David Menuisier

   With Goodwood Saturday centred around the Stewards Cup for the sprinters, the G2 Qatar Lillie Langtry S. is the sole black-type contest on the closing card but it features one of Europe's best in Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}). Christopher Wright's G1 Prix de Royallieu, G1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares S. and G2 Hardwicke S. heroine was forced to miss last Saturday's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. due to the fast surface and despite the ground drying out all the time here,  she...

Christopher Wright's Group 1 winner Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}), who won the G2 Hardwicke S. last out at Royal Ascot, is targeting the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. at Ascot on July 24. Scratched out of this past Saturday's G1 Coral-Eclipse, she defeated Sunday's G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud hero Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}) in the Hardwicke. In 2020, the filly scored in the G1 Prix de Royallieu at ParisLongchamp on Arc Day, and doubled down at that level in the QIPCO British Champions Fillies...

On each day of Royal Ascot, there was at least one result truly to savour, if not more. Moreover, the meeting in its entirety felt at last like a return to some sort of normality. Even the British weather played its typically quirky part: boiling one day, rain of biblical proportions the next. One regrettable absence was the buzz of the crowd. The maximum number of 12,000 attendees per day is of course low by usual standards. With the late announcement that even this number would be permitted, not to...

There was one certainty in Saturday's G2 Hardwicke S. and that was that Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) would love the underfoot conditions and despite trainer David Menuisier's misgivings about her readiness, Christopher Wright's G1 Prix de Royallieu and G1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares S. heroine was able to register an impressive win on her comeback. Keen initially for William Buick before being granted a lead, the 5-1 shot moved three-wide on the home bend and had plenty in reserve to seize the advantage two out en...

Christopher dual Group 1 winner Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) is on target for a start in the June 4 G1 Cazoo Coronation Cup at Epsom. A winner of the G3 Prix Minerve last August, she scooped the G1 Qatar Prix Royallieu two starts later on Oct. 3 and doubled down with a win in the Oct. 17 G1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares S. at Ascot for trainer David Menuisier. The Coronation Cup will be her first start as a 4-year-old. Menuisier said, "I think the timing...

Christopher Wright's dual Group 1-winning mare Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) is likely to have a later start to her 4-year-old campaign, with all roads leading to the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, according to trainer David Menuisier. Wonderful Tonight won the G3 Prix Minerve last summer before scoring at the top level for the first time in the G1 Prix de Royallieu over 14 furlongs. Rather than supplementing for the Arc, connections opted to take in the G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares S. over the same...

Triumph and disaster. In racing, the two are rarely far from each other. For David Menuisier to cast his mind back to last autumn will doubtless bring mixed emotions. At his local course of Goodwood on Sept. 23 he lost the horse who played an enormous part in the growing success of his stable, Thundering Blue (Exchange Rate). The 7-year-old's fatal injury in the listed Foundation S. was a cruel blow which brought the trainer and his partner Kim Johnstone to tears. But when the racing gods take, they so...

Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}), winner of the G1 Prix de Royallieu and the G1 British Champions Fillies & Mares S. this month, will bypass this year's Breeders' Cup with a 4-year-old campaign in mind. "She's not going to the Breeders' Cup--I don't think it would be fair," said trainer David Menuisier. "If the filly was four and it was her last ever race, maybe we would have rolled the dice, but in this instance I think it would be greed. I would be scared to ask too much...

It's been the best part of three decades since Culture Vulture (Timeless Moment) strutted her stuff at the top table in Chris Wright's blue-and-yellow silks and the music supremo has found a jewel to match that luminary's achievements after David Menuisier incumbent Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) backed up a career best in ParisLongchamp's G1 Prix de Royallieu earlier this month with a game victory in Saturday's G1 Qipco British Champions Fillies & Mares S. at Ascot. The bay sophomore was in receipt of a six-pound pull from her...

One of the few to welcome the ravages of the storm front, connections of Wonderful Tonight (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) were celebrating after their filly made light of ParisLongchamp's conditions to win Saturday's G1 Qatar Prix de Royallieu. With trainer David Menuisier openly toying with the idea of supplementing for Sunday's Arc beforehand, the warning was there for opponents of Christopher Wright's bargain buy who had already demonstrated her deadliness in this ground when winning Deauville's Aug. 16 G3 Prix Minerve. Sent off the 49-10 favourite as a result, the...

Aidan O'Brien has set his sights on winning the G1 Ladbrokes Cox Plate for a second time, with Derby hero Anthony Van Dyck (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Royal Ascot victor Circus Maximus (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) among his 11 initial entries for the Australian feature. O'Brien sent Adelaide (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) to win the 2014 renewal, with the Moonee Valley Group 1 subsequently dominated by Chris Waller's superstar Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}), a record four-times winner before her retirement earlier this year. No stranger to competing in Australia, O'Brien has...

It is a sign of the times that one of the success stories of the racing summer involves a French trainer based in England, winning his first Group 1 race in Germany for a horse owned by a group of Australians. Step forward David Menuisier, a graduate of such centres of racing excellence as the training yards of Richard Mandella, Criquette Head and John Dunlop now making a name for himself from his adopted West Sussex home of Coombelands. This was the place from which Guy Harwood honed the prodigious...