By JARROD POTTER
SWAPPING Cranbourne for Chantilly, jockey Beau Mertens savoured every second of a rare opportunity for an Australian apprentice.
Mertens, 17, who is an apprentice for Cranbourne trainer Mick Kent, was selected as the sole Australian apprentice to race in France against some of the best apprentices in the world.
He took in every aspects of the week – from riding the horses through the forest, staying with the world’s best apprentices and culminating in racing the Prix Longines Future Racing Stars at Chantilly racecourse – and Mertens could hardly believe what he was afforded.
“It was an unbelievable experience – I got that much out of it and it’s something you can’t ask for really,” Mertens said.
“The track work over there, seeing what they’re like with their horses and how they train them – it’s a lot different to what they do over here.
“The tracks, riding through the forest and the way they handle their horses and train them is unreal.”
In the main event, Mertens guided Chez Laurent (trained by Robert Collet) to fourth in the Future Stars 1800m race – a particularly different race tactically to the Australian way he’s learned to ride.
“Riding in the race in front of a crowd of 45,000 people is something you can’t put a price tag on,” Mertens said.
“It ran fourth, but it was an awkward run and the others were going really slow then going faster, but it was a good run by the horse and I was happy to finish.”
Outside of the race itself, Mertens soaked up a great deal of knowledge from the French trainers and has a better understanding of what it takes to train horses up to the French standard.
“They have so much love for them – there is a heap of love over here for our horses, but the way they work them in the forest and seeing them work and the tracks that they’re on, they’ll gallop into the forest and be onto a track straight away,” Mertens said.
“They’re so professional.”
“If I ever got another invite to head over there for a week, month or a year I’d definitely take it like that in a heartbeat.”
Mertens returned to the Australian saddle this week with races at Pakenham, Cranbourne and Hamilton.
