Francis-Henri Graffard was celebrating once again at the weekend

Francis-Henri Graffard reflects on the Japan Cup success of Calandagan

By Sporting Life

Horse Racing

Mon December 01, 2025 · 3w ago

Francis-Henri Graffard has described the Japan Cup success of Calandagan as "very special" following the horse’s record-breaking success in the Tokyo spectacle.

As well as being the horse’s fourth top-level victory of the season/his career, it was a remarkable 14th Group/Grade 1 success of the campaign – breaking a record that had stood since 1992 - for Graffard.

The Chantilly-based trainer, who has quickly established himself as the best in France having only saddled his first Group 1 winner in 2015, told Liz Price (via the Nick Luck Daily Podcast) after the race: “It's just another crazy day this year. We have won some amazing races, but this one is very special because I felt a lot of pressure.

"I was confident he was the right horse - he's so confident in himself and he loves his job – but having the best horse in the world in this race, which is so difficult to win, I felt a lot of pressure.

"But he didn't let me down. He's been an amazing horse all the way through because he's been a very consistent runner, second so many times, and then ever since June, something has happened and he's just now striding along.”

Graffard believes the decision to return to France with the horse following his defeat in the Coronation Cup at Epsom was the turning point, as he explained: “I decided to keep him at home and run in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

“I think it was key as he needed to go for just an hour from his table to have a race."

Calandagan has developed a strong rapport with Mickael Barzalona, and Graffard was full of praise for the rider who is the retained jockey in France for the Aga Khan’s racing operation.

He explained: "I just said to him [Barzalona], ‘look, this horse has a lot of confidence, like you do’ and I've always believed in the confidence of the jockeys.

"They know when they make mistakes, but they don't need me to tell them when they make mistakes. So you need to keep their confidence high and it's a very tough job to be a jockey at this level. They have a lot of pressure, so they know they have my trust.

"And with Mikael this year, everything went according to plan; he's a very talented, well-balanced jockey and so I'm very happy for him.”

The race itself went smoothly for both horse and jockey, with Calandagan getting a good tow into the contest and a dream run through behind eventual runner-up Masquerade Ball, though it was a nervous finish for Graffard as his stable star eventually prevailed by just a neck.

He recalled: “We were quite far back, but we were just behind the horse to beat today and so I was confident during the race we were behind the right horse.

“He took the lead, but then Christophe Lemaire put his head in front, so I thought we were going to finish second, but my horse was very strong, and it was just fantastic he finished in front on the line.

“It was brilliant.”

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