would be hard to ask him to change things.”

Head represents a fifth generation of the famous Anglo-French racing dynasty to take a place in the training ranks, his ancestors having been among the earliest members of the racing tribe to occupy what is now France's largest training centre of Chantilly.

“I started training last November,” Head says. “Jean-Louis Bouchard gave me a few horses, some older horses initially that came from my father, including one I really liked called Near Gold (GB) (Dansili {GB}). As he wasn't as good as they had expected, they wanted to give him a chance with a new trainer, so we both had a new chance, which was really nice. I'm extremely grateful to M. Bouchard because he gave me my first runner and my first winner in January.”

Near Gold has subsequently been sold on to race in America and Head now has a string of six 2-year-olds, assembled with the help of bloodstock agent Gerard Larrieu, with which to continue his fledgling career. They include Ecurie Normandy Spirit's Le Bayou (Fr) (Dabirsim {FR}), who has been placed at ParisLongchamp and Chantilly.

“At the beginning of my career I asked myself if I should be in the provinces but it's a great place to be here in Chantilly, it's close to Paris and I want to be among the best,” says the trainer, whose father apparently did his level best to coax his son into following an alternative career.

“Like every man who works in racing, my father wanted his children to do something easier and less stressful,” he admits. “So he ensured that I studied and worked with computers, and all of that, but you know how it is, it calls you back. If you love one horse you love them all, and when I was 19 I told my father I wanted to work with the horses and with him. I started from the bottom in the stable doing a bit of everything.”

Head went on to spend three years at another hugely successful Chantilly stable, that of his aunt and, as the name on the young trainer's jacket as we speak reminds us, the former home to the dual Arc winner Treve (Fr) (Motivator {GB}).

“I've always been here in Chantilly apart from a few months spent with Guillaume Macaire because I felt it was important to see how it was with the jumpers,” he says. “All the same logic is still there in preparing them for the race but there are a few things that he did differently which I have tried to adapt and bring into training flat horses. But I'm still working on my own ideas and my own mix.”

Despite operating from Bary's stable, Head can still call upon his father if he wants to join up with his much larger string to work some of his own horses. He says, “The good thing is I still have a very good relationship with him and since I don't have enough horses to work them as I'd like–stayers with stayers, sprinters with sprinters–I need him so I can work my horses with his.”

Among the crew of juveniles currently being prepared by the young trainer is the as-yet unraced Beside (Fr) (Sidestep {Aus}), a well-grown colt from Julian Ince of Haras du Logis, where the former Australian shuttle stallion stood for three seasons.

“It was good timing because Julian sold me half of this horse the night before Kiamichi (Aus) won the Golden Slipper,” says Head. “I am really looking forward to running him but it will be a bit later in the year. I need to be patient and sometimes that is hard, but it is the key.”

One of the biggest challenges for any new trainer is encouraging owners to send them horses, while a bigger challenge for the sport generally is attracting a new, young audience. Fresh-faced himself, Head also has a fresh approach to trying to lure an international client base to his stable.

“I'm learning Japanese right now and I hope to be able to encourage international owners to my stable. I love the way the Japanese behave, they have such good manners, and I love the breeding system that they have there–it's probably one of the best in the world,” says Head in his near-perfect English, which certainly wouldn't deter owners from over the Channel.

“I'm open to everything when it comes to ideas and most of all I want owners to have fun, so we will start trying to put some syndicates together. I love English people–they are so funny, they love horses, it's part of their culture. When they come here they actually recognise their horses which is wonderful.”

Despite all the weight that his famous family name could carry, it seems that Head is content to start small and learn the big lessons along the way. He adds with a maturity beyond his years, “There are many lessons in humility when it comes to training. It took my father 10 years before he thought to himself, 'maybe I'm a trainer.' I must give it time.”