Italian jockey Antonio Orani will add to the international flavour of Australia’s second richest race, the AUD$10 million Golden Eagle (1500m), when he makes his debut down under aboard Lazzat at Rosehill next month.
Trainer Jerome Reynier confirmed that Orani, who has ridden Lazzat at all six starts, will be aboard when the European three-year-old runs in the Golden Eagle on November 2.
“Rosehill doesn’t appear to be the most difficult track and so I would prefer to have a jockey who knows this horse well,” Reynier said.
Lazzat has emerged from Cagnes-sur-Mer in the French Riviera to become one of France’s best short-course horses. Early this year, he appeared to be a 1500m specialist best suited to wet tracks, but he managed to win the G3 Prix Paul de Moussac (1400m) on good ground before a sensational performance to land the G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest (1300m) at Deauville.
Lazzat’s form was franked somewhat on the weekend when Beauvatier and Flora Of Bermuda, who were four lengths astern in third and fourth in the Prix Maurice de Gheest, finished fourth and third respectively in the G1 British Champions Sprint (6f), both beaten less than a length.
Orani, who hails from the small town of Usini in the north of the island of Sardinia, was set to join the Italian racing school aged 14 but its sudden closure saw him instead move to France to chase his jockey ambitions.
The 25-year-old had his first ride in 2016 and has since won more than 430 races. This year, he has ridden 91 winners to date while he is set to finish fifth in France’s champion jockey contest – the Cravache d’Or – which takes into account wins from March 1 to October 31.
The jockey, who has ridden in France, Germany, Italy and Qatar, scored his first Group 1 win with Lazzat’s Prix Maurice de Gheest success.
Orani joins globetrotting star Joao Moreira (Ascoli Piceno) and Cieren Fallon (Lake Forest) as confirmed international riders for the $10 million feature ∎
