It’s not easy to knock the wind out of Mickaëlle Michel’s sails. Not long after the French jockey spoke to Idol Horse about her upcoming ride in the G1 Durban July, South Africa’s biggest race, she messaged back. Her mount, Star Major, the ‘July’ favourite, had been scratched from the contest.
That would sting any jockey. For Michel, 31, Star Major is the dream maker, the horse that came her way and enabled her to fulfil a longtime ambition to win a Group 1 race that had taken years of focused commitment, ups and downs, and tens of thousands of miles of travel across oceans and continents to achieve.
But when disappointment strikes, Michel is not one for being knocked down. Persistence, sacrifice and self-belief are her stocks in trade, and those attributes are all made of that magic ingredient, positivity. Her response came again – forward-looking, of course – If Star Major recovers quickly, she said, he might race again by late July.
A bit of time and recovery from his elevated temperature will tell for Star Major. Michel, though, rolled quickly beyond the disappointment and as can happen when positivity pervades, she got a late pickup on the Mike and Mathew de Kock stable’s filly Curious Girl.
The Durban July was back on, she moved past the stumbling block, just as she had before when bigger barriers had fallen in her way.
Michel, after all, is the woman who has taken the notorious Japan Racing Association (JRA) jockey licensing test three times and failed each one, dashing her hopes every time but never breaking them. She has not given up. In fact, her failure last year is what set her on her way to her biggest success: riding in South Africa from last November, a five-week spell at first that extended with momentum and in turn introduced Star Major into her life.
Star Major’s win in the Daily News 2000 is the result which has qualified Michel for a coveted short-term JRA licence. From August into October, Mickaëlle Michel hopes she will be riding her dream gig in the JRA.
“I’m working on it,” she tells Idol Horse. “I will ride here in South Africa until the 26th of July, Gold Cup Day, then I will go to France. I’m working on it to try to ride in Japan from middle of August until middle of October because I’m qualified again to go to the JRA. The Group 1 was good news.
“So, a few weeks holidays in France and then go to Japan, and then come back to South Africa in October.”
It will be the first time Michel has been granted a short-term JRA licence of any substantial length. Her previous JRA experience came in the 2019 World All-Star Jockeys competition – four races, one win – and two rides on two separate days in late 2024 when she partnered horses from the local National Association of Racing (NAR) circuit, Japanese racing’s second tier.
The NAR has embraced Michel, as she has embraced Japan. She has gained an eager fan following for her exploits riding the NAR’s dirt ovals on short-term licences, sporting her France-themed blue and white sawtooth silks with red sleeves.
Her first NAR stint back in 2020 established and cemented her appeal: riding out of Kawasaki, she quickly won over the crowd there and at nearby Oi, the NAR’s flagship Tokyo City Keiba venue. Michel nailed 30 wins, an NAR record for an invited overseas rider in the South Kanto region. Since then, she has returned for 17 wins in 2024 and 10 in 2025.
“I love everything about Japan,” she says. “I mean, sometimes it’s not easy because the people have their own way to think, so sometimes you have to adapt yourself, but for me, it’s very peaceful there. At the same time, Tokyo is a big city, so you have a lot of things to do. And it’s very clean, the food is delicious and the races are amazing. So, I like everything from Japan, I really do, not just the races, I really enjoy the people.”
That includes the people at the racetrack, of course. Oi, in particular, is a special experience with its Tokyo City Keiba ‘Twinkle Night’ races and the after-work crowd.
“Oi is the biggest NAR track, so it’s something for me between what is JRA and what is NAR,” she says. “I really like it; people are very nice and it’s amazing how every day it’s full. I mean, you can go in every day to NAR races and a lot of people will come to watch. They’re doing an amazing job to keep people interested.”
Michel herself has kept fans captivated by her commitment to trying to pass the JRA test, a difficult hoop any jockey must jump through to receive a full-time JRA licence, whether they’re foreign or Japanese. The only foreign jockeys to have passed and been fully licensed are Christophe Lemaire and Mirco Demuro back in 2015 – among those known to have failed, the Brazilian great Joao Moreira is the most famous.
“I feel it’s difficult to do it because you must study a lot and English is not my first language, so I have to say, the first year I tried the test I completely failed because my English was terrible,” she says candidly.
“That’s one of the reasons, but also, I’m travelling so much because I want to improve my English and so pass this test. But I feel it is very hard because you have to study a lot of things, but as a jockey, it’s sometimes hard to find the time to study enough, you know?
