BENOIT DE LA SAYETTE
Benoit aſter victory with the John Gosden- trained Defined at Kempton in February (watch here)
B
enoit de la Sayette was 10 days past his 18th birthday when he rode the first winner of his career three days before the turn of the year. The race was the Play 4 To Win At Betway
Handicap (Div II) at Newcastle and there’s a prescience to the victorious horse’s name. Hint Of Stars. Cambridgeshire-born de la Sayette, who had
taken his first mount at Chelmsford City the previous month, was instantly identified as one of the jockeys to follow during 2021 and, when bookmakers chalk up the odds for the apprentice championship, his name will be top of the list. It’s not just that de la Sayette has the finishing poise of a rider whose days of claiming a 7lb allowance are a distant memory, but that the man holding his indentures is John Gosden. “I asked the boss if I could get my licence out,”
explains de la Sayette, a ringer for Hergé’s Tintin, who joined the champion trainer’s Clarehaven stable aſter sitting his GCSEs in the summer of 2019. “He’s not had an apprentice for so long, and I was
expecting he would advise me to go to another yard, but he took me under his wing. It was a big day. “The boss said to me the other day, ‘I’ve not had
an apprentice since 1992.’ For him to say that – it’s 29 years – and for me to be the first is an incredible feeling.” No pressure, then. It will come as no great surprise that de la Sayette
has horseracing in his blood. His father Geoffroy rode in his native France, amassing a 250-strong haul before moving to Britain to work for Godolphin, partnering Saeed bin Suroor trainee Swain – whose five Group 1 triumphs include two King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes, in 1997 and 1998 – on the Newmarket gallops. “My father played a big role in everything, and
I’ve always dreamed of being like him,” says de la Sayette, in an accent bearing a trace of his Gallic descent. “From ever since I can remember, I was finishing school and going to ride my ponies, riding in the dark and the cold.” Indulging the young Benoit’s passion to ride,
Geoffroy allowed the boy to compete in pony racing in France. With a hidden motive.
RACING TV CLUBMAGAZINE 23
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