“In the morning you wake up early for training and then you have to take a quick shower, quick breakfast, ride in races, and then you come back home, sometimes it’s late, especially when you are in France, and you’re travelling a lot, and for me, it’s hard to find time: it’s not like you are at school and you have to just study one thing. You’re 100 percent dedicated to being a jockey, we have our own life, so it’s hard to do both.”
Part of the studying involved is learning some Japanese, too, which Michel continues to work on.
“It’s a lot to do,” she continues. “The way they asked questions changed last year as well, they modified all how the test looks. So, last year we were like, six or seven jockeys to try it. We all failed. But it’s still one of my biggest goals, that’s my dream goal.”
The dream is on hold for now, though. Michel will not attempt the test for a fourth time later this year, she feels she has not had the time to study and prepare as intently as she knows she must, given that the focus this year has been working to succeed in South Africa where she has nailed 40 wins so far.
“I travelled last year between Japan and then South Africa so I haven’t studied enough, so it will not be serious for me to try the test,” she says. “I think the last two years I felt very close, I think I did quite well, so I just don’t want to try another time and fail again.
“The next time I will pass it, I want to make sure I study enough and pass it. And just get it. So maybe next year. I wasn’t focused on it enough this year. You know, Christophe and Mirco passed the test, but they had been going to ride in the JRA for 10 years before, so they had more understanding for how it works, to understand the rules, and also learn Japanese. I have not had as much experience, it’s not enough. So, I hope being qualified for a JRA short licence will help me.”
Michel fell in love with horses at age 11. She later joined AFASEC, France-Galop’s jockey school at Chantilly, knowing little about horse racing, but she was quickly hooked. By 2018 she was not only the leading female jockey in France but also the leading apprentice with 72 wins that year. Since then, she has looked and travelled beyond borders, searching and pushing for the breaks that would take her into the elite level.
Spells in the USA in 2022 and 2023 brought tallies of seven and 11 wins; she tried Australia, too, landing in Melbourne in January 2024 on a six-month stint. It was the Australian experience that led her to South Africa: Michel formed a connection with trainer Mathew de Kock, and when he returned to South Africa, it provided a link that enabled Michel to go in the same direction late last year.
In all her travels, Michel’s husband, Fred Spanu is her support. Spanu won on some good horses in his time, the likes of Lahudood, Nuclear Debate and Satwa Queen, but it’s “six or seven years” since the former jockey sat on a horse, his focus nowadays is helping his wife achieve her dreams.
“He was my agent before and then we fell in love, and now he travels the world with me too, to chase my goal, so his goal too, as a coach,” Michel says.
“I call him my shadow. He’s always behind me. He comes with me every morning at the training tracks to check everything, like, how is my condition physically and mentally, and he also is very good watching horses. I will ride a horse in the morning and it will be like, oof, this one is very, very good. So, we are a good team.
“He’s still pretty hard with me. Like, if I make a mistake, he will tell me straight. If I ride a good race, same, because he wants more. He’s a good support because sometimes it’s hard to travel. If I was alone, I’m not sure I would travel that much. It would be tough.”
Part of that would be the isolation, but another hard element would be dealing with the rejection and doubters all alone.
“When you travel to a new country, every time you have to start from the beginning again,” Michel says. “Sometimes, people make you feel like an apprentice, because they don’t know you. I mean, they heard about you, but they haven’t seen you riding and they need to see by themselves. So, sometimes you have your confidence inside you, but people doubt because they want to see more and more before they 100 percent trust you. It’s a little bit interesting to travel the world like this, but at the same time, it makes you very strong.”
One of the positives though is the wide range of tracks, surfaces, riding styles and race patterns Michel has encountered and learned from. That all gives her confidence in her ability to arrive at a new place and adapt quickly.
“I’m very confident riding a new track,” she says. “When I race in a new track, I’m not scared. I don’t need to ride 10 times to understand the track because I’ve been everywhere in the world.”
The hope is that her experiences will serve her well if she does find herself riding the JRA later this summer. The nature of sport, especially at the elite level, is that an athlete must continually show their worth: you’re only as good as your last race, as the saying goes.
Michel is well aware of this, but she also has the inner confidence of knowing that she is now a Group 1-winning rider, a reality that brought “relief” as well as validation.
“My husband and I sacrificed so much to travel and find the best place for me to find this confidence,” Michel says. “So, when I won with Star Major, I was like, finally, I can show people why I’m working so hard and I can do it.
“I was always asking for the chance to ride good horses in the Group 1 races because I knew deep in me, I can do it. But people need to see it. So now I have shown the world, I can do it.” ∎
